California Trail Users Coalition 3550 Foothill Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91214 A 501 [c] (3) Non-profit Corporation #2028091 & 95-4690961 ctuc.info trailusers.org October 4, 2013 To: Members of the House Representatives: Judy Chu (27), Paul Cook (8), Adam Schiff (28), Buck McKeon (25), Grace Napolitano (32) and Senators: Diane Feinstein & Barbara Boxer. Re: Angeles National Forest: Dear Elected Official’s: We have a very serious problem in the Angeles National Forest that is SEVERE malnutrition! The Funding comes from the Executive Branch through the Office of Budget Management to the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture get each of their budgets through the Executive Branch and the ALLOCATED funds for the Forest Service come directly from the Department of the Interior... so in a way the Forest Service is in direct competition with the National Park Service for funding (and of course the BLM). As you may recall the Angeles National Forest was the second National Forest established by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1905. It was originally under the Bureau of Land. It consists of over 700 thousand acres of every sort of land and vegetation. It is open 365 days a year and on a 24/7 basis. We are unique and different from all other Forests due to the sheer number of visitors we accommodate that live so close to the Forest. We are so large that we used to have five Districts within the forest to serve the Public. The Department of Agriculture’s Angeles National Forest is on Public Land and is managed for us by the U.S. Forest Service due to the foresight and common sense of those that established it so long ago. We currently have five Wilderness areas and one unused Experimental Forest within our boundaries. We do not need any more “Wilderness Ares”, “Wild and Scenic River” designations, nor do we need a National Recreation Area” over our entire Forest and we certainly don’t need the National Park Service replacing the US Forest Service! These designations will severely restrict Public use and add another layer of governmental bureaucracy. As you are well aware the National Park Service has a completely different Mission than the Forest Service and it does not meet the needs of the residents of the County of Los Angeles. Twenty two of you wrote the Director of the National Park Service asking for help in running the Angeles National Forest which is the main reason for this letter. The U.S. Forest is certainly capable of running this Forest with the proper funding! The Forest Service and the constituents of the County of Los Angeles do not need the National Park Service hierarchy interwoven or laid on top of the existing structure. It is our understanding that it is very difficult to see The Forest for The trees and we agree! However, we are volunteers in the Forest in the trees with the U.S. Forest Service on a daily basis and we desperately need your help, not a more convoluted structure to try to interact with! I read this recently and to date it is the clearest definition of why the Angeles Forest, so close to urbane Los Angeles is a poor match for addition into the National Park system: “National Parks are managed by the National Park service, a division of the Department of Interior. National Parks are focused on the preservation of natural areas. These parks are designed to protect historical and significant natural resources with a mission of keeping the area “unimpaired for future generations.” Therefore, much of the mission of National Parks is to reduce or eliminated human impact on the area.” “The National Forests on the other hand are designed for multiple uses with the goal of sustaining the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. National Forests are managed by the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture. Designated uses for National Forests include timber operations, hunting, fishing, mining, livestock, grazing, and recreation.” At this time we only have three Ranger Districts left with a budget of $16,520,000 (2012) and a budget somewhere near fourteen million for 2013 and only 356 permanent employees. They are dedicated people but cannot hope to operate a Forest of this size with a huge visitor impact with this pittance of a budget! Additionally the Angeles Forest managers are being charged in excess of $1.60 per square foot of floor space which is being deducted from their budget; therefore a great many useable buildings have been and are being destroyed to save their budget. We the Volunteers of the Forest and Constituents of the County of Los Angeles would be very elated to be part of a logical and cost effective reduction, but we cannot stand by and stomach this illogical budget management tactic. The Angeles will be losing 1.5 million dollars of Adventure Pass money due to legal action(s). Please remember that these funds were only to be used for ‘new projects’ over and above their current budget. Sadly, this has not been the case due to extreme shortages in their current budget which was approved by Congress. We all know what has to be done to get by as the budget cuts on the Angeles and others caused these funds to become part of the budget (while on the other side the National Park Service budget is still full and intact). Now this program will be gone, and it doesn’t matter how you felt about the adventure Pass, the funds the Forest is going to lose and have been cut have not been reallocated by you in Congress! Please remember that the ‘U.S. Forest Service is a Division under the Agriculture Department’, not the Department of the Interior! This should be immediately straightened out, so that all monies should come directly from the Secretary of Agriculture and go directly to the U.S. Forest Service. We need a budget of at least 50 to 60 million dollars to do a proper job on the Angeles! It seem simple to us…if the National Park Service has all this extra funding to “manage the Angeles” and solve the existing problems why isn’t the funding just reallocated to the Forest Service and we can all move forward to finish the job we started? Please note, we used to have five Ranger Districts and they could barely do the work that is required on this Forest. We now have three Districts and each year they get less and less funding from you to work with so how can they possibly do a professional Job? This is what we hear you saying “we’ll add some staff from the National Park Service and give them more funding and then the problems will be solved.” What you are not saying is what we the people will lose by closures when the switch is made? More funds to manage less public access and impact…basically close the Forest and the cost will go down. Remember that the four southern California Forest are surrounded by some 20 million people that love to recreate in the Angeles and surrounding forests, when you “restrict access” where do you think these people will go? Common sense says: “TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE FOREST, THEN THE CREATURES, TREES, BUSHES, FLOWERS AND ENDANGERED SPECIES WILL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES! Our simple request is for you the Congress to do the right thing for the people; provide proper funding for the U.S. Forest service to do their job in the Los Padres, San Bernardino, Cleveland and especially the Angeles National Forest. These Forests were set aside long ago because our predecessors foresaw that the Forests would be the backyard and playgrounds serving the people of the County of Los Angeles and visitors from around the world. The Forest Service was put in charge of these areas long ago to manage them for public use by all, not to keep them from people whose idea of recreation is different from somebody’s else’s-that hypocritical and discriminatory. The Campgrounds, Dirt Roads, Trails and Trail heads and Picnic areas were all set aside for all of us to enjoy responsibly, while providing for responsible management for the future. Our last request to you is why you don’t allocate a million dollars a year to each of the three Districts of the Angeles to only be used by their Recreation Department. This allocation is to last for the next ten years and can only be used for Recreation purposes. This would almost solve our greatest challenge, “Where are all of us supposed to go to enjoy the fruits of our labor and our families?” All of us pay for these areas in one way or the other, all of us should be able to enjoy them equally! Thanks for your help in these matters. Sincerely yours, CTUC Board of Directors Barret H. Wetherby, Secretary CTUC PS This letter was to have been mailed as per the date on our letterhead page, however due to Congress’s lack of action it has now been sent to all of you on October 18! Please take immediate action since our Forest and its crew are desperately in need of your help.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 23:43:19 +0000
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