Agency Urges New Rules at Caspers Park : Children Should Be Barred From Trails, Camping, Report Says

Orange County’s Environmental Management Agency, which oversees operations at a south county park where a young boy was mauled by a mountain lion Oct. 19, has recommended that children be barred from the park’s camping area and nature trails.

The agency, in a written report to be delivered today to the Board of Supervisors, also is recommending that hiking at the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park be limit ed to not less than two adults hiking together and that a permit be required to enter the park.

But the EMA report, which was released Tuesday, rejected as impractical calls from public officials to eliminate all mountain lions from Caspers Park and the surrounding area.

The 7,500-acre wilderness area near San Juan Capistrano, which has been closed since Justin Mellon, 6, a first-grader from Huntington Beach was attacked by a cougar, would remain closed for another 60 days while new procedures are implemented.

Justin was the second child to be mauled by a mountain lion at the wilderness park in the past seven months. Last March 23, Laura Michele Small, 5, of El Toro was attacked by a cougar in the same general area of the park.

Hal R. Krizan, the county’s director of parks and recreation, said Tuesday that the attacks necessitate barring all youngsters from certain areas of the park.

“The attacks involved children,” Krizan said after the release of the written report. “We have concluded that children are so dependent on adult supervision and are unable to protect themselves that the public would be better served if we didn’t put them in that environment.”

Limits on Children

EMA’s recommendations call for children to be restricted to designated picnic areas and to be under the supervision of an adult. Krizan said requiring adult hikers to travel in groups of two or more also would ensure safety at the wilderness park.

“It’s a good idea in a wilderness park such as this to employ a buddy system,” Krizan said.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the EMA’s recommendations. The panel’s chairman, Ralph B. Clark, said Tuesday he favored the report.

“The rapid implementation of these findings will allow us to open the park in a prudent fashion that will protect the public safety while ensuring the continued use of this splendid facility,” Clark said.

Krizan said issuing permits for park use would be modeled after programs in other state and national wilderness parks where registration is required. Permits for Caspers Wilderness Park, however, would be free, he said.

In the report to the supervisors, the EMA also recommended launching a two-year study of the park’s mountain lions, a study that board members agreed last month to help finance. That study and census, to be conducted by the National Audubon Society, now is scheduled to begin before the end of the year. Supervisors, who would receive quarterly progress reports, agreed to pay one-third of the study’s $72,000 cost.

Lion Sightings Elsewhere

The state Department of Fish and Game, which helped the EMA formulate the new operational procedures for the park, Tuesday began its own review of the mountain lion population, Krizan said.

In addition to imposing safety regulations at Caspers Park, Krizan said his agency would review procedures at all other county regional, wilderness and foothill area parks during the next 30 days. There have been reports of mountain lions sighted elsewhere in the county, including in the area of Irvine Regional Park east of the City of Orange.

The EMA report indicated that elimination of the mountain lion population was studied but ultimately rejected as impractical. A 15-year-old ban on lion hunting by the Fish and Game department expired this year, but state officials have yet to decide whether to renew the moratorium. Krizan said the state Fish and Game Commission would review the cougar-hunting issue within the next several months.

“But even a complete lifting of the ban would not necessarily alter the safety situation (at Caspers Park),” the report said.

Experts are trying to figure out why mountain lions are attacking people. Part I, Page 1.