Visitor Use Management Plan lays foundation for sustainable recreation access on Monterey Ranger District in Big Sur

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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