Inyo National Forest
Inyo National Forest Supervisor Lesley Yen gave the Board of Supervisors a rundown on forest closure policies, put in place in the late summer of 2020 and 2021, explaining the decisions as a “last resort.”
With little winter precipitation and record-setting heat waves across the West, the Forest Service had to make draconian decisions on closures and restrictions. The Inyo National Forest campgrounds and trails were closed to overnight campers two years in a row. According to Yen, the closures were initiated due to staffing levels. As an example, she explained the number of Hot Shots available for INF fires had been reduced from 30 to 20 due to deployments to other wild-land fires.
Big fires are the issue, Yen said. “We look at fuel moisture, weather. These are the things that inform restrictions.” While she agreed with the closures, Yen explained “they were not entirely my decision.”
Yen outlined steps being taken to improve surge capacity to deal with the growing intensity and frequency of forest fires. Part of that solution involves funding to address wages as well as fuel reduction programs.
The town of Mammoth Lakes is currently the center of a “donut,” as crews thin the trees surrounding the donut hole. In the event of a forest fire, the intensity and growth of future fires would be reduced for lack of fuel, allowing time for a strong defense of the community.
The Forest is putting together a “playbook,” Yen said, to establish procedures going forward. One element of those procedures is signage to notify visitors of closures and fire restrictions. Also under consideration is a system of staged closures, allowing day-use but no overnight camping in the back country.
Communities on the Eastside saw an influx of new campers, identified as the source of a lot of the problems, during 2020 as So.Cal. residents seemed to pour up U.S. Hwy. 395 to escape Los Angeles during COVID restrictions and closures. The campers were the issue. As Yen said, “hikers don’t start forest fires.”
Supervisor Matt Kingsley and forest lease holders Lynn Greer and Supervisor Jennifer Roeser requested modification to full closure orders. Kingsley suggested different levels of closures, allowing permitees to continue to operate. Greer pointed out INF lessees could help educate visitors as to what restrictions were in place.
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Inyo National Forest Supervisor Lesley Yen gave the Board of Supervisors a rundown on forest closure policies, put in place in the late summer of 2020 and 2021, explaining the decisions as a “last resort.” Why did the the feds exclude the county supervisors from the discussion about closing the forest before they started to habitually close the forest for the last two years in the first place? The county and the city’s adjacent to the INF should have been included in this discussion….isn’t the county one of their “partners “?
The county provides the fire and police dept., building dept., road dept., code enforcement and oversees the delivery of energy and medical support among many other important and valuable assets to the INF. I’m baffled by the snub to the county and residents. Most of their employees live in our towns and use most, if not all, of the county’s services, on a daily basis. Damaging our economy with closures hurts the county’s coffers; it takes money to run all of the county services and makes it harder for local business to survive.
We all care about and support our first responders and forest service personnel. I want to thank the county supervisors for addressing the INF closure issues for the residents of Inyo.
Closing trails in the high country never makes sense. Not only do hikers and backpackers not cause fires, they’d have a hard time doing it if they tried. The fuel load to sustain serious fires just isn’t there. I agree that the situation in the Lodgepole – Jeffery forest with dispersed camping is a more dangerous situation, but some intelligent discresion is in order, not just total closure.
3 strikes and your out. Keep it all open next year. No excuses.
Instead of shaking there heads and throwing their hands up, I wish the Forest Service as a whole would be more proactive about insisting Congress fund them better to manage the increased visitation and fire danger!
I would hope theyd be excited about the increased visitation to the national treasures they oversee.
Instead they turn to more and more closures; accepting failure at providing their mandated recreational opportunities . This is hardly new either as the lack of adequate funding to maintain the Forests has been the mainstay of their road closures and lack of action for decades and its a crying shame.
I agree with the closures. There is too many darn tourists on the local trails.
Those “tourists” have every much of a right to be there as anyone local. It’s public land, period.
Frankly Speaking.
Correct….the tourists do have every right to be there.
But if you spent much time the last couple years visiting the Alabama Hills,other “free” BLM lands,the June Lake area,even up and into the Bridgeport area the last two Summers,you might agree with “Your Supervisor’s ” post more than you do with your post…I won’t be around to see it,but makes one wonder what it’ll be like in 25 years from now…we’ll be taking trips and vacations to Southern California to get away from the crowds…
Yeah, before it was “public land” the Native Americans hiked, lived, and hunted there and you know what? They didn’t trash the land.
You obviously haven’t seen what the hordes of tourists have done to the trails. You haven’t seen the fitly feces-covered bathrooms (Big Pine Trail). You haven’t seen photographers destroy vegetation to get their composition (Schulman Grove). There is a 50yo bristlecone pine tree sapling that was crushed by a photographer. Do the hike up on the DIscovery trail and you will see the tiny snapped sapling. You don’t even know how much the Alabama Hills has been trashed. The Mobius arch used to smell like urine in the summer because tourists used to the rock next to it, as a toilet! I can go on and on about this but you wont listen anyway.
The Eastern Sierra has exploded in popularity in the last few years and it hasn’t been good for the land. Just stop ANY pullout along 395 and look at all the trash along the highway.
Just seeking some clarification, the Inyo NF hosts one Hotshot crew which is staffed with 20 people not 30. The crew is a national fire resources and spends the majority of its availability period, Aprox May-October away on fire assignments.
So what specifically was meant in the stated example?
A great question for the supervisor to ask would have been how many vacant fire positions does the forest currently have. It’s pretty shocking when one digs down. If there weren’t a staffing crisis due to major pay and benefit disparity maybe there would be sufficient fire response resources and forest closure could be avoided.