News Release

For Immediate Release

December 8, 2020

Media Contact: Andrew Madsen
(805) 895-0841
andrew.madsen@usda.gov

www.facebook.com/lpnf

Twitter: @LosPadresNF

Los Padres National Forest closes

developed campgrounds thru January 6

SOLVANG, Calif. – The USDA Pacific Southwest Region has issued a Regional Order that prohibits overnight camping in developed campgrounds in Los Padres National Forest and four other Southern California national forests. This Regional Order will be in effect December 8 through January 6, 2021.

The purpose of the Regional Order is to protect visitors and U.S. Forest Service employees by reducing potential exposure to COVID-19 and mitigating any further burden on our emergency responders and healthcare facilities. 

Current projections show that without additional steps to slow the spread of coronavirus, the number of available adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in California will reach capacity by mid-December. As California along with the rest of the nation continues to experience an unprecedented surge in new COVID-19 cases, the rate of new increases threatens to overwhelm the state’s hospital system.

In response, the state on December 3 issued a Regional Stay-at-Home Order for areas where the number of adult ICU beds has fallen below 15 percent of capacity. The U.S. Forest Service’s Regional Order aligns with California’s December 3 Order that prohibits “overnight stays at campgrounds” while permitting the continued operation of outdoor recreation facilities in these areas.

Developed day use areas as well as hiking, dispersed camping and Off Highway Vehicle trails will remain open for use in Los Padres National Forest. (NOTE: dispersed camping and many hiking trails were damaged in the Dolan Fire and are still closed in the portions of Big Sur that include Nacimiento, South Coast Ridge Rd., Prewitt, Plaskett Ridge Rd, and Los Burros/Willow Creek Rd., among others.)

Visitors who have existing reservations at Los Padres National Forest concessionaire-managed campgrounds are encouraged to contact Parks Management Company or Recreation.gov to reschedule their visit or request a refund.

We encourage visitors to be familiar with and follow current federal and state guidelines for responsible recreation activities on public lands. Please keep health, safety and natural resources in mind when visiting Los Padres National Forest. Together, our personal responsibility will help to ensure public safety and prevent further restrictions.

Additional public information is available at Los Padres National Forest’s public website.

###

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

I never get tired of this. This was Wednesday night:

The author of this article sent me this:

I have recently published an article “Close Encounters of the Condor Kind,” written with the help of the Ventana Wildlife Society, about searching for condors in Big Sur and Pinnacles that may be of interest to your readers. 

Here are the first few paragraphs, with a link to the rest of the article.

“The dusty pick-up truck pulls up at a ranch gate in rural south Monterey County, California. Against a backdrop of dry, rolling, oak-savanna foothills, three generations of hunters and their dogs wait for the driver to join them. Soaring on the first thermal uplifts of the morning, shadowy silhouettes of turkey vultures circle silently overhead. Their wavering flight pattern signals a quest for food as their extraordinary sense of smell seeks carrion for the first meal of the day.

Mike Stake, senior wildlife biologist with the Ventana Wildlife Society(VWS), reaches into the back of his truck to retrieve packages that he hopes will ensure a welcome greeting. Mike strides towards the group: his mission — to deliver free, non-lead ammunition.

Although lead has been outlawed for hunting in much of California for more than a decade, condors and other large raptors, such as the circling turkey vultures, are still dying from lead poisoning. Most hunters follow the mandate to use non-lead ammunition but some ranchers clearing ground squirrels from their land continue to use lead because the alternative is more expensive and difficult to find. Recognizing a problem with the cost and lack of general availability of copper ammo,for the popular .22-gauge long rifle, VWS distributes free copper rounds within the condor breeding range. According to executive director Kelly Sorenson, the organization has distributed over 10,000 free boxes of ammunition since beginning the program in 2012.

The hunters crowd around Mike. One has heard that copper doesn’t perform as well as lead. Others are concerned about availability. VWS representatives meet annually with hundreds of hunters and ranchers throughout Monterey and San Benito Counties to address these issues. He assures the group that 90 percent of hunters are happy with the quality of non-lead alternatives but urges them to check it out for themselves. He explains that while deaths have decreased since the program began, lead is still in use and is so poisonous that when ingested even small fragments can be enough to weaken or kill a condor.”

For the rest of the article, see: https://medium.com/creatures/close-encounters-of-the-condor-kind-77077878cd25

Dear Big Sur Byway Organization Members and Interested Parties,

The Byway Organization will meet next Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. The meeting will be held virtually using the Zoom Webinar format. Members of the Public can access the meeting in the follow ways:

Online: https://montereycty.zoom.us/j/92648496858

Via Telephone: 1 669 900 6833  

Webinar ID: 926 4849 6858

The Agenda Packet for this meeting is attached to this email and will be posted here on the County website in accordance with requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act.

Yuri C. Anderson | Chief of Staff

Office of Supervisor Mary L. Adams, Fifth District

We are also running an online auction concurrently with the event. If you believe your readers would have any interest any of the items feel free to share this as well: https://event.gives/seastars2020/items

CALTRANS TO SUSPEND PREEMPTIVE CLOSURES THIS WINTER FOR HIGHWAY 1 ALONG THE BIG SUR COAST

MONTEREY COUNTY – In a break from protocols which were in effect over the last two winters, Caltrans announced today that it will not preemptively close Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast this winter when heavy rains are in the forecast.

Caltrans had previously closed portions of Highway 1 in Monterey County out of concerns about the performance of landslides at Mud Creek, one mile south of Gorda, and at Paul’s Slide, just north of Limekiln State Park. Advanced monitoring and assessment at these two, still active slides, helped inform this decision.

Caltrans District 5 Director Tim Gubbins said, “Our absolute priority for Highway 1 and the Big Sur Coast is safety, for the local community, the travelling public, and our road maintenance crews. Our continuous measurement and monitoring of these slides give us confidence that we will be able to react to any activity there without having to close the highway in advance.”

Annual work to prepare Highway 1 for winter has taken on a new dimension this year and progress is being made at locations affected by this summer’s Dolan Fire.

Caltrans crews, alongside contractors engaged for this effort, continue to inspect and fortify drains and culverts along the roadway. Many of these are in areas susceptible to impacts from potential debris flows originating from the Dolan Fire burn scar.

To keep drainage systems from being blocked by rocks and debris, crews have constructed protective measures and inlet redundancies at dozens of locations, including armoring the entrance to culverts with debris flow racks. These features are critical to keeping culverts open and preventing water from spilling on to the roadway.

Crews have also installed flexible debris flow barriers consisting of interwoven steel ring nets and cable infrastructure at two critical drainage locations to minimize the risk of debris flows reaching the highway.

Caltrans crews have also scrambled their way up innumerable hillsides to perform rock scaling – identifying and removing loose debris that might fall on the road below. Though rock scaling is performed every year during winter prep work, special emphasis was required at burned hillsides damaged by the Dolan Fire.

Additionally, Caltrans has made significant progress on a pavement rehabilitation project on Highway 1, from Carpenter St. in Carmel, to the Torre Canyon Bridge. Though some follow up work may continue on this $24 million project through next summer, major paving and permanent lane striping have been completed along this nearly 35-mile stretch of highway.

Caltrans District 5 Director Tim Gubbins said, “Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast is a treasure. It poses challenges like erosion and landslides even in years when we don’t have a fire. As they always do, the professional women and men of our Caltrans crews will keep an active eye and exert continuous effort to keep this renowned highway safe.”

Caltrans reminds motorists to move over and slow down when

driving through highway work zones.

For traffic updates on other state highways in Monterey County, travelers may contact Caltrans District 5 Public Affairs at 805-549-3318 or can visit the District 5 website at: https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-5

                           | #BeWorkZoneAlert | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube |

###

Kevin Drabinski

Public Information Officer

Caltrans District 5