Press Release: Sept. 9, 2020 Update
VALLEJO, Calif., September 9, 2020 – Due to unprecedented and historic fire conditions throughout the state, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region is announcing a temporary closure of an additional ten National Forests, meaning all eighteen National Forests in California are now closed. The closure of the additional ten forests will be effective at 5:00 pm today. These additional forests include the Eldorado National Forest, Klamath National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Tahoe National Forest, and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. This decision will be re-evaluated daily as conditions change.
We had closed eight National Forests on Monday evening, Sept. 7, 2020. Explosive growth of fires throughout California during the day and late evening of Sept. 8th led to this updated decision.
“The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing across the State is historic,” said Regional Forester Randy Moore. “These temporary closures are necessary to protect the public and our firefighters, and we will keep them in place until conditions improve and we are confident that National Forest visitors can recreate safely. I ask all Californians and visitors to take these closures and evacuations seriously for their own safety and to allow our firefighters to focus on the mission of safely suppressing these fires.”
The Forest Service thanks our partners and the public for their cooperation and understanding of this monumental fire threat. It is critical that all Californians and national forest visitors follow these important closures and restrictions for their own safety and the safety of our firefighters. Citizens with specific questions within their area may call their local forests for more information.
The Forest Service manages 18 National Forests in the Pacific Southwest Region, which encompasses over 20 million acres across California, and assists forest landowners in California, Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. National forests supply 50 percent of the water in California and form the watershed of most major aqueducts and more than 2,400 reservoirs throughout the state. For more information, visit www.fs.usda.gov/R5.
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Wait a second, this article states “the fire made a 15 mile run in a single day and burned 36,000 acres.”
But in a separate article fire officials are quoted as saying “The Creek Fire itself poses no threat to any of the towns in the Eastern Sierra”
What is the distance from the west side to the east side of the Sierra Nevada, 30 miles give or take?
Also kind of weird how the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region and Mono County Supervisors are now taking action to prevent fires on Labor Day, the official or unofficial closing of the summer tourism season.
An influx of people have been out there all summer long camping, building campfires and being stupid where they’re not supposed to.
I can’t help to wonder, is their priority really safety or the almighty dollar?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/fires-map-tracker.html The fire is not burning west to east
They should have done this on Thursday, before the holiday weekend.
We went to Glacier Lodge Sat. almost 250 vehicles.
Cars parked along road from hikers parking lot all the way to gate plus overflow parking at hikers parking lot. Had to be way over quota for overnight permits. Didn’t see any ranger enforcement just no parking signs on up hill side of road.
You can always stay at the numerous lodging facilities in the area!! Lodging is safe and following all of the county and CDC requirements!
Yep,do as Mono Person says.
Come on up into a fancy condo,go out for a big dinner,and spend your money.
Deal with the fact the campgrounds and hiking areas will be closed.
Certainly,no Trout being stocked into the closed area creeks and lakes.
Thick smoke outside to deal with and breath.when you do go outside of your room.
Never mind the fact you won’t be able to do the things you came up here to do..
Our hiking areas are open, fishing is doing great, going to Bodie is nice, ATV riding is fun. So what are you talking about?? I would hate to live in your world….
What do you think…these closures don’t pertain to you and your world ?
Probably one of those,if the forest and campgrounds are closed,you’d bring your party to a residential street and neighborhood in front of someone’s home…
We need to kill the local economy by what ever means possible to shape the election.
Oh, Ed! Serious people are trying to find methods to cope with an unprecedented pandemic and the worst fire season in history, but you think it’s about conspiracy politics.
So true….
So when do they start shutting down the roads. There are some areas that do not need to be shut down