Most people in Southern California recognized and welcomed the reserve system, for it promised to protect watersheds, soil, provide fire suppression and control timber cutting in the mountains.
Conservationist Abbot Kinney, as well as Los Angeles residents and public officials vigorously fought for these land set asides.
These American successors to the Mexican rancheros became powerful land barons and their stock competed for choice pastureland with the sheep herds.
The United States Geographical Survey (USGS) reports, dated 1899 and 1900, showed large areas of chaparral had been repeatedly burned and severe damage to soil and water holding capacity had resulted.
[8] Another report, this one from the US Bureau of Forestry (now US Forest Service) found poor conditions on the Tujunga, Arroyo Seco, and the Santa Ana watersheds.
[9] During this time period, Abbot Kinney, a conservationist and Pasadena landowner, saw from his ranch the destruction by the unrestrained use of the San Gabriel Mountains for logging and grazing.