SOLVANG, Calif.— Los Padres National Forest officials announced that the Coastal Zone Visitor Use Management strategy for the Big Sur coast has been completed following extensive collaboration with partners, user groups, residents, and local agencies over the past three years. This comprehensive strategy sets forth the guiding principles for developing a sustainable implementation plan to address the growing number of visitors to the Big Sur coast.
With outstanding natural resources and high visitation trends come challenges for managing visitor use to minimize impacts to resources and infrastructure while maintaining recreation opportunities and access. Recognizing the need to focus on the unique visitor use management challenges of this area, the Forest followed the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework to develop management strategies and actions to move towards more sustainable recreation management and positive visitor experiences.
“This management plan is the result of a shared commitment to addressing the growing number of visitors and to balance public use with resource protection,” said Monterey District Ranger Fin Eifert. “I sincerely appreciate the input we received as we worked through this process to develop a strong foundation for implementing sustainable practices.”
The Coastal Zone Visitor Use Management Strategy was developed by working through each of the steps of the framework to understand the project area needs and issues, define desired conditions, and to identify short, medium, and long-term management strategies and actions to help achieve the desired conditions. Public input was incorporated throughout the development of this strategy.
The Visitor Use Management strategy is available on Los Padres’ public website. A virtual meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks to outline the strategy and address questions.
For more information on Los Padres National Forest, please visit our website athttp://www.fs.usda.gov/lpnf.
Here is a direct link to the plan, as Trey provided. I could not find it on the given public website.
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Is it just me? I can’t find the plan itself. The link above leads to the same press release, where a link leads right back to itself.
I couldn’t find it either. We are supposed to get a copy soon.
Here is a link to the plan Kate: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1178808.pdf
There is a lot of very disturbing recommendations in this 87 page document. All this document suggests is building more and more. Making south coast developed campgrounds bigger, building parking lot at San Carpaforo and bathrooms, building a visitor center at Salmon Creek, building NEW developed campgrounds, allowing camping in day use areas like Mill and Willow Creek, and dispersed camping along the Pacific Valley coastal prairie and around Sand Dollar beach, building a trail to Bixby Bridge from Brazil Ranch, putting in a campground at Brazil Ranch, having shuttles bringing even more people to Pfeiffer Beach after the parking lot is already full. They have text in the document that says the federal gov does not have to follow the local Land Use Plan.
Any plan that does not include reducing and eventually removing automobile dependence (addiction) is a plan to fail.
Automobiles were never the future, it was always greed and corruption (War).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oOttvpjJvAo
Keep Big Sur Wild.
Some more bathrooms are clearly needed given the human waste issues. I’m not keen on expanded camping, but then I always stay in a cabin or room at Fernwood or River Inn.
Pfeiffer Beach ought to be closed to automobile traffic and use shuttles entirely. I’ve been to Big Sur 10+ times since 2011 and never even attempted to go there due to the traffic.
Automobiles are here to stay, unless you want a rail line built through Big Sur; not going to happen in any event.