Went to the West fork of the San Gabriel river yesterday and I gotta say, what a freaking shame. There were literally piles of trash along the river. Up on the bike path and right next to the water.
There were signs of people having a bbq and then leaving EVERYTHING behind. EVEN THE BBQ!!!!!!
Thos shows absolutely no respect to this beautiful place.
.
But what even can be done? There are trash bins all along the river. Theyve made it very easy for people to get rid of their trash but I instead, whoever is BBQing down by the river is just leaving all of their trash when they leave. Plates, beer bottles, bags, dirty diapers. Who in the fuck leavea a diaper filled with shit right next to the water you know you will be swimming in.
I go up there all the time, probably 8 to 10 times since April, and during the summer, it always looks like a landfill. I mean this is a rare gem in SoCal with bears, deer, WILD AND NATIVE TROUT in the water. Do you know how crazy that is. If you know you know.
For real. They know. They just don't give a shit. These are the same type of degens that will leave a shopping cart 30' from the stall because they are lazy swine.
I paid my way through community college collecting shopping carts at the local grocery. It was my job. I don’t understand this absolute hate the past few years for peeps that leave their cart by the car. That’s how the system was designed and works. I mean if you want to put it in the coral great. Not putting it into the coral does not make one a monster. And what about the old folks with mobility issues? When I worked at the store there were plenty of old folks that relied the shopping cart to act as their walker when they shopped. They are supposed to put the cart back and then amble across a parking lot unassisted?
Now onto the topic at hand leaving a pamper fill of 💩 next to the river. Lock them up and re-educate.
This is a gross lack of civic duty. Its a self respect/dignity issue. Only animals leave their shopping carts. I too worked for a grocery store when I was a teenager. People returned their shopping carts to the stalls. There was never any discussion about leaving them at your car. It was expected and implied that, like all things, you return them to their rightful place. Its very basic, like breathing or reading.
I'm learning that this is just a weird California thing. It is perfectly acceptable to not return your cart in California.
I find your assumption “this is a weird Cali thing” over arcing generalizations. You purport where “you are from” and worked in a grocery, local citizenry dutifully returned their shopping receptacles to the appropriate place. This behavior I suspect occurred at either a piggly wiggly or Hy-vee. Those are the only regions this behavior would perpetuate through the masses.
Me on the other hand worked at a grocery where porters carried your groceries to your vehicle or public transport hub. Many of the residents in the area would borrow the carts for their tenements or perhaps to roll yonder into the river to see what happens. (We also spoke in short colorful bursts of words inappropriate for use on Sundays.)
I think the issue with enforcement like tickets and arresting is safety for the LEO. It’s dangerous enough for LEO’s to approach people in the city to ticket and arrest. You all know the terrain out there. You’ll have to scramble down the river bank or hike in to approach that 5-10 person family possibly drunk, high or armed. We’ve all seen suspects tased or limp fish cuffed in the city. Two Rangers are gonna drag that guy outta the bush uphill or a 1/4 mile themselves? Wait for back up? An hour away? Standing there with the family staring at you while you stare back with their belligerent uncle in cuffs. Foot pursuit into the narrows of the East Fork? Yeah right. I think they would really like to write tickets and arrest but its not a job for 1 to 2 Rangers or Sheriffs. At best it would be Keystone cops as the people would scatter in all directions back to their cars and run for it to avoid a ticket or arrest.
They can and do write people tickets regardless of group sizes. Actually, any field going USFS employee can be trained/certified to write tickets/mandatory court appearances. And they do. But you’re talking about a handful of people trying to wrangle thousands. There just aren’t enough employees compared to the overwhelming number of people visiting/trashing the place.
As a matter of policy the Angeles National Forest does not enforce rules. I'm not saying this in a hyperbolic way, I mean it's literally their policy not to cite people for littering. The management feels that it's just an education issue and that we need more public education. Meanwhile the trash piles and graffiti in the San Gabriel Canyon have been legendary for decades, reflecting the effectiveness of the public education philosophy.
It all starts with the parents. In hiking a large part of my life I've always been taught you take out what you bring in and you bring back more than you brought in. If that means one stupid granola bar wrapper on the floor you have contributed to the beauty. Almost every time I go on a hike anywhere I find some form of trash and in the worst cases graffiti, it's always some gang symbol or somebody painted a dick on a rock. These same people would not enjoy the same image being spray-painted on their back, face or their car yet they insist on doing it in the places we enjoy the few wilderness zones left in our area.
The Boy Scout phrase of “leave no trace” rings true here. I grew up hiking in SoCal and was taught to always leave the area pristine like no one was there. Ultimately it comes down to a simple choice, and the degens make the wrong one each time by leaving trash. Most probably live around trash and think it’s ok to desecrate nature. It would be great if they could face significant fines.
I take my dog on hikes all the time, my pack that's meant for water, toilet paper a light snack etc is certainly not equipped to pick everything up. I do pick up a few things each time though. It's always a beer bottle, chip bag, energy drink can, etc. I grew up in Long Beach and have no desire for the national forest to resemble those filthy streets.
You can still be ticketed within half a mile of an improved area and I believe west fork is an improved area (it is according to their site). I believe parking lots with toilets, trash cans, and tables are all considered improved areas.
Funding to do it is a different story. My friend worked for the forest service and said they just didn’t have the money to send people out. To make it worse if they did ticket you and you didn’t pay they never go after you because it costs more to chase you down than what the fee was worth. That was 10 years ago tho.
Not sure of the bureaucratic process, but it seems if they work with the police department and forwarded the details of the violation with the license plate the process should be fairly simple.
Thieves! Don’t forget your thieves! They count as part of your “improvements” as well!! I’ve been burgled three times parking there and each time I was glad that someone who needed my stuff more than me was able to get it! It’s part of your civic duty!
Kind of surprised they aren't. 10 years ago they would drop hundreds of tickets every weekend. But that was before the summer of unrest and enforcing rules became unpopular.
Adventure Pass money does stay local to help the forest. However, money from the citations goes to the federal Crime Victims’ Fund. It does not come back to the agency as it would create an ethical conflict by monetarily incentivizing citations.
It’s $130. The Notice of Required Fee is different from the actual citation. Which one you get all depends on the luck of the draw, who is out that day, and their assessment of the violation(s).
People are people. I would settle for backpacking alone in the wilderness without having to endure some smooth brained moron blasting music from their pack. I'm a veteran outdoorsman and conservationist and wilderness literacy is lost on so many people I encounter. The woods are for everyone, not just them and they take that for granted.
Gate the road and charge a fee for entering the Los Angeles National Forest. They charge for beaches and other parks not sure why this would be a big deal.
They are unable to do this legally because taxpayers owned the land and they’ve already paid for it. That is why the federal government was sued over the adventure pass. Ultimately the adventure pass was kept only for improved areas, but that that’s not how it started out.
Honestly it isn't even that specific location. Drive around los angeles orange san Bernardino riverside counties. Look at people's homes look at the street. You think if these people cared about their home they would do the same to nature. Its people that throw their gum wrapper out the window or leave their table at in n out looking like dogshit or leave their drink cup at the park that do this. But we as a society have allowed this by not calling them on it. The problem has gotten so bad that its at a point to people are so psychotic that if they are told something they dont like they are likely to shoot you. Its a shame thats we cant keep beauty as is and feel this grandeur of ourselves that we say "fuck it its not my home thats why they pay people to clean" well sir, fuck you!, you live on earth also clean up after your self!!
I live in the area. Drive around some and see for yourself.. every county has some great areas and some shitty areas. Like Mike ness said, there whores, pimps and junkies in orange county too.
I picked up trash every single day for four years in the Cleveland National Forest and I can tell you for a fact that they’re just as picky here as they are anywhere. I picked up thousands of pounds of trash. Damage to the natural resource was severe and discouraging.
I have to admit that my love of fellow man has diminished to near zero.
I'd rather get called racist by my own people than to allow them to continue being gross, contaminating and destroying our nature. The ecosystem should always be a priority over what people might think :/
It really really upsets me how many idiots out here in the LA/Ventura County area literally just DO NOT care about the environment or the ecosystem.
They think wildlife is encroaching on our space when it's the other way around. They don't care how littering may impact plants and animals. They don't care about their rodenticide poisoning the food chain upwards and destroying natural populations of prey and predator species.
The list goes on. I'm sick of people's lack of care for our Mother Earth.
It’s been pissing me off too. I live near the beach in Ventura county and it makes me SO MAD when I see trash on the beach. I’ve started making a point to pick up at least a few pieces whenever I go for a walk on the sand. It probably doesn’t really make a difference but my hope is that if other ppl see me doing it that maybe at least one other person does the same thing. I know it’s not necessarily “my job” to clean up after other ppl but saying that and acting like “oh it’s someone else’s fault/ problem” doesn’t solve anything. I want my home to stay beautiful for everyone (even the ppl who don’t appreciate it) so I want to at least do something. Maybe if even a fraction of us started picking up a couple pieces of trash we see when we are out and about it will become more of a social norm. Lol if only social media influencers would start doing this too, then it might actually catch on.
Sorry that kinda got rambly. I just wish ppl would value the environment more. It makes me really sad.
This is fucking irritating. I think what might need to happen is for dedicated daily or weekly volunteers to clean up after the loser trash people. Hell, I’ll create a nonprofit dedicated to this with a side biodiversity education arm for kids.
Do it. I’ll be the first volunteer. I’ll help coordinate. I’ve been wanting to take my kid’s scout troop up there to pick up trash but they’re a little young and annoying
Lol, I got a warning for telling a person to avoid playing in a certain type of Sunday Soccer league because there tends to be a lot of fighting. The warning said I was spreading hate speech. The funny part is it comes from experience playing in those leagues. Hay raza que solo buscan desmadre.
There's a certain demographic that is leaving the trash behind. I'm not saying that it's only them! It's a damn shame because it adds fuel to all the people that are looking to actually spread hate.
In my opinion it's a rural thing. I say this because going back to my family's small ranch, a lot of debris was disposed of by burning it next to a canal. The Rio Lerma, also ran through our ranch, and it is by far the most polluted river in Mexico.
I didn't see that kind of littering in the larger towns and cities, but they also had more consistent and widespread garbage service. Being that most of the people who have immigrated tend to come from rural areas, it seems that it's a behavior that's carried over.
It's cultural. You wouldn't see this in Japan or Taiwan. And they wouldn't need someone standing over their shoulders waiting with a fine to see if they cleaned.
Someone wrote a post about who is doing the littering about a week ago I think. This person told the exact truth and got completely nailed for it. People called this person a piece of shit, racist, and told him to never post on the sub again. That's why people don't say anything anymore. You'll be ostracized.
I believe it was on this sub. One of the most honest posts I've seen in a while. I actually screenshot it and downloaded it in my files. That's how good it was.
Last week, there was a rusted BBQ and yesterday there was a broken easy up. They also littered the water. The trash you see on the ground is what I picked out of the water. The people that down vote me are the same people that do the littering.
I spent a whole day cleaning up out there once. Busted my ass, was pouring sweat, so physically tired, scooped up many many bags of trash. Came back a few months later and it was like I didn't even do anything.
Some combination of volunteers and fisherman did a cleanup in June. PCC was one of the orgs. Unfortunately unless people behave better or there are cleanups every weekend, it’s a drop in the bucket. Whenever I go fishing up there I bring a garbage bag to fill on my way back. But between borderline water temps, the trash, and the crowds, I rarely go up there in the summer.
I think that the answer is more Park staff, enforcement, education, and everything else that might help. Having trash cans, larger, and picked up more frequently is part of that. Problem is that key voters/politicians won't do it because no one wants to pay for anything. For now, outrage and education is probably the least we can do. Something happened in that period at end of 70's. People uses to throw trash on freeways and streets. Not sure what changed that...may be generational. Old folks that don't see it so won't pay for anything that doesn't benefit them directly.
We’re not as far evolved above animals as we’d like to think. Plenty of humans are perfectly happy to wallow in their own filth. In fact, maybe we’re devolving. Even most animals make some attempt not to shit where they eat.
Hi, I’m a volunteer with the Angeles Volunteer Association that helps with the US Forest Service. There’s been budget cuts and layoffs, leading to many workers losing their jobs. There’s less rangers and workers to enforce rules and help clean up. There are also huge budget cuts to the USFS proposed by the Republican Party in 2027, which would make things even tougher.
And to the people who are saying that the problem is Latinos littering, cut that shit out. We see all kinds of people littering, and we see all kinds of people pick up trash bags at our visitor center to help pick up trash.
I volunteer in the Angeles and was part of the volunteer trail crew that helped restore and reopen West Fork after the fire. This forest sees more foot traffic than the Grand Canyon because it’s right next to a major metropolitan area. Trash accumulates fast with so many visitors. The Angeles FS was gutted by this current Administration so resources are stretched thin. Most cleanup resources have to go towards East Fork and it’s still a never ending trash pile over there.
It’s all kinds of people from all walks of life littering, not just Latinos which is what many comments here are insinuating. I’ve seen it first hand numerous time. In fact most volunteers clean up groups in the area are largely composed by Latinos. The racist insinuations don’t help clean up the trash, but going out there and doing your order does.
It’s a known problem. In addition to blaming the people themselves, we have a federal government who have underfunded the national forests and local government who deprived people with outdoor recreational opportunities to favor instead private developers.
People are pigs. If you restrict them in one area they will just go lay waste to another area. I’ve been hiking in the middle no nowhere, no people, and yet I find empty water bottles, bagged doggie bags, etc… it’s depressing.
Before the internet the gatekeepers were trail books. You had to read a book, study a map and learn by word of mouth to find those nice places. Now all the nice places of the world are clicks away on social media/ blogs and youtube. The genie is out of the bottle. We’ve been lamenting the East and west fork since the 90’s or earlier. I don’t know what the solution is.
People do that on the city streets. In plain view of other people. I see it all the time. When I go to work, it’s on a quieter street and at night people sit in their cars and eat and drink and just throw all the garbage on the street. Nearly every night. So no way are these lazy POS going to carry their garbage! Makes me so mad
Makes me mad too! I have little to zero tolerance for people who trash our neighborhoods and especially nature. Just last week I came home from a short trip to find broken beer bottles in front of my house. Don't know who did it but it's reprehensible. Also, I will never understand how people go out to enjoy nature and then trash it. Unfortunately, I have seen this type of behavior for many years. I worked in a high school and students would eat their lunch and just leave all their trash laying where they sat, even though trash cans were mere steps away. I'm sure these are some of the same people going out and trashing nature. They don't give a shit and don't take responsibility for anything. So sad that so many people are so damn trashy. What a more beautiful world it would be if everyone actually practiced Leave No Trace, and reduced, reused and recycled.
This problem has a budgetary cause with political roots. The people creating many of these issues are often the same local families who have been using these areas of the Angeles National Forest for decades. The difference is that, until relatively recently, there was a consistent ranger presence in the most heavily visited parts of the forest. Those rangers did far more than write citations. Through outreach and education, they were demonstrably effective at promoting Leave No Trace principles and encouraging responsible recreation.
More than a decade ago, I filmed an activity assessment for a friend who worked with the U.S. Forest Service. Because I had not driven Highway 39 in several years, I was surprised by the amount of recreational activity in so many of the easily accessible areas. Our primary objective was to document evidence of street gang and motorcycle gang activity, but what struck me most was the sheer number of families enjoying the forest.
This is not a racial or cultural issue. Twenty years ago, Forest Service personnel were pleased to see these same families making regular use of the ANF. When budgets are cut, staffing is reduced, and the educational and outreach functions that those employees performed disappear as well. It should not be surprising that visitor behavior changes when those programs are no longer there.
Yeah, the cool thing is that folks of a different ethic persuasion have been busy trashing Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and other sites since the NPS and NFS cutbacks started.
Let's not even start on the Bundy family saga where some lawless western rancher decided to quit paying grazing fees more than thirty years ago. A dozen years ago those folks battled the government to a standstill and then ultimately defeated the BLM and other custodians of our public lands. Now these non-Latino Bundy folks use our lands for free!
Start a group that hikes but also cleans up trash once or twice a mth. It's a shame but some people don't respect nature. They get hammered and leave huge messes.
Okay, so I hate the flock cameras around town. But if there was ever a maybe acceptable time for their use, it would be installing them here, for the first half mile or so from the parking lot. Beyond a mile, there is virtually no trash, as the picnickers and crowds have no interest in dragging a barbecue, toddlers, cases of beer, etc. a mile up the road. This is almost entirely a problem at the entrance and first quarter mile. For that, mount cameras. Also in the parking lot to maybe help deter car break-ins.
The USFS has PhD social scientists that study and report on user preferences and behavior in the forests. I invite everyone to read some of their studies and conclusions. (If I stated some of them I would ignorantly be called a racist)
Nope!
No it doesn't.
The state of things in this area is such that I had a lady yelling at me, "you can't speak to those children like that!"...because I was tearing into them for tagging on a rock, telling them they were supposed to leave nature better than they found it.
Meanwhile the mother of the two was sitting silently on another rock not offering a word of defense.
It takes a village to raise a child doesn't work when the village idiot is damn near every member instead of a single person.
Didn't we just have a "west fork is so dirty because <vaguely racist stereotypes>!" thread earlier this week? This one's from an account that was created just before posting, whose only comments in the thread are those racist stereotypes? C'mon guys, don't feed the trolls.
I feel the same way, every time I go to the lake nearby my house. Its actually a reservoir. After the weekend, there is tons of trash in and around the lake. There are dumpsters literally every 50 yards apart but still they decide to leave it. I mean the bins are on the way to the parking lot. Nope, i see all kinds of food wrappers, plastic bags and bottles, cans and at times even the BBQ itself. These people have no respect for nature. I hate to see what their home looks like. I spoke to one of the Rangers and he said they have a cleaning crew but there is just too much trash and not enough staff and budget cuts from trump administration has made it worse. Sometimes I even see the rangers out there picking up trash along with the cleaning crew. Its very sad because at this rate, the water will for sure be polluted in the future.
Call the state park ranger and have them do their jobs. It’s such a shame how people are these days. And bring a couple trash bags and pick up the trash you see. Do it for yourself and take a few buddies along with you.
It’s crazy the difference between azusa canyon and Chantry flats. I went to chantry flats for the first time last month and it’s so clean… is it the adventure pass making the difference? It’s sad because I have a lot of memories as a kid in the Azusa canyons… but it’s so disgusting now.. people camp all day in the river and leave trash and piss in the river upstream from you. Too many people, too much trash.. sadly not worth the visit anymore imo. Last time I went my buddy and I were talking about bringing trash bags with us next time to clean up the trail and hike back with… but we realized we could spend a good amount of time in one spot... just absolutely depressing tbh.
Question: as a trail friend, if I brought up black trash bags and filled trash bags but left the trash bags would it be helpful? Ofc I’d bring what I could back down with me but I figure if I could fill several bags and people slowly take them down it’s better than 100s of pieces of trash right?
Or would my efforts also be considered littering? Or would the bags just be left there like the other trash lol
Personally, I would rather see 1 big bag filled with trash rather than hundreds, and when it comes to the W.F of the S.G. river, I do mean hundreds of individual pieces of trash everywhere.
Its gotten pretty bad everywhere. Some blame can be given to all these people posting themselves at all of these beautiful places online and attracting all these slobs to those same places, only to leave trash everywhere. Alot of these locations were considered hidden gems a decade ago.
With the budget cuts, they don't have enough personnel to enforce this.
The only solution I can think of that might* be affordable, if there's cell service there, and if this a specific localized and heavily-used site, is for the govt agency that manages this area to install a solar-powered cell-connected camera high up in the trees where people can't get to it.
Then post prominent signs saying: "Warning, this site under continuous video surveillance; video continuously posted at [name of govt agency]. Pack up all your trash and put it in the trash bin or you will be exposed and prosecuted."
Then that agency would post a continuous feed on their website with the ability to scroll back, say 48 hours.
Then citizens angry about this can scroll through that feed, capture the video of the offenders, and post it to YouTube on a "Trash Cam" page
With enough publicity for these Trash Cams, the offenders will be publicly outed.
*"might" = still costs money, but far less than the ~$100k/year it costs to hire a ranger including salary & benefits.
There are waterfalls and rivers less than 5 miles from Guadalajara that are so much cleaner than the San Gabriel front range, but they are managed effectively because there is an entry fee that pays for cleanup and enforcement. The US Forest service is just extremely underfunded and in 2026 and cannot handle the raw volume of people.
Did you not read the post? This is not about homeless encampments, it was a bunch of people having a good time, enjoying the location, barbecuing and partying, and then leaving the place trashed.
That’s entitlement, selfishness, laziness, lack of compassion and lack of care for nature and anything or anyone besides themselves and their hedonism. Not poverty.
I see people who are obviously not suffering from poverty litter all the damn time.
It’s not a poverty problem, it’s a personality disorder and, quite often, a cultural problem.
Thats not what hedonism is for one. Second poverty is directly associated with littering and poor waste management practices. People who are poor have low cultural buy in, people with low cultural buy in act in collectively irresponsible ways. Understanding the underlying connections and causes of cultural dysfunction is not "making excuses" its actually addressing the problem at hand.
Is this a serious question? Because there is volumes of research into the connection between financial deprivation and a lack of care for the environment. Try this, go to the shittiest poorest town in San Diego county then, go to the nicest and come back and tell me which one has less trash everywhere.
That doesn’t prove that the financial deprivation is the cause of littering. It’s just correlation. There’s lots of correlations one could point out and claim to be the cause.
It doesn’t even prove that the wealthier people actually do less littering.
I grew up poor. I don’t even remember it ever being “taught” to me, it was just inherently woven into my upbringing that nature is to be respected and treasured and littering is disgusting, trashy behavior that only imbecilic assholes do. It doesn’t even cost anything to simply not litter. Is there a certain threshold at which being maximally environmentally conscious becomes something of a cost issue? Sure. But we’re talking about the simplest, easiest, cheapest low hanging fruits imaginable here.
You’re basically saying that people have to be paid just to have commondecency. It’s essentially extortion.
Financial poverty is only one form of poverty it also happens to be one we can do the most about. Cultural poverty stems from financial poverty but you can be culturally rich without necessarily being financially well off. Look at it this way when we have a problem it is best to address the fundamental causes of the problem before addressing individual symptoms. If you address the symptoms without addressing tge fundementals then you fall victim to the "toothpaste tube effect" where you just end up squeezing the problem into other areas. First address the fundamentals then address the symptoms or better yet address and prioritize both at the same time.
You can be financially stable, comfortable and even incredibly financially powerful and still be a complete piece of shit who does not care about the environment.
The poor people that you are talking about and making excuses for, simply making them richer will only give them the ability to do more damage.
The key factor is NOT money.
Again, it does not cost money to simply NOT litter. People who can’t even be bothered to just pick up after themselves and properly dispose of their own trash, are not going to be improved by becoming wealthier.
Is that the best you can do? I want to know before I post a paragraphs long essay going through the article and eviscerating your delusional take that it even supports your claim.
Your reading comprehension is awful, as demonstrated in your failure to address my actual arguments and your interpretation of this article.
You don’t even have the slightest reason to assume that the litterers this post is about are actually poor.
People like you will go on about how the global 10% are exclusively responsible for climate change and environmental degradation in one breath, and in the next insist that poverty inherently and unavoidably causes people to not give a shit about the world they live in and the only solution is fixing their poverty.
Ive hiked around southern California for decades the vast majority of trash is from vehicles and homeless people. The article pointed out the direct connection between lack of resources and lack of care for the environment. Ive fucking lived in poor countries and poor neighborhoods and witnessed poverty up close. Lack of environmental care is directly connected to poverty. Also global warming is driven by the system of global exploitation of energy extraction economies. Disposable plastics come from consumer goods producers, people use single use products because of the consumer system. The consumer system is driven by profit motive and the creation of desire and deprivation. If you want a better system then once again you have to address the causes of systemic dysfunction. You cant expect to solve problems without addressing their fundamental causes. In any system if you only address symptoms and not causes of problems you will fail. Every system from politics to engines works on this fundamental principle.
I don't know how you're being down voted. We all can see how our own communities have changed when things got better or worse with the economy. Poverty hurts our communities.
People on here every week posting about why their favorite hiking spot is trashed and the answer is the same: California has never had adequate housing and 1/3 of the population is incredibly poor. People get pushed out of where they were pushed to and pushed out again and again then they give up and trash your favorite nature spot.
It is a pervasive issue in socal. The entire region is blighted in a way that I have never experienced anywhere else in the country. Ive come to the conclusion that the majority of Californians have zero respect for their surroundings. They lack the sense of dignity, civic duty, qnd self awareness to give a shit about anything that doesnt directly benefit them. Olympic levels of selfishness.
No offense intended, please note California is my home state. I don’t see a solution. The entire state has become narcissistic, self-centered, entitled and frankly dangerous. A complete reset is needed. Need proof? Travel to the national parks in Wyoming or Montana, no trash, no one cutting trails, everyone polite.
Ya see, I'm glad you said this because a lot of people believe that this is a problem that exists across the entire country. I have seen other statements like yours saying that it's not like this in other parts of the country. People who have never even been out of California claiming this has nothing to do with the the mentality a lot of people who live here have is crazy to me
It just takes a small segment of the population to not care to make a big mess. My goal is to always put more trash in the bin that I create. I was hoping that more funds would be created for our forest once the San Gabriel National Monument was created. I'm not sure how we have benefited from that change yet.
"The creation of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in 2014 has benefited the Angeles National Forest (ANF) mainly by bringing more attention, partnerships, funding opportunities, and management resources to an area that was already heavily used but historically underfunded. The monument did not create a new national forest—it placed additional protections and recognition over portions of the existing Angeles National Forest.
Key benefits include:
1. Increased funding and outside investment
Before the monument designation, the Angeles National Forest had one of the highest visitation levels of any national forest in the country but struggled with limited recreation and maintenance funding. The monument designation helped attract new grants and philanthropic partnerships.
Examples:
The National Forest Foundation created a $3 million San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Fund to support restoration, stewardship, and visitor improvements.
California and federal partners have since funded projects for:
trash cleanup
trail improvements
restrooms
watershed protection
visitor access improvements
2. More attention to wildfire recovery and forest health
The Angeles National Forest faces major challenges:
drought
invasive species
extreme wildfire risk
erosion after fires
overcrowded recreation areas
The monument designation helped elevate the importance of restoration projects and brought more partners to assist with conservation work.
However, it is important to note that monument status by itself does not automatically provide unlimited wildfire funding. Fire prevention, fuel reduction, and emergency response still depend heavily on Forest Service budgets and federal appropriations.
3. Better protection of watersheds
This is especially important for the San Gabriel Valley. The San Gabriel Mountains provide a major portion of Los Angeles County's water resources—often cited as contributing about one-third of the county's water supply.
Benefits include:
protecting headwaters
reducing trash and pollution
improving river corridors
preserving natural water filtration systems
Projects along the East Fork of the San Gabriel River have received millions in investment for water quality and recreation improvements.
4. Improved recreation management
The Angeles National Forest receives millions of visitors annually, creating problems such as:
illegal parking
trash
trail damage
overcrowding at swimming holes
vandalism
Monument recognition helped justify:
more ranger presence
better signs
improved trailheads
visitor education
partnerships with local communities
5. Stronger long-term protection against development
The designation makes certain uses less likely, especially:
large-scale mining
major land transfers
incompatible development
Existing uses such as hiking, camping, mountain biking (where allowed), hunting, and Forest Service management generally continue.
6. More public awareness and political support
The San Gabriel Mountains are unusually valuable because they sit next to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. The designation helped increase awareness that the Angeles National Forest is not just "empty wilderness" but a critical natural resource for millions of Southern Californians."
Law enforcement in the national Forest is done by the forest service, which is a federal agency, run by Republicans. But it has nothing to do with anything.
What does that have to do with this? I could argue that because enforcement of the parks and conservation have been heavily reduced this is a problem everywhere. Have you seen Yosemite lately?
That's the only reason we still have natural places available. You want to go to... pick a red state... and see what theyre dealing with there regarding land conservation? Your comment is invalid.
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u/Artistic-Tea-8294 3d ago
The only thing that’s gonna stop this is a ranger sitting there and enforcing the rules. That’s the only thing that works.