Survey of Wildlife Prompts Limits on Recreation Areas

Some of the most popular recreational destinations in the Los Padres National Forest are being closed to campers to protect rare animal species.

The unusual action signals a shift in the management strategy of the forest, which encompasses most of the Ventura County back country and is visited by 11 million people every year.

In all, access to nine popular campgrounds and six forest roads has been blocked or significantly restricted as federal land managers undertake a comprehensive survey of threatened wildlife. Most of the sites overlap streams that are deemed vital to imperiled fish and amphibians.

The federal government was forced to act by a lawsuit filed last year by an Arizona-based environmental group, which accused the U.S. Forest Service of failing to protect 50 endangered species in four Southern California national forests.

Within the Los Padres Forest reside 26 endangered or threatened species, more than in any other forest targeted in the suit. They range from giant California condors to ocean-going steelhead trout to diminutive songbirds.

But there are six species in particular, officials say, that need immediate added protection: the California red-legged frog; Smith’s blue butterfly; least Bell’s vireo, a songbird; southwestern willow flycatcher; southern steelhead; and the arroyo toad. Most of them are entirely dependent on streams lined with lush vegetation and gravelly shoals.

Other Southern California forests, including the Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland, are adopting similarly aggressive management strategies. The restrictions, which will remain in effect for one year, affect everyone from campers and mountain bikers to bird watchers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts, anglers and backpackers.

“Los Padres National Forest provides some of the only remaining habitat for many of these animals in Southern California,” said forest Supervisor Jeanine Derby. /”As we learn more about the condition of different species and their habitat needs, we will be making adjustments in how we manage the land to afford the species the protection they require and to ensure that we are in compliance with the Endangered Species Act.”

Near Ojai, three popular campgrounds--Lion, Middle Lion and Beaver--now prohibit overnight use. Day use is permitted, although U.S. Forest Service officials acknowledge they locked the gates a considerable distance from some sites to discourage people from using them at all.

North of Fillmore, Hardluck and Blue Point campgrounds are closed to campers to protect an imperiled toad that lives in Piru Creek.

Other activities deemed incompatible with endangered species are being curtailed, too: Cattle grazing is restricted on allotments in Monterey County to protect Smith’s blue butterfly; prospecting and mining restrictions are in force on Piru Creek.

Near Santa Maria, a popular off-road vehicle route along Branch Creek has been closed.

Forest service officials say the changes were made after a six-month evaluation of wildlife resources. That review is continuing and could result in even more restrictions.

In some cases, the closures extend seasonal restrictions in place at recreation destinations. Federal biologists say recent studies show that threatened amphibians are more active in the forest than once thought, requiring greater protection.

Officials emphasize that far more acreage remains open for recreational use than has been closed. About 110 campgrounds remain open, and no hiking trails have been closed. Just 22 of 1,590 miles of back country roads have been closed.

Even so, the restrictions have been imposed on some of the most popular recreation areas.

“We understand the impact that these changes, particularly those affecting recreation access, will have on the local public,” Derby said. “The interim closure of favorite campgrounds and roads will certainly disappoint people, and we hope we can help them to find other areas of the forest to enjoy.”

But resentment runs deep among some users. The restrictions coincide with the approach of warm spring days that lure people outdoors and inspire summer vacation plans.

Further, many Central Coast residents are already angry about an experimental program that for the first time charges a fee to visit Southern California national forests. Critics say now they are paying more and getting less.

“I’m bent out of shape about it,” said James Bond, land-use liaison for the San Luis Obispo County 4-Wheelers Club. “We don’t need to close these roads all the time. I think it’s bogus.”

Ruth Miller, a photographer from Ojai, said losing access to some campgrounds north of town is “unacceptable” because the camps serve as trail heads that hikers use to reach swimming holes in Sespe Creek.

“It seems to me the environmentalists are compromising people’s rights for the frogs,” Miller said.

Los Padres forest lands cover 1.8 million acres of brushy canyons, oak woodlands and steep mountains from Carmel to Castaic. Originally established for watershed and fire protection, the forest, like other Southern California mountains, has become increasingly urbanized as millions of people use it for home sites and playgrounds.

The arroyo toad is most at risk, wildlife experts say, and saving it is behind many of the forest restrictions.

Brown, plump and spotted, the toad is found principally in the loose gravel and still, sandy waters of Southern California streams.

Those same places attract people, which is why so many campgrounds were built there. Swimmers and bathers stir up toad habitat and interfere with their breeding. Heavy runoff from last year’s El Nino storms altered stream beds, pushing the sandbars that toads use closer to campgrounds and human contact.

And cars smash them as they hop across roads, explained Forest Service biologist Maeton Freel, who keeps flattened, dried, road-kill toads on his desk.

Records show that the toad was once widely in evidence throughout the Los Padres National Forest. But a forestwide survey in 1990 found just seven egg clutches and 150 breeding pairs. Today, the amphibian occurs in just eight watersheds in the vast forest, Freel said. Among the reasons for the decline are water diversions, livestock grazing, sand and gravel mines, off-road vehicle use and development. The arroyo toad was declared endangered in 1994.

Concern for endangered species prompted the Tucson-based Southwest Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit last year alleging that forest management strategies have failed to protect threatened species. National forests in Southern California were targeted because they contain 80% of the remaining stream-side habitat in the region.

“This is the last hope for endangered species in Southern California, because public land is all that’s going to be left due to development. The public lands in Southern California are becoming like Noah’s Ark,” said Peter Galvin, conservation biologist for the center.

Alasdair Coyne, conservation director for the Keep the Sespe Wild Committee, said that he endorses the decision to close parts of the forest and blames the Forest Service for not acting sooner to protect endangered species.

“It’s something they should have taken care of a long time ago. Because they didn’t, the result is closures have taken place hurriedly and taken people by surprise,” Coyne said.

In the months ahead, teams of federal biologists will comb creeks and streams to more precisely determine where rare animals may be found and how many are left.

Depending on the outcome of those surveys, Forest Service officials say, campground closures in place now could become permanent and other parts of the forest could be made off-limits to recreational users.