That is it in a nutshell, norcal. Does not apply to me beacuse , because I am me and “I” will do what I want."
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SPI is private land–they can close it whenever they want, without a reason. I wouldn’t lump their closure in with public lands, but that’s just my .02.
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From the Sac Bee, The USFS has announced closure of all national forests in California through at least through at least September 17. (They’ve doped the paywall, so you can access it without a subscription.)
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I feel it is a safety issue and I am glad they did it. Be Safe, Plan and pack.
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Is there a significant fire weather event expected? And “because it’s dry” is not an event
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RFW in effect Mon- Wed
Multiple large fires
All forests at or below drawdown
It would be one thing if it was just the weather. Maybe the weather and Multiple large fires.
But EVERY forest in California is at/below drawdown. The Caldor fire has outstanding orders for 50+ STEN and the Calvary isn’t coming and it’s heading for Tahoe.
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Here is the email that the regional forester sent to her employees today:
Teammates,
I have made the difficult decision to temporarily close all R5 National Forests in order to better provide public and firefighter safety due to extreme fire conditions throughout the state, and strained firefighting resources throughout the country. This closure will be effective on Tuesday August 31, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. through September 17, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. This order does not affect the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which is not in the Pacific Southwest Region.
By temporarily reducing the numbers of people on National Forests during this extreme threat, this Regional Order will minimize the likelihood that visitors could become trapped on National Forest System lands during emergency circumstances, decrease the potential for new fire starts at a time of extremely limited firefighting resources, and enhance firefighter and community safety by limiting exposure that occurs in public evacuation situations, especially as COVID-19 continues to impact human health and strain hospital resources.
I do not take this decision lightly but this is the best choice for public safety. It is especially hard with the approaching Labor Day weekend, when so many people enjoy our national forests. Drought conditions, dry fuels, and winds make our initial attack and containment of fires very difficult and our resources are strained. These temporary closures are necessary to ensure public and firefighter safety, as well as reduce the potential for new fire starts.
The closure order will be promulgated later today.
The following persons are exempt from this Order:
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Persons with Forest Service Permit No. FS-7700-48 (Permit for Use of Roads, Trails, or Areas Restricted by Regulation or Order), specifically exempting them from this Order.
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Any Federal, State, or local officer, or member of an organized rescue or fire fighting force in the performance of an official duty.
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Persons with a Forest Service special use authorization for an electric transmission line, an oil or gas pipeline, communications site, or any other non-recreation special use.
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Persons with a Forest Service non-special-use written authorization to conduct non-recreational activities, such as harvesting timber or forest products, or grazing livestock.
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Owners or lessees of land, to the extent necessary to access their land.
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Residents, to the extent necessary to access their residences.
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Persons engaged in a business, trade, or occupation are not exempt from the prohibitions listed above, but may use National Forest System roads to the extent necessary to carry out their business, trade, or occupation.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our front liners, first responders, and all of our unsung heroes across our National Forests. This wildfire season continues unabated with nearly 11,000 federal firefighters assigned to California fires.
I also look to the events in Afghanistan and I am reminded of the men and women who deliberately choose professions that run toward danger and crisis. I have met so many dedicated and brave first responders over the years and I am continually humbled by their sense of sacrifice and duty to protect our communities. Today, take a moment to personally reach out to someone who’s on the front lines – check in on them, thank them, and be a willing, listening ear if needed.
It’s about taking care of one another. As such, there may be some of you who have been personally affected or displaced by the wildfires. Resources are available to Forest Service employees that include lodging, transportation, and per diem assistance, advance of salary payments, as well as resources for emotional support. Please see the attached for more information.
To close, I am thankful to serve in a community that values service, conservation, interdependence, diversity, and safety, and I am proud to be your Regional Forester.
With Utmost Gratitude,
Jennifer
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I am probably in the minority, and I get it, but this is a good call IMHO.
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I agree with it. I am an avid outdoorsmen and spend all of my non work time in the forest. But right now is not the time to be allowing people into the wilderness. We have no capacity for even one more fire. I am up on the sierra right now and it is tinder dry.
I still think about the chinooks flying over my house to get everyone out of mammoth pool last year. I had been up in tamarack OHV the weekend before and remember how many thousands of people could have been trapped, I was certain we were going to be on body recoveries for a month.
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I understand the reasoning but I’m afraid of the precedence it sets. I don’t foresee summers getting “better” in terms of fire resistance in the future and don’t want to see some of our public lands closed every summer/fall. It’s tough.
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For those of use that live in the forest…I do not think you are in the minority…I hike w/ my dogs everyday and I realize the conditions and agree with the decision…but after fighting fires for close to 40 years, I do not want to fight one at home.
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Maybe Forests are stretched on their own resources. Overhead on assignments, patrols and engines off Forest. Not enough resources to handle daily basic duties. I could understand that. Gives them a chance to check on their Forest health as September arrives. Not cool for visitors, but I see the logic. So somebody has to empty the trash cans and clean the campgrounds. Probably one rec or ologist to cover the whole forest.
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Nowhere I’ve seen this decision made based on precedent. It’s being made based on the now. And in the future, if and when the variables are the same as now, shut it down again. We need to stop being afraid of precedent. Handle the situation currently in front of our face, then move on.
Once we get a chance to slow down, and with the proper funding, maybe we can retool to better avoid the same decision when similar variables arrive again. Big wish, I know. But baby steps are happening with better wages etc.
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Precedent??? This has been done before. Its nothing new. Its so dry out there a grasshopper can’t spit. A Lizard has to carry a canteen. The guys and gals out there fighting this thing deserve a break. Im really tired of the complaining.
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Biggest issue I see with the closure is enforcing it. Forests like many tracts of public lands, are extremely porous, numerous entry points, many of which serve multiple private party purposes or purposes exempt from the closure.
So do you post up a few barricades at the entry points? I drove over Highway 88 the day before it was closed and that’s what they had up at every intersection, either barricades or just some ribbon tied across the road. Very easy to move and put back behind you. Sure, if you’ve got someone on patrol, now they can stop and ask you what you’re doing there and tell them to leave unless they are savvy enough to claim to be checking on a grazing lease or something like that.
This was a little different because the El Dorado SO had issued a mandatory evacuation order, so you had that behind it. Bigger roads like Omo Ranch and Mormon Immigrant had CHP and/or EDSO posted, but the smaller gravel roads had FS employees sitting there in trucks. Multiply that by the hundreds of roads going into ENF (and all the other Forests in R5) that don’t have hard EDSO closures, and the workload is a nightmare to add to the fire.
You’ll keep the honest, responsible people out, and create a very slim chance of having an enforcement tool available to deal with the knuckleheads.
I agree…Living in Twain Harte at 4000ft in the trees…20 front line engines out of county. Our aircraft out of Columbia busier then heck. One kid 32 days straight on Dixie. The other just got a reset after 28 days and went from the McFarland to Caldor. Everything looks stressed from trees to animals. Look around at the odered for the Caldar yestarday. The is not a lot left to throw at new starts!
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well said…I spent a lot of years volunteering at Jenness Park Cristian Camp until the snow flied…understand
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A reality-check, honest-to-ourselves moment here. Do any of us think beyond ourselves or the reflection off our shiny tiara? No, the majority of us are not responsible. We will pull off into the dry grass if it’s 5 steps closer to the fishing hole. We will cram more trash into the full trashcan instead of just bringing it home because who wants that smell right? We will light our camping stoves because we’re safer than other people. We won’t get in a vehicle/hunting/boating accident because we know what we’re doing. It’s always other people who ruin it for us. We’re responsible and have SPOT devices so we can have a personal helicopter here just for us in a matter of an hour courtesy of the IERCC if we sprain our ankle on the trail or run out of water on a hot day with low humidity.
I agree about enforcement. It’ll be rough. But all you can do is setup the signs saying, “you’re on your own if you pass this sign, because for all intensive porpoises, public safety will assume those 100sq miles about to go up in smoke on a new start is empty, and won’t risk their lives to go in after you and your deer tag.” And if you’re feeling lucky, you will avoid a federal LE officer in a bad mood from chasing other extremely responsible people out of the forest on his 20th straight day of work instead of going on the family trip they had scheduled.
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I think it’s time to ban being outdoors. You might get sick, you might be involved in a event that will overwhelm local resources. You might go for a trail run in the woods with no sources of ignition except for your blazing fast feet that will rip off the timber. Also this order is a major joke without a TFR over all federal land, I mean we are already taxed, what if a plane crashes. Better yet we need to ground aircraft. Also I’ve seen trains and vehicles start many fires, where is that ban?
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with respect to your viewpoint up to a point…I do believe you may be a just off point. True we can not prevent a lot of bad things from happening…does that mean we stop trying to stop bad things like fire in an unprecedented condition happening??? suggestion: always read your post at least twice and ponder. you have a nice day and hopefully your or a family or friends home does not burn down due to an unattended camp fire or coals from the BBQ tossed over the side of a road…etc.
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