The San Gabriel Mountains are one of my favorite hiking destinations. I made the painting above after a trip in May 2013. One of the most beautiful places in the world.

After a long time planning, President Obama yesterday declared the Angeles National Forest the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

Of course, there was fierce opposition.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who was protesting the “Federal land grab” of the Monument (the land is already Federally owned), and an unidentified woman who said she “feared the UN would seize control of the San Gabriel Mountains if Obama were to declare them a national monument (no comment).

— Modern Hiker

Protesters from groups like Public Lands for Public People, the owner of the Mt. Baldy Lodge and the California Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA). They were led on by a number of public officials from the San Gabriel area.

I am grateful to President Roosevelt the First for his conservation efforts and the creation of the National Park system. This is one of the fundamentally “good” functions of the federal government. If the government didn’t make such efforts, there’d be coal, gold and silver mines in all our mountains, there’d be McDonalds restaurants on top of our peaks, there’d be roads to ski resorts everywhere in our wildernesses – there would be no wilderness left.

Some articles:

Modern Hiker (where the above quote comes from)

Hiking Angeles Forest (blog by my friend Kyle Kuns)

I feel strongly that wilderness and natural beauty in our country is much more important than gross national product. The generations that follow us will be grateful.

I would be glad to have more of my taxes allocated to conservation. Sign me up!