SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management is working to maintain services to the American people and our stakeholders, consistent with evolving guidance provided by the Center for Disease Control and state and local health authorities. The health and safety of our visitors and staff remains the number one priority of the BLM. In accordance with the State of California’s recent regional stay at home order, the BLM will continue to monitor and evaluate the need to close some developed campgrounds in coordination with local, state and federal agency partners, to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
Visitors may continue to enjoy their BLM managed trails and open spaces in California while following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local and state public health authorities. Social distancing recommendations are extremely important to reducing the transmission of COVID-19 and may require that visitors avoid public lands during high-use times, such as weekends. Please limit any group activities to members of your household. At all times, maintain a distance of 6 feet or more from people outside of your household and wear a mask when social distancing is not possible.
The BLM urges visitors to do their part when visiting your public lands as some visitor services may be limited due to closures and staff safety. The following actions are recommended:
- Plan ahead by checking this website for the latest information on temporary closures or reduced amenities
- Bring your own supplies such as disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper
- Pack out your trash
- Reduce the handling of cash by paying recreation fees through recreation.gov, or with a check, where available
Providing for recreation opportunities and access to public lands during this time are just some of the many activities BLM California staff continues to perform each and every day. We recognize that opportunities to enjoy public lands, especially during these times, is vitally important to the nation and our neighbors.
If you’d like to contact or do business with the BLM, please do so by email or phone whenever possible. Contact information is available on our website at www.blm.gov/California.
For more information on the status of recreation and visitor services across BLM-managed public lands in California, please visit: https://www.blm.gov/site-page/blm-california-covid-19-updates or contact local offices at: https://on.doi.gov/38ZT5OI
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in the 11 Western states and Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In fiscal year 2018, the diverse activities authorized on BLM-managed lands generated $105 billion in economic output across the country. This economic activity supported 471,000 jobs and contributed substantial revenue to the U.S. Treasury and state governments, mostly through royalties on minerals.
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Wouldn’t it be lovely if the BLM cut out the promos and actually monitored and enforced penalties for the extensive illegal camping on BLM land NNE of Mustang Mesa . On any given morning half a dozen or more vehicles access 395 off the pole line roads leading to extensive illegal encampments with semipermanent cooking and sleeping areas and illegal fires and makeshift latrines and trash trash and more trash on BLM land
Dear Lydia, The campfires are not legal at this time. Staying for more than 14 days is not legal. The garbage left behind is a violation of the law. The latrines sound like an excellent alternative to excrement and used toilet paper behind every sagebrush in the vicinity. But unless otherwise posted and/or temporarily closed for public safety (a wildfire for example) BLM land is open to dispersed camping regardless of how many times you tap your heels together while screeching the word “illegal”. I would think you were aware of the PUBLIC LAND in your area before you moved there and if you are so disturbed by the PUBLIC use of PUBLIC LAND there are many places you could move to that have little to no PUBLIC LAND which is open to use by the PUBLIC.
OUCH !
When I want to feel all warm and fuzzy I always pull up a Sierra Wave comment section…
Donna,BLM and others
Let’s face it.
The people and visitors are going to do as they please when they embark on and into the public BLM land,just like they did back in the early Summer when campgrounds were being shut down and they crowded into the Alabama Hills,giving the area up there a crowded inner-city like atmosphere.
People doing as they pleased,if they were told no campfires,or when it was finally time when they closed the area due to overcrowding and were told to leave,some refused to do it,putting up their American flags and stating it’s “their land”,and that “their rights were being violated” ,they can come and go as they want,where they want and when they want.
My bet is,this time it won’t be any different,only now it’s Fall and a little bit colder outside.
And when it gets really cold and they move on,it’ll be the locals again with the big blue trash bags and cleaning things up…..again..
Steve Nelson and Sherri from the BLM Bishop office should be fired, they have failed the eastern sierra community. Using covid as excuse for not doing their jobs once again. From the toilet paper littered Alabama Hills, to Bishop in the happy/sad’s, in the buttermilks, from the lakes basin in Mammoth and June Lake, poor Mono Lake, soo much tp. I’m sorry people are soo bad and have no respect for nature and others. Signage/education in conjunction with consistent enforcement goes a long way. Having worked in multiple national parks I can tell you it works. Enough is enough people, stay at home for real this time, protect your community and stop trashing our public lands. BLM is not the problem but letting something blatantly happen with no action when it is the sole duty of the agency to manage the land and are paid for it. Hake some pride BLM, give a hoot about something besides hiding in your offices and vehicles, collecting a full paycheck while the eastern sierra continues to get trashed and our economy suffers.
And please respect posted no parking and or no trespassing signs that private property owners have posted. Do not block driveways, do not try to move items placed as a deterrent for those looking to park on a single lane, podunk road, please don’t throw or leave trash laying around your once parked vehicle and do know that if a fire ever does breakout, your vehicles will be bulldozed aside to make room for emergency trucks and vehicles. Please remember as you are visitors and you are here only temporarily, home owners do not leave and the county, state or federal authorities did not ask not one of us property owners how we felt about notifying the entire state that it’s now permissible to take walks where previously was not allowed.
In short, have respect. Oh, and please do not feed any of the livestock you may encounter on private property. We are not running petting zoos.
Dear Donna, Where are people being “allowed” to “walk” on PUBLIC LAND where it “previously was not allowed”? And perhaps you could also explain why private property owners need to be asked permission for the PUBLIC to use PUBLIC LAND?
And before you and the rest of he gang come after me with a bunch of unintelligible and unsupported accusations please understand that I also live near a great deal of PUBLIC LAND and spent several days and dollars picking up and disposing of am insane amount of trash this year. My goal is to shame the slobs, as well as those who benefit from slob tourists to clean up their slobbery but I know that my private property ends at the property line. I can pick up the trash but I cannot close PUBLIC LAND. Anything else is useless whining and a pathetic exhibit of self entitlement that can be entertaining at times but is bordering on pathological.
In regards to where I’m referring to, all I will say is that the property has been in my husband’s family for approximately 7 generations. When it was originally acquired California wasn’t what it has become (over populated).
I actually had a car of complete strangers drive up my driveway (posted private driveway dead end). They wanted to access the adjoining property. I explained to them I didn’t own that parcel and told them who they needed to contact. They continued to wonder why they couldn’t access the property in question by simply going through our back field. Again I explained to them their situation and what they needed to do. I wasn’t at liberty to allow anyone to trespass on others land. This went back and forth until out of frustration I told them that if they didn’t leave I’d be turning my dogs lose.
It’s situations like that and plenty more that me and my neighbors have grown tired of. How would these ppl like it if I drove down to their home in San Francisco and demanded I join them in their backyard or even step foot on any lawn they may have? I have a strong feeling they’d be not so understanding and rightfully so.
I get it, ppl always want what they can’t have but to have no respect for those that do have it is what is borderline psychosis. I never said, “stay away”. I simply stated have respect for who’s neighborhood you are visiting.
I did not address the “permission” factor. It’s not that I’d expect any government agency to at least ask those residents who do pay heavy taxes how they feel about the tremendous increase in traffic on a road that is not properly maintained by the county. It’s a beaten up, not equipped to handle the traffic flow. It gets worse because the road in question turns into a single lane road that simply wasn’t designed for a plethora of tourists, but somehow government feels differently except for when a property owner wants to split off approximately 5 acres for a family member to build a modest home on. That of course requires a team of county officials to decide that the road would need to be widened so as to accommodate that family of 4.
Just one of the many problems with that idea is, why must property owner be responsible for funding the widening of a road that runs directly down and thru the said property? Is property owner allowed to keep taxes that are supposedly collected under the rue of road improvements? I think not.