CA- Multiple Forests-CLOSURE ORDER

California & Hawaii Hotlist Questions and Discussion
#9

Delete if not ok.

Civilian here,
I have no problem with the closures, I live full time in Strawberry-STF. Our area is much like the area of the Caldor fire, overgrown and hasn’t seen a fire in too long. One side of the Hwy is High Hazard and the other is Moderate for the Tourists. MAKE IT ALL HIGH HAZARD.
There are about 15,000 campers, day user’s, seasonal cabin Owners and full time folks in about 4 Sq miles. Closing would thin this way back.
The drought has driven people up here with their boats as they can still launch here, over whelmed with people. Resources for fires are too slim as it is. Local gov resources are low due to strike team commitments, Fed and Cal Fire in the same boat.
These fires up to the north and to the south are not going to be controlled fore some time. Our awesome FF’s are struggling to keep up.
I don’t care what the tourists, business owners think. It is imperative we shut the rest down, hire local government LEO’s to patrol the areas. Bring in out of area too… pair with locals familiar with the areas.Do some thing now.
If we get a fire here, evacs are going to be ugly. 2 lane highway won’t work if people are not told early to leave.
Our cell service sucks now and getting county alerts won’t happen.

I would rather the forest be closed to mitigate the potential and possible save some areas as opposed to losing it all.

Stay Safe and as my son would say follow the numbers and alphabet.
10’s, 18’S, LCES and SA.

14 Likes
#10

I understand your side but you dont see the other side. You blatantly said your not worried about businesses and tourism. Deer season is now here and people who base their whole calender off a couple of weeks a year are now up schits creek. Doesnt matter either way bwcause forests are closed and nothing us recreaters can do about it. It is definitely a risk you take by living in the mtns. Again your entitled to your opinions and I dont want a fire any more than you but I feel like your being a little selfish in this point.

5 Likes
#11

This definitely has a political feel to it, I can understand for the forests that have active fires, or if there was a significant fire weather event expected but it’s not that. I’m probably going a step too far here but our society has definitely adopted a “better safe than sorry” mentality in the last few years.

7 Likes
#12

Not the first time. 1987 the state closed Deer season for 2 weeks due to fire.

4 Likes
#13

Also, the business generated by tourism generates a lot of the tax revenue that keeps many rural counties afloat. There’s not much to cut in many of those counties when revenue comes up short. So, the tourism does pose added risk, but without it rural counties will almost certainly see significant budget cuts and reduced services. No easy answer.

6 Likes
#14

Looks like it happened last year too.

3 Likes
#15

Like it or not, there is a very significant public safety condition on these forests right now. As we have observed, these fires are moving with tremendous speed and are not letting up. By closing the forests, the reduction in civilian evacuations is reduced. While there may be political undertones to this, trying to evacuate people out of harms way is not going to be an easily accomplished task with the current resource drawdowns which are now very much in play. Response times for large scale suppression efforts are now a long ways away. While I personally am not a fan of keeping the people off of the land that they pay big money in taxes for, I am also all for not endangering the public, most of whom don’t have the sense to get out of harm’s way early.

23 Likes
#16

Not selfish better to try to save the area than have it burn like the others. Covid slammed everyone, but there was something to cone back to enjoy. If closing helps to have something to come back to and enjoy,It’s good.
Plus we could end up with an Oakland hills evacs mess. Too many people on too small of a road.
Take care, be safe.

3 Likes
#17

With phone cell service spotty, do you have any kind of radio network, like ham or GMRS?

#18

No me personally, and not sure we have any in area.

#19

September 2020, Sierra National Forest, Shaver Lake, the Creek Fire, 207 people trapped and airlifted to safety. Why would we as a state even want to entertain the idea of repeating that ordeal!

How quickly we forget :cry:

Stay safe everyone.

20 Likes
#22

Smart move IMHO.

7 Likes
#23

This stinks to high heaven. Horrible decision made by a regional forester in San Jose of all places. I’ve spoke to some on the local forest and they aren’t happy. They’re taking all local control away from the forests for political reasons. It doesn’t leave any wiggle room for the forests either. Not much sense in shutting down lakes due to fire danger. There’s going to be some very unhappy people very soon. If it was actually in the name of safety then why are they not being shut down until the night of the 22nd?

4 Likes
#25

Risk vs Reward. Does the state want to take responsibility for a fire that burns up a campground with 10 families in it because the single road in/out is where the fire started? For 99.9% of the time they do take that risk. but now with so many major incidents going on within the state resources are beyond stretched thin… Response times suffer because of that. if a community or a campground is effect by a fire it could take HOURS for personnel to get to each area for evacuations… Any new starts WILL be many times larger than they would be if this was a normal season. because of this more campgrounds and hikers will have to be found, Stretching resources even thinner. Think of it as an evacuation order for all forests… is the regional forester happy about it? no. is anyone happy about it? no…
But guess what, that evacuation order is for a reason. get out of harms way. Lakes are being closed also because for every single person out on a boat I bet there is double the amount of people on the shore. Fire kicks off, People can be an hour away from their truck and trailer, evacuate the whole lake? have you seen some people try to back their trailers down the ramp and try to load their boat. that would take forever, especially since the fire thats now probably 2K acres only gets a couple BC’s and a strike team or two of engines…
I get it, abundance of caution.

12 Likes
#26

So worrying about hunters not getting to hunt is selfish? I would think hunters should be worrying about starting fires and burning our homes down. Who’s selfish here???

3 Likes
#27

:man_facepalming:t4: you don’t get it. Put the fires out and everyone will be happy.

3 Likes
#28

Better to close and lose some sales tax, than stay open and lose millions in property taxes from several thousand home and businesses gone. It’s no guarantee it would help, but safety first.

3 Likes
#29

There are 35 IMTs mobilized nationally. All trying to put the fire out. I think they get it.

2 Likes
#30

But these fires aren’t being caused by people out recreating on the National Forests. It’s lightning and PG&E. This ‘what if’ game is a little ridiculous. I can’t wait for some of these businesses that are going to be impacted to take the FS to court.

2 Likes
#31

WHO? Don’t get it? Stay out and stay away…

2 Likes