Although a forest-wide closure went into effect Monday evening for Los Padres National Forest, until Tuesday afternoon it was not clear whether the order would apply to the front country trails.

“The gates have swung shut on all of the roads within the forest,” Andrew Madsen, a spokesman for Los Padres National Forest, told Noozhawk.

The closure order, issued due to severe wildfire danger, shut off access to the more rural parts of the forest, including the Upper and Lower Santa Ynez Recreation areas, the Figueroa Mountain area, and the wilderness trailheads.

But what about the front country trails?

According to the Los Padres National Forest website, which posted a detailed list of the closures — including campgrounds, day use areas, trails, OHV routes and recreation areas in the Santa Barbara Ranger District — the front country trails are included, and will be off limits through Monday Sept. 14.

Despite this, there was some conjecture that closing these trails might be difficult to accomplish given that most of the Santa Barbara area trailheads — including Jesusita, Rattlesnake, Cold Spring, Hot Spring, San Ysidro, Romero and others — aren’t in the forest.

As it turns out, given the quickness of the closure, coupled with response to a vegetation fire near Miguelito County Park at the time the closure went into effect, Los Padres officials had not had time to inform county or city parks officials of it or work with them on implementing it.

Heavy Trail Use

Given the misty fog and drizzles throughout the Santa Barbara area Tuesday morning that cooled things down, judging from the numbers of cars at the front country trailheads, it appeared that many people either hadn’t learned about the closure or thought it would be OK to be out when the fire danger seemed so low.

However, those who head out to any of the trails listed above on Wednesday will most likely discover “Trail Closed” signs at the entry points. 

Park Collaboration

On Tuesday, Jeff Lindgren, Santa Barbara County parks superintendent, and Steve Biddle, supervisor for the city of Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department, began discussions of how to support the forest closure as it applies to the front country trails.

The agencies agreed to honor the closure, and are working together to get appropriate signage at the trailheads to let the public know the trails are closed and will be until Sept. 14, when the Forest Service will reevaluate the need for the closure.

That decision is currently in the hands of Pacific Southwest Region officials (Region 5), who were responsible for the closure order.