San Gabriel National Monument plans

[Ol Man]

Had not seen this posted here:

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/envi...ional-monument

And a meeting tonight:

http://www.meetup.com/SoCal-Dirt-Rid...nts/203084832/

[Russ Chung]

I wish I could attend tonight's meeting but I will out of town. BTW, the San Gabriel Mountains Forever Coalition is providing free bus transportation to the hearing from El Monte, Pasadena and Pomona.
http://coloradoboulevard.net/tues-au...iel-mountains/

[Roger]

Agenda 21

[Ol Man]

From someone who attended:

So they had a group panel discussion. No question and answer session. There were 10 people on the panel. 9 of them were in favor of making it into a monument. Not a very well balanced discussion. Most all of the panelists gave heartwarming stories about their experiences in the forest and that by making it a monument it would preserve that experience. No one actually addressed the issue of how making it a monument would bring in more money to help solve the Forest's problems, but they all wanted more people to come visit the Forest.

There were busloads of people there, many from the Pico-Union district with their green shirts on. As the meeting ended they swarmed to the area where free cookies were available, by the handful!

My congress representative, Judy Chu, is the main proponent of making it into a monument. She talked about this has been something that has been worked on for several years. Unfortunately, she cannot graciously accept defeat and the will of the rest of congress to not pass this.

Aproximately 500 people attended. About 200 were left outside as the auditorium was filled.