Letter to Mr. Dan Richard, Chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority - High Speed Rail Should Not Run Through Angeles National Forest

Letter

Dear Mr. Richard:

We are writing to express our strong concern over the recent proposal to route the High-Speed Rail through the Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. As Members of Congress who have worked for more than a decade to preserve the beauty of the mountains, forest, and wildlife, we share the concerns expressed by our constituents that this new proposed route would be damaging to an environment we are working so hard to preserve. We urge the California High-Speed Rail Authority to reject consideration of tunneling through the Angeles National Forest.

Since our election to Congress, we have worked hard to preserve the Angeles National Forest, the Rim of the Valley Corridor, and the San Gabriel Mountains. In the upcoming session of Congress, we will each be introducing legislation that would preserve the Rim of the Valley and San Gabriel Mountains as part of a new or expanded national recreation area. In addition, President Obama recently designated the San Gabriel Mountains as part of a national monument. This means that the U.S. Forest Service will now have three years to devise a management plan to govern this new monument.

Planning massive construction of a rail corridor through the forest while the Rim of the Valley and San Gabriel Mountains are under active consideration as a recreation area, and before the Forest Service can devise a management plan for the existing monument makes little sense. Either planning for the rail line would have to be put on hold for years, or any plan that would go through the forest would have to be subject to radical revision later. Either way, the costs to the project in dollars, delay, and opposition would be high.

We do not believe the East Corridor is a viable alternative to connecting the high-speed rail between Palmdale and Burbank. Any benefits gained by going through the forest do not outweigh the far greater costs to the project and the damage that might be done to our environment. We therefore ask the Authority to abandon any study to build the high-speed rail through the Angeles National Forest.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. We appreciate your consideration of our thoughts and look forward to working you on this issue moving forward.

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