(Almost) All California National Forests closed

[Rex Sanders]

USDA Forest Service Temporarily Closing All California National Forests for Public Safety

VALLEJO, Calif., — August 30, 2021. To better provide public and firefighter safety due to the ongoing California wildfire crisis, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure of all National Forests in California. This closure will be in effect from Aug. 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.

“We do not take this decision lightly but this is the best choice for public safety,” said Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien. “It is especially hard with the approaching Labor Day weekend, when so many people enjoy our national forests.”

More details:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD949139

Also closes most of the Pacific Crest Trail in California:

https://www.pcta.org/2021/pacific-crest-trail-is-closed-on-all-national-forests-in-california-89474/

This order doesn’t directly affect National Parks, Bureau of Land Management, or California State Parks areas, but many of those are shut down, too.

These closures might become an annual event.

— Rex

[Luke Schmidt]

I don’t know how I feel about it.

I could definitely see an argument that the area under immediate risk is so great the its better just to keep everyone out. You have the chance of someone starting another fire plus the chance of a real horror show if a bunch of campers were suddenly stranded.

On the other hand… What is the limiting principle here? Will this go on until we fix global warming?

I don’t think anyone of any political persuasion wants to live in a totally safe world. We accept some risks because a perfectly safe life would be miserable. If “as safe as possible” was the goal we’d be banning swimming pools, sports, non-essential driving, alcohol consumption, boating and practically everything else that is fun.

In a different note I have a pet peeve. I keep hearing that fire departments are overworked, uh yeah duh. If we’re going to spend a trillion or a couple trillion on infrastructure maybe we should put a LOT more into fire fighting. I don’t care if we are carbon neutral by 2030, those fires won’t get smaller for a long time. I think a neighborhood NOT burning down is more important than fixing a few pot holes.

[Author]

Posts