Hello Friends,
First off, we hope you are all staying safe and cool with all the recent wildfires and heat around the area. We’ve got a lot of information to share from across the Los Padres but this blog post will be focused primarily on the recent wildfire related closures. We’ll post again later this week covering more of the fun stuff but for now, lets get to it…..
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TEMPORARY HARD FOREST CLOSURE
As of 5pm on Monday September 7, the Los Padres Forest, along with 7 other California Forests, has been closed to all activities. This includes “being upon National Forest System lands”, “being on a National Forest System road” and “being on a National Forest System trail”. The closure comes as a result of a combination of the fires currently raging across California (Creek, Dolan, etc, etc, etc….), the upcoming weather forecast (heat & winds), the scarcity of fire fighting resources (lots of fires already using lots of resources) and COVID (need to protect the fire fighters). The last thing we need right now are more fires and the intent of the closure is to limit the potential for more fires. There are additional measures enacted as well, please read the full order here or watch the video announcement here.
We shared this information on social media on Monday and received quite a few complaints. Of course, no one likes closures and we all understand how closures can impact our plans to enjoy the forest. We get that but we also need to acknowledge and understand that the greater good of Californians and the safety of the fire crews working to keep us safe needs to take precedence. Looking through the history of the Los Padres, there have been previous large scale fire safety closures including portions of 1942-1944 during World War II. Seeing that is just another reminder of how crazy and historic 2020 has been and continues to be.
There are moderate Santa Ana winds in the forecast for the first part of this week and the temps across California are expected to drop significantly as well. While no one is sure as to when the closure will be lifted, we’re hopeful the forest will reopen quickly as the fire weather diminishes. We’ll keep you posted as usual and until then be safe and please be part of the solution.
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DOLAN FIRE
While Northern California suffered through a horrendous mid-August onslaught of 12,000 dry-lightning strikes that resulted in over 500 wildfires, the Los Padres for once appeared to escape the storm unscathed. That all changed though on Tuesday August 18 when a pot grow related arsonist set fire to a hillside in Dolan Canyon along the southern Big Sur coast. Since then, the Dolan Fire has chewed up a reported 73,000 acres including doubling in size on Labor Day, and appears hungry for more as it heads deeper into the Ventana Wilderness. At the moment Dolan is being reported as 40% contained (which is unlikely after yesterday’s blowup) with an expected containment date of September 28. Fire crews have made great progress on the west and northern flanks of the fire but the record heat from this past Labor Day weekend was not helpful on the east side of the fire. We don’t have current maps as of yet but please check the InciWeb map portal as well as Big Sur Kate for the latest information.
There are quite a few Dolan Fire related closures including the closure of Hwy 1 between Ragged Point and a short distance south of Big Sur. In addition, all State Parks along the Big Sur coast are closed, Nacimiento-Fergusson Road is closed as is a large portion of the Monterey Ranger District. There are evacuations in place for many areas affected by the fire and there is no known date as to when the closures might be lifted. Dolan has burned many of the slopes just above Hwy 1 and CalTrans has already been busy clearing fire related rockfall across the Highway. It’ll be interesting to see how the Highway fares this winter during rain events. Never a dull moment…..
One Dolan story worth monitoring has been the destruction of the Big Sur condor sanctuary and the subsequent search for 13 missing condors. Fortunately, some of the condors have been recovered while the Ventana Wildlife Society continues their quest to locate the others. You can follow along by checking the Ventana Wildlife Society Twitter feed and lets all hope for a happy ending here for sure…..
The map below shows the extent of the Dolan Fire as of September 6, not including the Labor Day blowup. The scatter dots of recent hot spots and fire activity should indicate the direction of the fire and we think today’s perimeter map will look quite a bit different, shockingly different…….
