Study Proposing National Recreation Area along
Duarte’s Borders Extends Comment Period
DUARTE, CA, January 7, 2012 -- Duarte residents may soon be able to walk to a new unit of the National Park Service in their own backyard. A study issued in October, 2011 proposes three alternatives that would each create a National Recreation Area along Duarte’s borders.
The most far-reaching and widely supported of these, labeled Alternative D, would include 581,500 acres of land containing nearly all of the San Gabriel Mountains, as well as corridors down both the San Gabriel River and Rio Hondo to the northern boundary of Santa Fe Springs. In addition, it would include significant portions of the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor—a 25-mile strip of hillside open space that runs from Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains to Whittier Narrows.
The draft study report is available for public comment has now been extended through February 13, 2012, and can be accessed in a variety of ways including on the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/pwro/sangabriel/index.htm. , via e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by mailing a letter to: National Park Service Planning, San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains Study, 333 Bush St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94104. Residents can also offer their comments in person at one of several additional meetings to be held in southern California during the week of Nov. 14. The closest meeting to Duarte was held in Pomona on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the Agriscapes Center on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona.
The study was authorized by Congress in 2003 under a proposal by then U. S. Congress member Hilda L. Solis, whose district at that time included the City of Duarte. The study performed an extensive review of resources contained within the study area, and evaluated these resources against the four criteria:
- Are the natural or cultural resources nationally significant?
- Do they represent resource types not included within Park Service properties?
- Is the addition to the park system feasible?
- Can the Park Service add advantages over their current management?
The study, which began in 2005, involved both a significant amount of physical surveys of the study area as well as numerous public meetings and contacts with local stakeholder groups. It determined that both the San Gabriel Mountains and Puente-Chino Hills contain resources which are nationally significant and contain a diverse set of habitats and cultural artifacts that are not fully represented in any other NPS property. Although the river corridors did not meet all four of the significance criteria, they both provide continuity between the mountains and the hills and, with many parks and trails now developed and proposed they provide an important recreational resource in conjunction with these upland areas. While the existing parks and open space areas within the proposed NRA, such as Duarte’s Encanto Park, are operated appropriately by their local jurisdiction, NPS can play a significant role in laying out a unified approach to recreational use of these facilities and provide an overall interpretive message that is comprehensive and consistent throughout the region. Importantly, NPS can also provide federal resources both in staffing and funding to assist local jurisdictions.
Under the proposed plan, NPS would provide overall management in the areas of resource conservation and restoration, recreation and education working collaboratively with existing agencies which would retain their operational function. NPS would not assume or impose any zoning or regulatory functions, which would remain, as at present, with the current agencies and property owners. Limited land acquisition, if deemed appropriate, would only be accomplished from willing sellers. Next steps in the process include transmittal of the final study and supporting documents to Congress in Spring of 2012.
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