Conservation Update, 2013 May | Cleveland NF Land Mgmt Plan, Puente-Chino Hills
NEW LAND MANAGEMENT PLAN AMENDMENT PROPOSED FOR THE FOUR SO CAL FORESTS, PART 2: MORE ON WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE TRABUCO DISTRICT
Our backyard Santa Ana Mountains are managed by the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest. See the previous newsletter for links to the extensive online maps and background on this new Amendment of the current (2006) Land Management Plan. The proposed Amendment is to determine what Land Use Zone classifications the Forests‘ Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) will have, which in turn determines how they will be managed and what activities will be allowed in them.
The three Land-Use Alternatives discussed last time have corresponding Monitoring Alternatives, which define what the Forest Service will look at, over 5-year report periods, to monitor progress toward fulfilling the Plan’s management goals. A comparison of the Monitoring Alternatives that cover native vegetation and habitats shows that Alternatives A and B continue the monitoring that’s been done since 2005 at least, except that B adds a couple of items. Alternative C covers the same basic monitoring items–fuel/vegetation management at the WUI, maintaining the natural fire regime and vegetation/habitat health, reducing invasives, balancing resource-conservation needs with public/recreation needs–but with an emphasis on working with natural processes that is much more in line with current ecological research and resource-management thinking than Alternatives A or B.
Land-Use Alternative 3 and Monitoring Alternative C are environmentally superior to the other Alternatives, not only in the specifics of what’s monitored for but also–and most importantly–in the underlying assumptions about what the National Forests’ purposes are and how their management should be done.
ACTION NOW: Write a comment letter on how the new Land Use Plan Amendment will affect your use of the Santa Ana Mountains.
Include your experiences with and observations on its plants/vegetation, trails/roads, and however you use the Mountains. Some of your comments should be specifically about the proposed Amendment, as that’s what the Forest Service has specifically stated that they want for this. But it won’t hurt to also comment on any related Trabuco District issues–they probably won’t be responded to, but they’ll help to keep those other issues in their consciousness. Send comments BY MAY 16 to:
William Metz, Forest Supervisor
Cleveland National Forest
10845 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92127-2107
CHINO-PUENTE HILLS: Two development projects that abut Chino Hills State Park, on lands that burned to the ground in the 2008 Freeway Complex Fire, are being processed through the County of Orange. The projects would add nearly 500 more houses (~5,000 additional vehicle trips a day) to streets that were gridlocked in the 2008 fire. Yorba Linda residents will be impacted by these developments, and have started a petition on Change.org: change.org/petitions/yorba-linda-city-council-oc-board-of-supervisors-stop-500-homes-to-be-built-in-yorba-linda-for-public-safety
ACTION NOW: Please sign the petition and help out fellow supporters of the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor.
—Celia Kutcher, Conservation Chair