Vegetation

 

• Provide signage with plant names.
• Range of biodiversity in both San Gabriel Mountains and Puente/Chino Hills - should highlight rare and endangered species - important to layout plan to educate people on biodiversity and species. Increase profile of biodiversity.
• Research pine beetle disease and invasive species.
• Focus on preserves of native species and plants. Balance of recreation and habitat. E.g. looking at recreation - don't expand OHV areas. Watershed must be protected. Invasive and exotics taken out.

• There are 37 endangered and rare species in the Acton corridor - including threespine stickleback; need signage to explain what these resources are.
• For developed NRA sites, use native plants to encourage water conservation.
• The Puente-Chino Hills are unique for Coastal Sage Scrub habitat, the mountains for being precipitous. Fire, floods and debris flows provide for an educational role in mitigating the damage caused to urban development.

• Coastal Sage Scrub habitat is falling into decline. These habitat areas must be protected from public access.
• The California Wildlife Action Plan identified a stressor affecting wildlife and habitats within the project area being invasive species.
• The mountains and flora are very impressive here and the potential is high for a wonderful outdoor escape.
• The determination that Puente/Chino Hills are nationally significant and suitable for inclusion in the national park system is questionable. This is particularly true when considering that the "rare plant communities, including coastal sage scrub and walnut woodlands" found by NPS in the Puente/Chino Hills area, are, in fact, already publicly protected by the State of California in the 14,102 acre Chino Hills State Park.
• A National Recreation Area would raise the value of our chaparral and coastal sage scrub shrub lands as well as the river and its tributaries in the public eye. Many regard our shrub lands as "worthless brush" that catches fire and threatens structures rather than a thriving ecosystem whose flora provide protection both for water quality and from mud slides.
• Wildfires over the last several years, especially the recent Station Fire, have created a culture of fear towards native wildlands. Increasing fire frequency has resulted in the conversion of chaparral-covered hillsides to highly flammable non-native grasslands. And important opportunities to help the community discover and better appreciate the wonders of the mountains are being lost due to budget constraints.
• The San Gabriel Mountains and the Puente-Chino Hills represent important examples of the native Southern California landscape. The San Gabriel Mountains are significant for geologic resources, and biodiversity, dynamic river systems, and a long history of scientific study and discovery. The Puente-Chino Hills are significant for rare native plant communities, including coastal sage scrub and walnut woodlands.  
• Please include the critical wildlife corridor from the Big Tujunga Dam in the Angeles National Forest along the Big Tujunga River Wash to the Hansen Dam habitat areas here in Sunland for preservation in the proposed new wilderness area. This open space is critical habitat for the Arroyo Toad, the Arroyo Chub, rare alluvial fan sage scrub habitat association, Dodecahema leptocerus, and much more. Though within the boundaries of the city of Los Angeles, this native habitat connects the Verdugo Mountains sections of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy park lands to the larger Angeles National Forest, and faces imminent development pressure.
• The West Coyote Hills is home to several federally and state threatened animal and plant species, and is of critical value to the San Gabriel River Watershed.
• Excessive fuel hazards should be managed in the WUI to reduce threats to homes; vegetation should be managed in the interior of the SGM to reduce the amplitude of flooding that inevitably follows large fires, such as the Station fire.
• I like Alternative B. It allows for more open space, plant protection, and recreational opportunities in neighborhoods.
• What is left (510 + 72.5 acres) of Coyote Hills in Fullerton is just enough to maintain a healthy self-sustaining ecosystem of coastal sage scrub (CSS), which is a land-type going into extinction. There are about 100 plants and 75 animals, I'm estimating, that make up CSS which exists only at this given latitude, longitude, and elevation level. Only about 5 - 10% is left in the world, all of it existing in California. In truth, the CSS land is a great place to build houses, and the housing industry is destroying this ecosystem throughout California for their developments without thought for preservation of a small section of it for future generations to experience first hand –hence the NPS needs to step in here to preserve some of it. Once gone; always gone –the plants, the animals, and the whole unique ecosystem. This 510 + 72.5 acres, in fact, is maintaining itself extremely well right now. NPS would probably only need to manage visitors hiking the trails. In itself, it is really a very self-sufficient piece of land. INCLUDE Fullerton's 510 + 72.5 acres in the Coyote Hills on the San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains map outlining the area of this resource study. There is an urgent need to preserve this ecosystem in the Coyote Hills, and I believe the NPS is the one to do it.