Save The East Fork

The San Gabriel Mountains provides 35% of the clean drinking water which millions of Southern California residents rely upon, and within the San Gabriels is the Angeles National Forest (which has recently been designated a National Monument) encompassing a number of watersheds and rivers, including the San Gabriel River.

During the past 120 years since the Angeles National Forest was created, the population of Southern California has grown to over 22.6 million people, many of whom recreate in the mountains and, sadly, many of whom bring a great deal of of trash, human waste, and other pollutants in to the forest with them. Many of the over 3 million people (PDF) who visit the mountains each year engage in illegal activities in the forest, overwhelming the U. S. Forest Service agencies which are tasked with repairing and cleaning the forest.

Raising awareness among local citizens, politicians, and other policy-makers about the threats that face the San Gabriel River is crucial, and the Save The East Fork Association has been created to work with stakeholders, local City, State, and Federal agencies to identify the core difficulties facing the East Fork, and to work to reduce or eliminate illegal activities taking place which adversely impact the watershed, including activities which adversely impact the Santa Ana Sucker and other creatures which are on the threatened and the endangered lists.

Here you will find information on what the problems are, what proposed solutions to such problems are, areas where progress has been made in solving some of the problems, and how you may contact Save The East Fork to offer ideas and solutions to the organization.

Also you might be interested in taking a look at the San Gabriel Mountains Forever organization which has been on the ground for years working to address some of the issues in the forest. That organization has a much broader set of goals to address problems and implement solutions whereas Save The East Fork focuses almost entirely on the East Fork of the river.

Another great resource for learning about the East Fork is to check out the West Fork Conservancy which does extensive unpaid volunteer work cleaning up and repairing parts of the East Fork.