California - all national forests closed to public

[Elkman]

With our [Mod Edit] wildfires that are still raging out of control having burned down entire towns, the USFS has wisely decided to close all national forests in California. They do not want new man made fires to add to their existing ones which were also man made but by our public utility company PG&E.

[Mtn Charlie]

Originally Posted by Elkman

With our [Mod Edit] wildfires that are still raging out of control having burned down entire towns, the USFS has wisely decided to close all national forests in California. They do not want new man made fires to add to their existing ones which were also man made but by our public utility company PG&E.

It's easy to blame PG&E but they a caught between a rock and a hard place. The prices PG &E charges for electricity are limited by your state Public Utility Commission. Then your state legislature passes legislature that strickly limits emmisions. In order to provide the required electrical power at the price required by the PUC, PG&E is forced to generate power in another state and transmitted it over heavily forested land into California. To compound the issue, your state legislature is requiring PG&E to build green infrastructure to meet unrealistic clean air goals. This severely limits the funds that PG&E has available to maintain it's existing infrastructure. You want the problem fixed, expect to pay double for your electric usage, Blame your state bureaucrats for the problem, not PG&E. When the state sets the price, limits profits and then adds unrealistic requirements, only bad things can happen. A bankrupt PG&E will result in state bureaucrats running the utility. Good luck on that. No, I am not a PG&E employee and own no stock in the company.
EDIT: High tension power towers are the tallest objects on a mountain top or in a forest. They are the obvious target for lightning strikes. The solution, don't import power over the Sierra Nevada. Generate it where you use it. (Oh no!!!, Not in my neighborhood.)

[sundog964]

Originally Posted by Mtn Charlie

It's easy to blame PG&E but they a caught between a rock and a hard place. The prices PG &E charges for electricity are limited by your state Public Utility Commission. Then your state legislature passes legislature that strickly limits emmisions. In order to provide the required electrical power at the price required by the PUC, PG&E is forced to generate power in another state and transmitted it over heavily forested land into California. To compound the issue, your state legislature is requiring PG&E to build green infrastructure to meet unrealistic clean air goals. This severely limits the funds that PG&E has available to maintain it's existing infrastructure. You want the problem fixed, expect to pay double for your electric usage, Blame your state bureaucrats for the problem, not PG&E. When the state sets the price, limits profits and then adds unrealistic requirements, only bad things can happen. A bankrupt PG&E will result in state bureaucrats running the utility. Good luck on that. No, I am not a PG&E employee and own no stock in the company.
EDIT: High tension power towers are the tallest objects on a mountain top or in a forest. They are the obvious target for lightning strikes. The solution, don't import power over the Sierra Nevada. Generate it where you use it. (Oh no!!!, Not in my neighborhood.)

Also, where power lines are run through the forests there should be a swath twice as wide as the tallest tree. But that isn’t allowed, so during storms trees fall on the lines and cause fires. But we aren’t allowed to cut those paths.

It is awful, and a friend is less than a mile from the fire front in South Lake Tahoe this hour.

[Mtn Charlie]

I use to live in Ben Lomond, which was evacuated for the Big Basin fire, last summer. My motherinlaw use to live in Paradise.

[Mtn Charlie]

For the past 60+ years, the state of California has exported over 2,400,000 acre feet of water per year from Northern California to the south. That practice has seriously damaged the ECO system of the north. . The town of Paradise was only 8 miles from the largest man made lake in California, but the town was bone dry before it burned to the ground. Why?? Because the town of Paridise was not entitled to a single bucket of water that was accumulated in that resavoir, off of their own watershed. The state government has destroyed the ecology of the state. They claim to be ecologically concious but ignore the consiquences of their actions, if $$$$$ is involved.

[Mtn Charlie]

The California State Legislature has created the current situation over many years time. Most of the states current residents weren't even around when the ball was set in motion.

[wyocamper]

California politics and random idiots notwithstanding, banning people from National Forests seems like a pretty good idea right now, and I wish they'd do it here too. For whatever reason, for many people it seems that you simply have to have a campfire if you're in a National Forest. You can watch people pile out of their car/suv/camper/whatever and immediately start gathering firewood, no matter whether the fire risk is low or extreme.

Last August we went to Medicine Bow NF near here several times on a Monday or Tuesday and spent more time dousing smoldering camp fires than we did fishing. People are just stupid.

[Sullivanclan]

I decided a few years ago never to return to California after driving through.

[Uncle Albert]

Originally Posted by Sullivanclan

I decided a few years ago never to return to California after driving through.

Same here…after visiting good friends in two separate trips to California from NE Georgia, we have decided to never go back

[creativepart]

This thread is about NFS campgrounds being closed in California due to wildfires. It is not about why you think California politics plays a role in the fire issue. Political posting is not permitted here. If you’d like to comment on the political aspects of this then please do so on some other forum community.

This thread was deleted, reviewed, edited and purged of abusive comments. We are reopening the thread but will remove it for good and sanction members that return to this thread to post a political response.

Thanks for your cooperation.

[sundog964]

It saddens me that the National Forests are closed. But right now a very close friend is about 1 mile from the Caldor fire front in South Lake Tahoe. She has been evacuated for 2 weeks, and doesn't know if she will have a home to go back to. These fires are BIG, and very difficult to control in the mountainous environment. There are plenty of other places in CA to camp, and enjoy. As everything, this too shall pass.

[Elkman]

Originally Posted by Mtn Charlie

It's easy to blame PG&E but they a caught between a rock and a hard place. The prices PG &E charges for electricity are limited by your state Public Utility Commission. Then your state legislature passes legislature that strickly limits emmisions. In order to provide the required electrical power at the price required by the PUC, PG&E is forced to generate power in another state and transmitted it over heavily forested land into California. To compound the issue, your state legislature is requiring PG&E to build green infrastructure to meet unrealistic clean air goals. This severely limits the funds that PG&E has available to maintain it's existing infrastructure. You want the problem fixed, expect to pay double for your electric usage, Blame your state bureaucrats for the problem, not PG&E. When the state sets the price, limits profits and then adds unrealistic requirements, only bad things can happen. A bankrupt PG&E will result in state bureaucrats running the utility. Good luck on that. No, I am not a PG&E employee and own no stock in the company.
EDIT: High tension power towers are the tallest objects on a mountain top or in a forest. They are the obvious target for lightning strikes. The solution, don't import power over the Sierra Nevada. Generate it where you use it. (Oh no!!!, Not in my neighborhood.)

It is also a matter of local governments that want property tax revenues and so allow builders to build housing on narrow one lane roads and for the utilities to run electrical power lines for service. Builders also build to codes and the codes in the USA ignore fire hazard as they do flooding and hurricanes. Home owners in high risk areas also neglect to do anything to mitigate the problems, like increasing the height of the house or installing metal roll down shutters over windows (good for fire and wind blown debris}.

The disasters do make a good case for people to have some kind of RV so if they need to evacuate or they lose their home, they are not stuck at a Motel 6 for months.

[creativepart]

We told you folks to keep this thread on topic of closed NFS campgrounds but some are just not capable of doing so.

Thread closed.