National Forest Closure Options

Ridley

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 27, 2020
Messages
143
Had an A12 tag and turning it in the last day that I could. Maybe next year.
 

BiG_Sea

FNG
Joined
Sep 9, 2018
Messages
53
CA is closing all 20 million acres of national forest during archery season. Rumor has that it will extend through rifle as well.

I don't know how it can effectively shut down hunting in the name of not burdening fire fighters.

BLM will now be overloaded. Anyone familiar with what kind of legal options we have to go after the state?
California didn’t close anything. The USDA’s USFS Region 5 “forester” decided to close it down. what California does wrong here is not hold the Feds accountable. This should be a big issue for the state. Our houses burn, our economic activity is affected but the Feds are just managing their same old priorities and 10-30 years behind on preparing for what the *widely predicted* conditions would mean for fire. The state should be all over the Feds for continuing to manage fire like it’s 1990 (or 1890?). The USFS closes things because they don’t have the resources to manage these “unprecedented” (but again, totally predicted) fires and keep the forests open or fight the next fire that some forest user may start.

Obviously it’s bigger than just us hunters getting shut down - I was glassing a mountain in Inyo NF when my mom(!) sent a note saying I had one day to finish my hunt. And every town along the 395 will see the impact of the hikers, climbers, photographers, blah, blah, blah, being closed out of Inyo NF - which DOESN’T HAVE AN ACTIVE FIRE, despite all the folks roaming the backcountry. When I got back to the trailhead, it was nearly empty - this is a place I’ve had trouble parking before - and the forest was still open for another few hours.

So, call your LOCAL legislators and demand that CA Wildlife make an issue of how the feds are stomping on their management (hunting and more) work with unsustainable fire preparedness and staffing

Call your Congressional reps and tell them to FUND the USFS, and direct it to manage and staff up, to the degree needed to meet the widely predicted conditions.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2021
Messages
4
California didn’t close anything. The USDA’s USFS Region 5 “forester” decided to close it down. what California does wrong here is not hold the Feds accountable. This should be a big issue for the state. Our houses burn, our economic activity is affected but the Feds are just managing their same old priorities and 10-30 years behind on preparing for what the *widely predicted* conditions would mean for fire. The state should be all over the Feds for continuing to manage fire like it’s 1990 (or 1890?). The USFS closes things because they don’t have the resources to manage these “unprecedented” (but again, totally predicted) fires and keep the forests open or fight the next fire that some forest user may start.

Obviously it’s bigger than just us hunters getting shut down - I was glassing a mountain in Inyo NF when my mom(!) sent a note saying I had one day to finish my hunt. And every town along the 395 will see the impact of the hikers, climbers, photographers, blah, blah, blah, being closed out of Inyo NF - which DOESN’T HAVE AN ACTIVE FIRE, despite all the folks roaming the backcountry. When I got back to the trailhead, it was nearly empty - this is a place I’ve had trouble parking before - and the forest was still open for another few hours.

So, call your LOCAL legislators and demand that CA Wildlife make an issue of how the feds are stomping on their management (hunting and more) work with unsustainable fire preparedness and staffing

Call your Congressional reps and tell them to FUND the USFS, and direct it to manage and staff up, to the degree needed to meet the widely predicted conditions.
 

SDHNTR

WKR
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
7,033
Well, in my case, not only am I eating both my AO and A22 tags, all my spots are near my mountain cabin (on FS land) and I can’t even visit the cabin that I OWN!
 
OP
JakeSCH

JakeSCH

WKR
Joined
Jun 14, 2020
Messages
1,000
Location
San Diego, CA
Well, in my case, not only am I eating both my AO and A22 tags, all my spots are near my mountain cabin (on FS land) and I can’t even visit the cabin that I OWN!

That blows...but you should have another try after thanksgiving. I may try A22 on some BLM unless that is closed too.
 

Hunt4lyf

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
251
Location
Colorado
That blows...but you should have another try after thanksgiving. I may try A22 on some BLM unless that is closed too.

Have you ever seen the BLM close? Where I grew up in D16/19 it’s never been closed that I can remember, my Dad and friends still hunt there every year.
 
OP
JakeSCH

JakeSCH

WKR
Joined
Jun 14, 2020
Messages
1,000
Location
San Diego, CA
Have you ever seen the BLM close? Where I grew up in D16/19 it’s never been closed that I can remember, my Dad and friends still hunt there every year.

I haven't seen it closed. A lot of our BLM spots are better suited for rifle hunting, but I may go out just to chase them anyways. I have one good spot I can hit up, just haven't made time yet with a newborn in the house. 3 kids is keeping us busy.
 

Pacific_Fork

Well Known Rokslider
Joined
May 26, 2019
Messages
1,260
Location
North Idaho
Well, in my case, not only am I eating both my AO and A22 tags, all my spots are near my mountain cabin (on FS land) and I can’t even visit the cabin that I OWN!

Do you own the land? If its forest service lease land then its tricky, but if its your land then you can legally access it. I own land within a wilderness in CA and can always legally access during closures.
 

SDHNTR

WKR
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
7,033
Do you own the land? If its forest service lease land then its tricky, but if its your land then you can legally access it. I own land within a wilderness in CA and can always legally access during closures.
Nope. Own the cabin, FS lease on the land. Hence the problem. Part of the deal, I know, just not happy about it.
 

Moserkr

WKR
Joined
Feb 26, 2020
Messages
997
Location
Mountains of CA
Expect this to become the norm thanks to covid. More people in the forest since everythings restricted. More fires from said people - ive personally seen it a few times. Add in homeless, transient, and crazies starting fires too. Top it off with bad forest management. They take the easy way out and blanket close the state for “public safety”. Get ready for a lot more bs for “public safety”, the sky is the limit.

Our group decided that “we” are going out of state more and limiting money spent here in CA by focusing on draws. Guess I will be hunting solo, which is fine, when the seasons open randomly cause I live in the mtns and if I have a tag Im hunting. Looking forward to going out of state more too.

Another option is looking into an electric bike. Maybe just start quietly biking deep into the woods where theres no chance of being found anyway. Id drive but a big truck parked is an attention getter. These closures arent legal but I dont see it being challenged successfully. Courts have pretty much let all “public safety closure” bs go wild with covid. We better enjoy our “prison freedom” like good subjects. Just like no guns during archery - we are presumed to be poachers if we had that freedom.
 
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