Fodor’s Travel magazine has some advice for Southern California nature lovers: Don’t go to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.
That’s right, the national travel publication placed the mountainous national monument — a natural place made up of rivers, canyons and lakes, unique species of flowers and animals and 600 archeological sites all within 90 minutes of 20 million residents — on its ‘don’t go’ list, saying the monument is overwhelmed with trash and graffiti and should be omitted from travel plans in 2024.
The 346,177-acre national monument, which includes 342,177 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 4,002 acres of neighboring San Bernardino National Forest, made Fodor’s “No List” along with Venice, Italy; Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; Mount Fuji, Japan; Athens, Greece; and Lake Superior — fantastic places that are being loved to death by too many visitors, too much trash and not enough environmental stewardship, the magazine’s November edition reported.
What was intended to be the “crown to the Valley of Angels,” the living monument of chaparral, oak and conifer trees as well as numerous picnic, camping and fishing sites, has become “covered in trash, tagged with graffiti, and (is) posing an increasing threat to nature,” according to the magazine.
Even after monument status was bestowed in 2014 by President Barak Obama, the area, along with the entire 700,000-acre Angeles National Forest, was left in the hands of the U.S. Forest Service to manage.
But the U.S. Forest Service, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, did not get an allotment of dollars for the designation. Instead, the USFS must rely on corporate donations and the yeoman’s work of volunteer groups to maintain and manage the monument.
Recent publicity highlighted a portion of the monument at the East Fork of the San Gabriel River, which in the summer became inundated with people who left behind diapers, food wrappers and even mattresses. In a recent article in this newspaper, the USFS said it did not have enough money or resources to repair large portions devastated by storms and overuse, resulting in closure of more than 38% of the campgrounds.
This fall, the East Fork area, across from the Oaks Picnic Area, was in much better shape than in the summertime. That’s because the East Fork’s Golden Preservation group recently removed 800 pounds of trash in two hours. To date, they’ve taken out more than 8,000 pounds of trash, the magazine reported.
On Monday, Nov. 20, an independent, two-person team made up of Luis Peña and his brother, Arnold Peña, collected 1,000 empty beer and beverage cans in just two hours, said Arnold Peña, who lives in Duarte.
“Right now, it is all clean. But in the summer you will see all that trash down on the river,” said Arnold Peña, as he put the empty beer can in his hand into one of two nearly full, very large plastic bags in his car trunk. The two would soon take that trash down the hill to be recycled.
Luis Peña said the trashing of the East Fork area occurs from March through October. “Yeah, in the summer it is dirty. But in the winter it is usually clean.”
The East Fork river glistened in the November sun next to car turnouts on East Fork Road, about 10 miles north of Azusa. Authorities had placed three large trash bins there. But plastic bags, a woman’s sandal and other detritus were strewn on the berm adjacent to the river. Pizza boxes and other food containers were left on top of the empty bins — but not placed inside.
Down on the river, there were piles of beer bottles, empty soda bottles, paper cups, Styrofoam containers, clothes and a broken tent canopy frame. Many trees and rocks were tagged with blue, red and black graffiti, including a natural stone outcropping in the middle of the active stream bed.
Mini rock dams created by people who pool the river for swimming remained. These dams can kill the endangered Santa Ana sucker fish that live in the river, according to biologists. Signs posted along the river tell visitors to “Save the Santa Ana sucker fish.”
“It is a bummer to be on that (no go) list. It is not a list any place is aspiring to be on,” said Casey Schreiner, editor of the Modern Hiker online site, television writer, producer and author of “Day Hiking: Los Angeles (2016).” He said the Forest Service’s management practices are not working.
“I have been really patient and I feel like I’m reaching my breaking point,” he said on Monday, Nov. 20. The problems with overuse and people leaving trash in the river instead of packing it out has been around for more than 10 years. He suggested authorities use timed permits for visiting the area, as is done in popular national parks.
Maria Hernandez, who was visiting the East Fork area on Monday, was saddened when she spoke about seeing trash on the river banks. “We need to take care of the environment,” said Hernandez, of Compton. “I think it is not the area, it is the people. They don’t take care of it,” she said.
Daniel Rossman, California deputy director of The Wilderness Society, said the Forest Service has worked on cleaning up Oaks Picnic Area and the East Fork river area. Homer Wilkes, under secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for natural resources and environment, listened to people weighing in about the monument at a meeting on Nov. 7 in Azusa. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Judy Chu have asked President Joe Biden to expand the boundaries to include areas that need more attention, such as Chantry Flat near Arcadia, and the Upper Tujunga area toward the San Fernando Valley. Wilkes even got a tour of the East Fork — after it had been cleaned up.
“Part of this is about educating visitors to foster that sense of shared responsibility,” Rossman said. “To teach the ‘leave no trace behind’ principle,” he said on Friday, Nov. 10.
A new outreach program starting this summer funded by the National Forest Foundation and the Hispanic Action Foundation will take the form of a junior field ranger program, instructing visitors to pack out their trash and not hurt the sucker fish. “Just handing out trash bags is a great way to affect behavior,” Rossman said.
As far as Fodor’s placing the monument on a “don’t go” list, Rossman said there are many places within the boundaries that are not crowded and not trash-filled. He said the magazine’s message is one of awareness, not condemnation.
“I can’t agree more with that message. It highlights the need for all of us to do more to care for this place,” Rossman said.