Yesterday, the Pacific Southwest Region (Region 5) of the U.S. Forest Service issued a press release announcing the closure of eight National Forests throughout the state of California. The closures, along with other precautions, are aimed at combatting the ongoing wildfire crisis throughout the state and ensuring the safety of National Forest visitors.
Shortly after the announcement was made, the Region 5 office reached out to CCA staff to clarify that these closures do not apply to livestock grazing permittees. According to John Exline, the Region 5 Director for Ecosystem Management, “these orders do not apply to those with active grazing permits except for those that may be directly affected by on-going fires. Those permittees should be working with their respective range administrators and local line officers.”
The National Forests closed by the order are the Angeles, Cleveland, Inyo, Los Padres, San Bernardino, Sequoia, Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests. In addition to closing those eight forests, Region 5 has prohibited the use of any ignition sources on National Forest lands statewide and has closed campgrounds throughout the state. These closures went into effect at 5:00pm yesterday, and will remain in effect until further notice, subject to daily re-evaluation.
As the Region 5 press release puts it, “Most of California remains under the threat of unprecedented and dangerous fire conditions with a combination of extreme heat, significant wind events, dry conditions, and firefighting resources that are stretched to the limit.” These factors—and more than 12,000 lightning strikes over the past three weeks—have resulted in more than 2 million acres burned statewide as of Monday, an unfortunate record for a California fire season.
If you are a permittee with questions or concerns about the Forest Service’s closures, or if you should have any other wildfire concerns with which CCA staff can assist you, please contact the CCA office at (916) 444-0845.
