Friends of the Mountain , Incorporated is a community based nonprofit conservation organization based in Southern California's San Bernardino Mountains and National Forest.
Continued over-development, especially in the San Bernardino Mountains, is threatening to destroy large tracts of forested land and wildlife habitat.
Our goal is to preserve and protect as much of the forest and wildlife as possible. We are working with other groups, organizations , and individuals in our efforts to achieve these goals.
Continued over-development, especially in the San Bernardino Mountains, is threatening to destroy large tracts of forested land and wildlife habitat.
Our goal is to preserve and protect as much of the forest and wildlife as possible. We are working with other groups, organizations , and individuals in our efforts to achieve these goals.
Trouble In Paradise
The San Bernardino National Forest is the most used and most urbanized national forest in the United States. Over-development, particularly in the San Bernardino Mountains, is threatening to destroy large tracts of forested land and wildlife habitats. Our roads and infrastructure are also being pushed to the very limits. We currently have drought conditions and water conservation is mandatory but still the building continues. The overwhelming majority of our mountain and forest residents are opposed to this continued development but for the most part their opposition has fallen on deaf ears.
Houses are being built on any available space irregardless of lot size and it's proximity to other houses or structures. The current standard is only 10 feet between houses. This standard may work well for an inner-city area but it does not work well in the forest, especially a fire prone forest like ours. Fire officials have cited the close proximity of houses to each other as a significant contributing factor in the loss of so many houses in our forest fires.
Large scale camps and complexes are also planned to be built, chopping down thousands of trees, destroying wildlife habitat, and adding to our infrastructure problems.
Residents also fear that the few roads off our mountains will become overwhelmed and jammed with additional vehicles trying to leave during an evacuation (large scale evacuations happened in 2003 and 2007).
There are some who think or say that this is hypocritical, and refer to us as NIMBY's (Not In My Back Yard), because we live or have businesses here and oppose continued large scale development. Our answer is: we are not opposed to all development, some things have to be built, but it must be controlled and limited. We acknowledge the fact that the lands being developed are privately owned and it is difficult to tell land owners that they can't build on it, but there are limits to how much more this forest and our infrastructure can stand, and we are very close to those limits.
Strict building guide lines must be enacted and enforced. The impacts on the forest, wildlife habitat, local communities, infrastructure, and safety must be the overriding considerations before anything is built. We don't want to turn this area into Los Angeles in the Forest, which is exactly what many developers, who see only dollar signs, would like to do.
Houses are being built on any available space irregardless of lot size and it's proximity to other houses or structures. The current standard is only 10 feet between houses. This standard may work well for an inner-city area but it does not work well in the forest, especially a fire prone forest like ours. Fire officials have cited the close proximity of houses to each other as a significant contributing factor in the loss of so many houses in our forest fires.
Large scale camps and complexes are also planned to be built, chopping down thousands of trees, destroying wildlife habitat, and adding to our infrastructure problems.
Residents also fear that the few roads off our mountains will become overwhelmed and jammed with additional vehicles trying to leave during an evacuation (large scale evacuations happened in 2003 and 2007).
There are some who think or say that this is hypocritical, and refer to us as NIMBY's (Not In My Back Yard), because we live or have businesses here and oppose continued large scale development. Our answer is: we are not opposed to all development, some things have to be built, but it must be controlled and limited. We acknowledge the fact that the lands being developed are privately owned and it is difficult to tell land owners that they can't build on it, but there are limits to how much more this forest and our infrastructure can stand, and we are very close to those limits.
Strict building guide lines must be enacted and enforced. The impacts on the forest, wildlife habitat, local communities, infrastructure, and safety must be the overriding considerations before anything is built. We don't want to turn this area into Los Angeles in the Forest, which is exactly what many developers, who see only dollar signs, would like to do.
