Angeles Forest: Loving It to Death

America’s national parks have been the subject of hand-wringing this year as evidence accumulates on overuse that degrades the natural experience the parks were created to provide. Poor Yosemite. Poor Yellowstone.

However, what the national parks suffer is nothing compared to the human smothering of the Angeles National Forest, which sees more recreational use in a year than Yosemite and Yellowstone combined, according to Angeles Forest Supervisor Mike Rogers.

On a summer weekend, its accessible areas--river bottoms, passes and meadows--are jammed with Southern California urbanites seeking a day’s contact with nature. Some of that contact unfortunately includes marking graffiti on rocks, littering and more serious crimes. Except Arizona’s larger Tonto National Forest, near Phoenix, Angeles is the most used national forest. How, then, could its budget have been cut 20% from last year?

National forest budgets are rigid and complex, balanced between recreational and commercial uses. But if Americans could direct how their tax money was spent, it’s a fair bet they would rather pay for recreation in national forests across the country than subsidize the building of roads used only by private timber operations in some federal forests.

The Angeles cuts have closed some of the most popular campgrounds to overnight camping; there is no money to maintain or refurbish the aging facilities. What’s saved can help manage the flood of day users, though that’s cold comfort to would-be campers.

One solution would be to allow national forests to charge an entry fee, like state and national parks. Rogers and others have proposed that Congress allow Angeles to develop a pilot program in which a small fee (perhaps $2 a day) would be collected and used locally rather than go into the common pot in Washington. Angeles is a logical site for such a program because it is used so heavily for recreation and not at all for logging.

The end of the free picnic may be in sight, and that’s sad. But the alternative to fees may be a forest that we’ve loved into ruin.