ROAD BAN'S EFFECT ON AREA UNCERTAIN; ANGELES FOREST HASN'T SEEN NEW CONSTRUCTION IN 15 YEARS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

More than 130,000 acres crossed now by only animal tracks and hiking trails in the Angeles National Forest would off-limits to new roads under a proposal by President Clinton.

How much effect the new Clinton policy - which also would ban logging and mining in those areas - would have on the local forest is uncertain.

Angeles National Forest officials say they haven't built a road for some 15 years and have no plans for new ones, no logging goes on anywhere in their forest, and mining for sand, gravel and small gold deposits is limited.

``There definitely is a difference between the forests we have here and the forests we have in the Pacific Northwest,'' where commercial logging is common and controversial, said Edie Gilliss, California Field Organizer with the Heritage Forest Campaign.

Clinton's proposal is to protect roadless areas 5,000 acres or larger in national forests across the United States from logging, mining, road building and similar activities.

In the Angeles, it would apply to 10 areas, stretching from the mountains above Devil's Punchbowl near Valyermo to the Arroyo Seco above Pasadena.

Environmental groups applauded Clinton's plan.

``This is truly an historic moment in conservation and American history,'' said Gilliss. Her group pushed the Clinton administration for the more protection for roadless areas as small as 1,000 acres.

The proposed regulations would not hinder people from using the forest, but would limit commercial operations, she said.

``Stopping road building isn't going to change the access that people have,'' Gilliss said. ``This isn't gong to restrict access to anybody.''

Forest officials expect to begin taking comment from the public on the proposed regulations next spring, and to have them adopted in final form in Fall 2000.

In the 656,000-acre Angeles Forest, there already are three designated wilderness areas - the 36,000-acre San Gabriel Wilderness, 46,000-acre Sheep Mountain Wilderness and the 5,100-acre Cucamonga Wilderness - where all mechanized vehicles, even bicycles, are forbidden.

Of the other roadless areas to be protected under Clinton's plan, the largest is 26,700 acres surrounding Pleasant View Ridge, lying between Devils Punchbowl County Park and the Angeles Crest Highway.

Covered with pinyon pines and scrub oaks on its north face, thick pine forests on its south, cut by steep narrow canyons, the Pleasant View area is now crossed by only a few trails, including the High Desert National Recreational Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail that runs near its southern edge.

Near its southern edge, only a few hiking miles from the Angeles Crest Highway, is Zigzag Falls on Cooper Canyon Creek, which tumbles over an eroded rock face into a rocky pool.

The second largest roadless area is 26,400 acres around Fish Canyon, in the western half of the Angeles National Forest north of Castaic Lake. Nearby is the 11,700 acres around Salt Creek, an area bordered by the old Ridge Route that once took motorists from Los Angeles to Bakersfield.

Forest Service officials said the last new road in the Angeles was built in the early or mid-1980s to Rowher Flat, an off-road motoring area, and no new roads are planned.

``The Angeles National Forest transportation system is complete. Anything we'd do is reconstructing or fixing something is broken. No new roads are planned,'' spokeswomen Randi Jorgensen said.

Until forest officials can analyze the proposed regulations, they will not know what effect if any they will have on sand or gravel quarries or other mining in the forest, Jorgensen said.