- City:
- La Verne, CA
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Description
"Established in 1933, the San Dimas Experimental Forest is the only such forest in southern California. It covers 6,945 ha in the front range of the San Gabriel Mountains, located about 50 km northeast of Los Angeles. Originally established as an outdoor hydrologic laboratory to document and quantify the water cycle in semi-arid steeplands, most of the facilities were constructed by the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps and Work Projects Administration labor programs. San Dimas has a long history as a research site in the fields of hydrology and ecology and is recognized as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program. San Dimas also contains the Fern Canyon Research Natural Area."
– USDA Forest Service
New Deal work in the forest included the Bell Canyon dam pictured below.
Source notes
https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/ef/san_dimas/Contribute to this Site
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Meta Bunse
This is not a recreation site. The San Dimas Experimental Forest was designed and used by the US Forest Service to study soil erosion and arid watershed management beginning in the 1930s after taking over a site previously used by Los Angeles county in the 1920s as a forestry nursery. The USFS structures were built by SERA, CCA, and WPA program crews between 1933 and about 1938. See: https://fireimaging.com/sdef/lysimeters/index.html and https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/ef/san_dimas/history_gallery/index_2.shtml