Hello Forest Friends!
We hope your summer is going well and that you’re finding plenty of excuses to continue enjoying the Los Padres despite the recent hot weather. There’s still plenty of good water flowing through the rivers, creeks and pools across most of the forest. Just be sure to respect the heat, know your limits and click here for a quick refresher on hot weather hiking.
It’s been a busy couple weeks across the Los Padres and we’ll cover a few of the major stories in this quick newsletter. For those of you who want more trail updates (me me me!), don’t worry, we’ll be sharing a trail specific email soon highlighting many of the trails we’ve been working this season including the Manzana, Alder, Santa Cruz, Sespe, Horn, Matilija, Davy Brown and others…. Coming up but for now lets get on with the FOREST 411.
F O R E S T 4 1 1
• On July 21 the Forest Service released yet another Revised Closure Order. Thanks to continued work by the Forest Service and others, many of the forest trails and roads continue to slowly but surely reopen. Click the link above to see specifics on the latest Closure Order. Of note is that Santa Barbara once again has OHV options and Red Reef is 100% open. The closure is still a little confusing so feel free to email us with any questions you might have: INFO@LPForest.org – always happy to try to help!
• Earlier this month a US District Court ruled in favor of the Forest Service moving forward with the Reyes Peak (aka Pine Mountain) Forest Health and Fuels Reduction proposal. This proposed project is intended to help protect Pine Mtn from future fire and is quite controversial. You can read the full project document here and here (FS news release). Much more on Pine Mountain coming soon as well…..
• Deer hunting season is upon us here in the Los Padres. A-Zone South archery opened July 8 and general season opens the weekend of August 12. We’ll cover more about A-Zone hunting season in an upcoming email but we’re expecting this season to be especially concentrated due to the continued road closures across the Los Padres. More to come…..
• Speaking of road closures, both Hwy 33 through Ventura County and Hwy 1 south of Bug Sur remain indefinitely closed due to storm damage. Fingers crossed that both are reopened sometime soon…..
Volunteer Here!
RED ROCK CLEANUP!
Join the LPFA this Saturday July 29 as we continue cleaning up the pools and day-use-areas along the Santa Ynez River near Red Rock. We’ll drive through the locked gates and spend the day picking up trash and leftover items from the beaches and pools. It’ll be hot so plan on swimming as well. Email for more information or click below…… SIGN UP HERE!
MATILIJA TRAIL WORK
We’ve been working hard to restore many of the storm damaged trails above Ojai and will be moving over to the Matilija starting this coming week. Our first volunteer day will be Saturday August 5 and we’ll be focusing on working the lowest 1/2 mile of the beloved Matilija Trail. The weather is looking cooler that weekend and we’ll never be more than a minute from the creek. Hope you can join us! Email if interested or click below…… SIGN UP HERE!