California Has Closed All Its National Forests to Preserve Fire Resources

August 31, 2021

More than 1.7 million acres—and counting—of US Forest Service-managed land has burned in California this year. Nearly 7,000 wildfires have erupted throughout the state. The Caldor Fire is, even now, bearing down on South Lake Tahoe with as many as 20,000 structures directly at risk. The southern half of the lakeside community is under evacuation orders. Meanwhile, the Dixie Fire, now California’s largest in history, has torn through mountain communities to the northeast of Tahoe. Resources are stretched unbelievably thin.

So the USFS made the decision to close all of the state’s national forests (except one—Humboldt Toiyabe, south of Tahoe, is not under the regional jurisdiction of the rest of the USFS lands in the state) to most public uses, starting today, August 31, to at least September 17. No camping, no backpacking, no hiking, no fishing—nothing. Adventure Journal