Iraq War veteran Steve Dunwoody was hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains when he asked his hiking buddy and fellow veteran for a one-word description of his experience.
“‘Serenity,’ he said, as he looked out over the mountains,” remembered Dunwoody, 42, a Hollywood resident and volunteer with Military Outdoors, who leads veterans struggling with PTSD on hikes through chaparral-covered slopes and gurgling streams of the Angeles National Forest.
“It was good for him to reconnect, for the stress,” he explained. “I could feel him letting all that go as he was out on the trails.”
Dunwoody, who ran financial logistics for the Air Force in Iraq and Kuwait in 2005, often dodging enemy fire on helicopter runs between bases, has teamed up with Vet Voice Foundation and Nature For All to lobby the Biden Administration to add 109,167 acres of federal forest land to the 346,177-acre San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. The monument includes 342,177 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 4,002 acres of the neighboring San Bernardino National Forest.
“Spending time in the outdoors brings such a benefit for us,” he said. “It helps us to improve physical and mental health, especially for those with PTSD.” And bring needed moments of serenity to war veterans.
Vet Voice represents 1.5 million military families and supporters in the United States. The group held a virtual roundtable discussion on monument expansion earlier this month and has spoken with Biden Administration officials about the importance of national monuments for veterans.
A new report released Feb. 14 by Vet Voice highlights proposals for five monuments in California; two of which are in line for expansions. At the top of the list is the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, followed by the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Northern California that’s an hour away from Travis Air Force Base. A 13,753-acre expansion of this monument “would provide opportunities for…
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