Caspers Park a Ghost of Its Former Self : Visitors, Revenue Scarce After Mountain Lion Attacks, Court Award Prompted Ban on Kids

Lots of wild animals roam the green hills and narrow valleys of Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, considered by many to be the “crown jewel” of Orange County’s wilderness park system.

Campers in their recreational vehicles and equestrians on their horses routinely encounter deer, bobcats, coyotes and gray foxes. A variety of birds including crows, ravens, wrens and warblers traverse the area’s wide-open skies. And the park’s 30 miles of wilderness trails are liberally adorned with oaks, sycamores, willows and alders.

One thing not seen lately at Caspers is anyone younger than 18.

As a result, attendance is way down and the cost per visitor has doubled, causing a move to rescind the ban on children, which is believed to be the only one of its kind in the state.

“Families used to go up there and picnic,” said Ilse Byrnes, president of the California Trails Foundation, whose campaign to reopen the park to children recently gained the support of the San Juan Capistrano City Council and county Supervisor Marian Bergeson. “It’s just ridiculous when a (17-year-old) can’t go into the park.”

The banning of children from the 7,800-acre county park eight miles east of San Juan Capistrano stemmed from two much-publicized mountain lion attacks in 1986. In the first one, a 5-year-old visiting the park with her parents was mauled by a mountain lion, losing the use of one eye and sustaining partial paralysis. The second incident occurred seven months later and involved another mountain lion which gashed the head, chest and back of a 6-year-old boy.

County officials responded by closing all but the park’s visitors center and front picnic area to anyone younger than 18. Then, after a $2-million court award to the injured girl’s family in 1992, the county Board of Supervisors voted to ban children from the park altogether.

“It was done on the advice of our attorney,” said Robert G. Fisher, the county’s director of harbors, beaches and parks. “We looked at the circumstances that led to the two children’s maulings and decided that the best course of action was to protect the children and protect the county from further liability.”

One consequence, according to senior park ranger Mike Brajdic, has been a 50% decline in attendance and resulting revenue since 1986. “We don’t even allow guided school or youth groups to come in,” Brajdic said. “Still, the requests routinely come in, at least once a week.”

Opponents of the ban argue that mountain lion attacks began rising statewide in the 1970s after Sacramento lawmakers enacted legislation to protect the wild animals. While visitors to other public parks have been attacked, they say, none have enacted similar bans.

And the fact that visitors to Caspers haven’t experienced attacks since, they say, makes the 1986 incidents seem unusual. “I think it was a blip,” Larry Sitton, a senior biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game.

While taking no specific position on the county’s ban, the biologist said he knows enough about mountain lions to say that they don’t congregate at Caspers any more than at any other wilderness park.

“Whenever you have a series of incidents in one area,” Sitton said, “it’s kind of anomalous.”

Ken Croker, a local member of the Sierra Club who has long been interested in mountain lions, agreed: “I think it’s kind of a silly policy. I think children should have access to natural areas. It’s important to their education.”

Byrnes recently stepped up her efforts to get the ban rescinded by initiating a letter-writing campaign. This week, she persuaded the San Juan Capistrano City Council to draft a letter to the Board of Supervisors expressing its support for such a change. And Supervisor Bergeson, whose district includes Caspers, now says that she favors lifting the ban, despite the absence of state legislation limiting the county’s liability in any future attacks.

“As long as there is sufficient warning and the public is fully aware of the danger,” she said, “I think the evidence is pretty clear that there has not been a substantial threat. With reasonable precautions, the park ought to be open to people of all ages.”

Given the county’s financial crisis, however, no one is predicting any action soon.

“There are no current plans to put it before the board,” Fisher said.

In fact, it was the county’s financial crisis that, in part, prompted Byrnes to renew her efforts.

“If you have an underused facility,” she said, “it’s much easier to get rid of it with the excuse that it’s underused. It’s a hot issue. When the bankruptcy occurred one of my fears was that, being a park that’s closed to children, it would be real easy to sell.”

County officials say that they have no plans to sell the park.

“It’s just a question of liability,” Fisher said. “We are concerned that another child could be harmed.”

So life without children remains a daily occurrence at Orange County’s largest wilderness park, where visitors pay $2 per car to spend the day or $10 per car to spend the night amid numerous signs warning of the dangers of mountain lions. Family picnicking has become a thing of the past, Brajdic said, with many picnic tables and a once-popular children’s playground overgrown with weeds.

It was near that abandoned playground on a recent weekday that David Langlois of San Clemente, one of the park’s frequent but rare visitors, paused to reflect on the situation. “I miss the family atmosphere and the kids must miss it too,” said Langlois, who likes to bring his bicycle to the park. “What are they supposed to do, sit home and play Nintendo all day?”

The state of affairs is not a problem for everybody.

In a nearby campground, Eric and Mimi Parkinson--retirees from England--were just finishing their annual two-week vacation at the park. They said they prefer Caspers to other California wilderness areas because the sparse attendance makes it easy to get a campsite. “We like to get away from it all,” Mimi Parkinson said. “Here, you don’t have to make reservations.”

And not far away, John Barrett, a regular visitor from San Clemente, was enjoying a solitary moment under the trees. “It doesn’t bother me,” he said of the park’s ban on children. “I like the quiet.”