Mauling Brings Call to Curb Trail Use
Orange County’s Environmental Management Agency, which oversees operations at a wilderness park where a 6-year-old Huntington Beach boy was mauled by a mountain lion recently, has recommended that children be forbidden to use its camping and nature trails.
The agency, in a report to be delivered today to the Board of Supervisors, also is recommending that groups hiking at the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park be limited to two adults each and that a permit be required for park use. But the written report, which was released Tuesday, rejected as impractical calls from public officials to eliminate all mountain lions from the park and surrounding areas.
The 7,500-acre park near San Juan Capistrano, which has been closed since Justin Mellon, a first-grader, was attacked on Oct. 19, will remain closed for another 60 days while the new procedures, expected to be approved by the supervisors, are being implemented.
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