Just last month, Mary Angle was a star in the rarefied firmament of Southern California natural-resource management.She had been a park ranger, a member of former Senator Alan Cranston’s staff and an executive for Save the Redwoods before taking on the $77,000-a-year job as director of the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC for short). But her sudden ouster last month casts a shadow on a new project to bring green space to this region‘s forgotten rust-belt cities.Accolades at her farewell last week were generous, but questions linger as to why she was replaced, in an ”emergency“ action, by a top staffer of the most powerful land-resource agency in the state.Angle served 17 months at the newest of the state’s regional land-acquisition trusts. With one paid staffer, volunteers, and resources in the hundred thousands, she had managed to ease two potential recreation and wildlife areas toward public ownership.