All National Forest Land in California CLOSED

[vgilbert]

Hello All, 
Just read a breaking news story from the LA Times - "Forest Service officials confirm all California National Forests to be temporarily closed"

Closures will go into effect Tuesday 8/31/21 at 11:59pm and stay in place until Sept 17, 21 
Why?? Forest Fires

 

[travelaround]

Well, I live in a national forest at the top of the state and the problem here seems to be a massive forest fire. I have no idea why they would close a national forest where that's not a problem.

 

[travelaround]

Taking a guess. The forests are excessively dry due to drought and there are so many forest fires right now "resources" are spread thin in other words, there aren't enough fire fighters to work on these fires. That's definitely an issue with the fire currently bearing down on the small town I live in. So since the forests are dry and easily burned this year, the authorities have decided not to let people go in there and possibly start new fires.

 

[TravelingZombies]

The forest service is seriously underfunded, climate change isn't helping with everything going on around the country. And not to get political but the last administration cut funding even further for the forest service. When you cut funding to the organization that's in charge of putting out the fires on the public lands it's inevitable that eventually those lands will be closed temporarily for now possibly permanently in the future. All public lands and Eastern Washington are currently closed because of wildfire risk and lack of funding to fight the fires. Many public campgrounds we used to go to for boondocking in Washington have been closed permanently because of funding. It would seem that losing our public lands is a new trend.

 

[WanderingRose]

I found this article, which states the closure is due to safety concerns for Forest service staff and potential visitors, and the closure is in effect until September 17th.

https://news.yahoo.com/officials-close-california-national-forests-235833319.html

 

[desert_sailing]

The forest service is seriously underfunded

[quote pid='548481' dateline='1630417275']

not to get political but
 closed permanently because of funding. 
[/quote]
It's not a lack of funds. It is wasteful and inefficient use of the funds..AND the reliance on the govt to fix everything.

 

[crofter]

Article listed above cites safety and not funding, lists an end date for the closure of Sept 17. I can understand not wanting to have guests when the house is on fire. Imagine performing camp host duties when the place is burning down!

Lists Humbolt Toiyabe NF as not affected by the closure, isn't that in Northern Cali?
-crofter

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

 . . .
Lists Humbolt Toiyabe NF as not affected by the closure, isn't that in Northern Cali?

Sloppy reporting.

Actual closures are for NF in the Pacific Southwest Region.  Humbolt Toiyabe NF is mostly in Nevada with a small section in Eastern California.  I think it is in the intermountain region = different management.  They do have a number of closures and Stage II fire restrictions but I am not familiar enough with the area to know if those are in California.

 

[wayne49]

The smaller CA section of HTNF is headquartered at Bridgeport, CA, just above Inyo NF and Mono Lake. It doesn't extend northward very far, to around Markleeville, CA.

The earlier Tamarack fire impacted the area above Bridgeport, closing US-395 and CA-89 near Topaz Lake and Coleville.