Bergeson to Propose Letting Children Into Caspers Park

Orange County Supervisor Marian Bergeson said Friday that she will press for the reopening of Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park to children, after a state appellate court ruling that may protect the county from lawsuits involving mountain lion attacks.

Emphasizing that she nonetheless sees a need for caution, Bergeson said that under her proposal, youngsters would be allowed on wilderness hiking paths only in the company of rangers or other experienced park guides. Children were banned from the 7,800-acre county park near San Juan Capistrano after two much-publicized mountain lion attacks in 1986. In the first, a 5-year-old girl visiting the park with her parents was mauled. She lost the use of one eye and was partially paralyzed. Seven months later, another mountain lion 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 Board of Supervisors voted to ban children from the park altogether.

This was necessary to protect the county from further lawsuits, county officials said.

After children were banned, attendance there dropped sharply, making the cost per visitor to staff Caspers more than triple that of other county wilderness parks, according to a memo Bergeson received Friday from Michael M. Ruane, county Environmental Management Agency director.

Ruane said that since the ban, the county repeatedly has tried and failed to obtain legislation limiting its legal liability from harm caused by mountain lions.

However, Bergeson said a state appellate court decision published Thursday and brought to her attention by County Counsel Terry C. Andrus gives the county “sufficient cover” to go ahead immediately with plans to let children back in Caspers Park.

Bergeson said the appellate court, ruling April 27 in Santa Barbara on a case involving a mountain lion attack on a 9-year-old boy in Gaviota State Park, determined that the presence of mountain lions in wilderness areas is a “natural condition” that gives the state immunity from liability.

“It would be reasonable to re-evaluate the decision that closed the park (to children) in light of the new court decision,” Andrus said. The decision by the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles would supersede any lower court ruling on the issue, although other state appellate courts could reach a different conclusion.

Bergeson said that even before learning of the court decision, she had been working with Ruane and Robert G. Fisher, the county’s director of harbors, beaches and parks, to design a plan to accommodate children safely at Caspers.

Holly Veale, a Bergeson aide, said the supervisor was responding to letters she had received from families “across the county” demanding a change in the no-children policy.

Bergeson said that on May 16 she will ask the Orange County Board of Supervisors to approve reopening Caspers to all park visitors. Ruane said that Andrus will have more thoroughly analyzed the significance of the appellate court ruling by then, and the Environmental Management Agency will have drafted a more detailed plan to try to protect children from mountain lions.