Local News in Brief : 153 Acres of Forest for Sale in Land Swap

The U.S. Forest Service is selling 153 acres of Angeles National Forest near Lake Hughes as part of a land swap that will add nearly 400 rugged, pristine acres to the national forest in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Forest Service is selling the land because of the changing character of Lake Hughes--a growing, unincorporated community of 1,000 residents 59 miles north of Los Angeles--and the irregular boundaries of the forest, said Edward Medina, assistant lands officer for the Forest Service. With fingers of federal forest surrounded by private land, rangers frequently find themselves drawn into private property disputes, he said.

Under the swap, which is being coordinated by the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, the 153-acre property will be sold to Los Angeles County and seven private landowners. The Forest Service, in return, will get 390 acres that the trust purchased from Monrovia in December for $122,675.

The land swap is the first of several expected in the Lake Hughes area, Medina said, noting that one 2,200-acre strip bordered by private property will lose its usefulness as a recreation area as the private land is developed.