Due to the significant changes that have occurred in Southern California over the past 100 years, it is crucial that steps be taken now to insure that current and future generations will be able to enjoy the treasures set aside for them over a century ago: the Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles, and Los Padres National Forests. The best way to do so is to change the classification and management of these public land trusts in a way that is consistent with the needs of an increasingly diverse and rapidly growing population.
These four national forests need to be viewed and managed for what they are, urban parks that provide citizens opportunities to renew their enthusiasm for life and land preserves that protect the valuable natural resources that permit citizens to do so. Future generations will be forever grateful if we act now to manage the four national forests in Southern California in a manner which will preserve and enhance their scenic, natural, and historical qualities. The California Chaparral Preservation Plan offers a way to do so.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In a remarkable display of foresight and political courage, President Theodore Roosevelt withdrew millions of acres of federal land from unregulated commercial development and protected them for future citizens. Roosevelt’s Forest Reserve system demonstrated a rejection of the old model of resource exploitation and created instead the world’s largest public land protectorate to be held in trust for every single American. Referring to this land trust, Jack Ward Thomas, Chief Emeritus of the US Forest Service, wrote, “These forests were all different but, in one critical sense, they were all the same. They belonged to me, to my children, and to all the American people for today, tomorrow, and forever – unless somehow, we allow this incredible birthright to be stolen or frittered away.”
There is a distinct possibility that this birthright may indeed be frittered away in the four national forests of Southern California (the Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles, and Los Padres) because of inappropriate management objectives. These four federal land trusts are different from all the others in the national forest system because they are almost exclusively used for recreation by a growing population. In addition, these lands are not typically covered by forests at all but by unique shrubland ecosystems, especially chaparral.
Since the passing of the Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960, the guiding principle behind national forest policy has been “to achieve quality land management under the sustainable multiple-use management concept to meet the diverse needs of people.” This includes grazing, timber production, hydroelectric dams, landfills, utility corridors, and other invasive activities. While the multiple-use doctrine may be a workable management strategy in some national forests far from major cities, it is becoming an increasingly unsuccessful and contentious model for the four national forests in Southern California, all heavily impacted by a rapidly growing population.
These four forests need to be viewed and managed for what they are, urban parks that provide citizens opportunities to renew their enthusiasm for life and land preserves that protect the valuable wildlands found within. By continuing the current forest management model of multiple-use there is a significant danger these lands will be lost by multiple-degradation as they are exploited for a wide range of consumptive uses.
Many US Forest Service personnel within the four Southern California national forests have strived to protect the chaparral ecosystem from improper management priorities, but are often frustrated by the commodity-based, “forest-focus” perspective driven by regional and WashingtonD.C. offices. Legislative action and new internal policies changing the management focus of the four Southern California National Forests are needed to assist dedicated Forest Service employees in protecting California’s valuable chaparral ecosystems and insuring that our families and future generations will always have a place to enjoy nature. We offer four proposals for such legislative action:
1. Create the Grizzly Bear National Monument within the ClevelandNational Forest and a ChaparralNational Park within the LosPadresNational Forest. See our Grizzly Bear National Monument page for more information.
2. Designate the Cleveland, Angeles, San Bernardino, and LosPadresNational Forests as National Chaparral Recreation Areas (NCRA).
3. Develop sustainable, ecologically-based resource and fire management plans in order to protect surrounding communities, preserve old-growth stands of chaparral, and prevent further type-conversion of native plant communities within the four NCRAs.
4. Create Natural History Education/Recreation Districts adjoining the new National Chaparral Recreation Areas.
The Chaparral National Park will be formed north of Santa Barbara within the Los Padres National Forest. This area remains the largest and best preserved example of chaparral in California.
An effort to examine the Angeles National Forest and the adjoining watershed as possible inclusion to the National Park system has been ongoing for the past few years. See the San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains Special Resource Study for further information.
