With 250 square miles of some of the country's most beautiful trails destroyed and an El Nino wet winter rumored on the way, there's an awful lot of work to do to begin restoring the trails of the San Gabriels. The Los Angeles River Ranger District is in theory the lead division for trail restoration. After reviewing the available information, in all honestly it appears that the Mt Lowe volunteers organize a great deal of the volunteering effort for the Angeles district. Blog friend and Griffith hiker Lee Zebold is a part of this group.
The lack of serious direct leadership on the part of the US Forest Service isn't surprising given the US Forest Service's dearth of resources. Sad that the United States government puts so little effort and funding into our national forests.
Read the Mt. Lowe volunteers' September newsletter here. The photo we used above comes from this information-packed newsletter. (The Mt. Lowe web site linked in the article has been down for a day or so, but the folks who run it say it'll be back up shortly - or at least that is what their ISP is saying... -GPW)
There is also the Angeles Volunteers Association web site for related volunteer information. The Modern Hiker blog also has a good summary of information on how to get started.
In a related story, LAist has an excellent photo essay on the crime scene where the Station Fire started.
Finally - a reminder. Right now the Angeles forest is CLOSED. They're dead-serious about this. If you are caught in a closed area, the fine is $5,000... yikes!
