Wild.Fire.Restrictions

  

Earlier this week the Los Padres National Forest went into Level III fire restrictions.  Level III restrictions are generally announced annually around this time of year.  By comparison, in 2015 the forest went into Level III restrictions on May 5 and it was May 19 in 2014.  What does Level III mean?  See the attached PDF for the official declaration but here’s the Cliff Notes details:

• No backcountry campfires within the Los Padres Forest.
• You can use camp stoves in the backcountry as long as you have a California Campfire Permit.
• There are designated campfire use sites (see PDF).
• No target shooting outside of designated special-use permit sites.
• See PDF for more specifics……

We have another wildfire in the Los Padres.  The Scherpa Fire started on Wednesday afternoon just west of Goleta along the Gaviota Coast.  The cause of the fire is under investigation but it is currently holding at 1,200 acres with little containment.  Scherpa has not been too active today but with sundowners in the forecast fire crews are working hard to box it in as best they can before the afternoon winds.  We’ve found that the best way to track fires is through Twitter.  Follow #ScherpaFire and you can get up to the minute updates from around the fire.  And just in, a second fire was just announced up near Knapps’s Castle, Santa Ynez Mtns.  Best of luck to all the fire crews and lets hope they can get it under control before the weekend hot-spell kicks in.

Chances are you’d rather be on this Big Sur trail than wherever you happen to be reading this!
If you’re somewhere better, let us know, we’d love to hear about it……

San Emigdio Mesa, photo Morgan Jones