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October 30, 2011
San Bernardino Sun
Protection for local forests
Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, testified last week before a House subcommittee on behalf of his proposed additional protection for the Angeles and San Bernardino national forests - a bill we fully support.
Dreier's H.R. 113, co-authored by Rep. Judy Chu, D-El Monte, would protect an additional 18,000 acres in the Cucamonga and Sheep Mountain areas. It would give the highest level of federal protection to those high-country areas, meaning no roads, cellphone towers, power lines or drilling would be allowed - while specifying no loss of existing property, water and hunting rights.
Beyond that, the bill directs the secretary of Agriculture, who has domain over national forests, to update fire management plans, coordinate best practices and enter agreements with state and local firefighting agencies on wildfire prevention and response.
The fire management part of the bill, of course, comes in the wake of the devastating 2009 Station Fire that killed two L.A. County firefighters and burned 160,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest. It applies to the Cucamonga and Sheep Mountain areas as well as the San Gabriel Wilderness Area.
P. Michael Freeman, former L.A. County fire chief, submitted a letter to the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands that emphasized the lessons he and his colleagues learned from the Station Fire and the discussions he had with Dreier. "The fire management section included in H.R. 113 is the culmination of those conversations," he wrote.
This balanced bill stipulates that public safety, preserving recreational activities for the most visited national forests in the United States, and protecting natural resources must be the top three priorities for the areas to be protected.
The bill requires the secretary of Agriculture to assess, for the Angeles and San Bernardino national forests, the backlog in preventive wildfire management activities, the maintenance of recreation areas and trails, and the restoration of access to recreation facilities to their levels before the Station Fire - to be followed by elimination of the backlog.
It also directs the secretary to complete studies regarding the potential addition of portions of San Antonio Creek, the Middle Fork of Lytle Creek and the San Gabriel River's East, West and North forks to the national Wild and Scenic Rivers system to increase their protection.
The bill has the support of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and many cities across the foothills.
We look forward to its moving through Congress and becoming law.