Obama is expected to announce the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

[Little Star]

The rugged San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles will encompass the United States' next national monument, President Barack Obama is expected to announce this week, putting an end to decades of debate about the site.

Obama is expected to designate about 350,000 acres of public land in the Angeles National Forest, which make up about half of the San Gabriel Mountains, as a new monument. He will make the announcement from Los Angeles County on Friday, according to a White House official who spoke to National Geographic on background.

The mountains represent about 70 percent of the open space in Los Angeles County and provide about a third of the area's drinking water. Some 17 million people live within an hour's drive of the 10,000-foot mountains, which naturalist John Muir once described as "pure and untameable as the sea."

More than three million people visit the mountains annually for hiking, camping, angling, mountain biking, and kayaking, making it almost as popular as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, says area Congresswoman Judy Chu, a Democrat.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141008-san-gabriel-mountains-national-monument-conservation/

[Xolodno]

1. Way over due.

But glad its finally happening.