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A coalition of organizations as well as California elected officials are calling on President Joe Biden to expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument to include 109,000 acres that were not included in the original monument designation. The latest postcard in the Center for Western Priorities' Road to 30 series takes us to the Los Angeles area, where the San Gabriel Mountains are within 90 miles of 18 million people, making the monument one of the most accessible natural areas in the country.
The monument was designated by President Obama in 2014, protecting 346,000 acres. But the monument left out about 100,000 acres that are considered the "gateway" to the Angeles National Forest, which saw more visitors in 2021 than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite. The proposed expansion area includes some of the public lands closest to the urban residents of Los Angeles County.
“Historically underserved communities were part of this effort early on,” said Belén Bernal, Executive Director of Nature for All, which is leading the monument effort. “We have a very unique situation here in L.A. where we have hundreds of thousands of acres next to 18 to 19 million people. It’s a national monument that I would dare say is the only one that has almost 20 million people immediately adjacent to it.”
Rudy Ortega is president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, which represents 26 Tribal Villages in the Los Angeles area. Ortega told CWP that expanding the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument would protect sacred sites that are currently vulnerable to destruction from development and visitation without cultural awareness. President Ortega was raised in the area, and from a young age, he learned about the cultural significance of the landscape through family visits.
“As I got older, I realized the areas that my father was taking us to were significant cultural sites,” said President Ortega. “It was just passed down generation to generation.”
Learn more about the expansion plans for the San Gabriel Mountains in CWP's Road to 30 postcard.
How archaeology evolved from pot hunting to science
In the latest episode of CWP's podcast, The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Rachel Morgan, author of Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology. Morgan's book gives a detailed account of the Wetherill family, which settled in southwest Colorado in the 1800s and explored Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Grand Gulch extensively. She also talks about how legal and scientific transformations have given rise to the science we know today as archaeology. Listen now or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
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It felt like our highest official in the land acknowledges the crimes of the past. His contribution to society is to help to heal the tribal nations.”
