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← Mission 17 · Laguna Mountain restoration
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Mission 17 · Cleveland National Forest, CA

Laguna Mountain restoration

Cleveland National Forest

The agency files it as “Laguna Mountain Forest Restoration”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on September 27. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

The sentence we think is wrong

“the structures now impede the natural flow of sediment and water through the meadow and are contributing to ongoing erosion”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under Nonfunctional Check Dam Removal / Table 1. Nobody has been out to check it. A dated photograph either backs it up or ends it.

How you settle it

Walk Kemp Spur Trail along the west edge of Laguna Meadow, between the Chico-Gatos Connector and Meadow Spur junctions, and find the three old rock and concrete check dams. Photos showing each dam, whether it is broken or buried, and whether water and sediment are cutting around or behind it.

The decision

The Cleveland National Forest's Descanso Ranger District is proposing the Laguna Mountain Forest Restoration project to reduce wildfire risk and support climate-adapted conservation. It'd involve reforestation, prescribed fire, hazardous fuels reduction, and post- and pre-wildfire forest health treatments. The project's stated purposes include fuels management, watershed management, and wildlife,

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Photograph the crossing from the road, then from upstream and from downstream.
  2. 02At a culvert, photograph the outlet from downstream so the drop from the pipe to the water shows. Put a pole or a person beside it for scale.
  3. 03Photograph the water: is it flowing, standing, or dry. Note the time.
  4. 04Photograph any fish, fish sign, or aquatic life you can see. Don’t enter the water to chase it.
  5. 05Write down what you saw and how the crossing looked to you.
What would count
  • The drop from the pipe to the water, with something for scale. A pipe left hanging above the water is one a fish cannot swim up, and that is a fact on its own.
  • Up and downstream, dated. Flow is the claim most often wrong.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.