It’s 2020…and Tahoe is closed…again.

Well technically, it’s not completely closed, but it’s going to seem that way in the near future if you had a camping trip planned. It’s not often that we see a statewide closure of national forests, but that is exactly what Randy Moore, Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region, called for in an announcement yesterday. In Southern California, eight national forests are closed completely. What many people missed in that announcement is the finer print that affects national forests statewide, including the entire Tahoe area. As of Monday, September 7th at 5pm:

• USFS Campgrounds are closed (including some that are privately leased)
• USFS Day Use areas are closed, which includes many public beaches (including some that are privately leased)
• Dispersed camping is not allowed in the Tahoe basin, but areas to the north of Truckee are popular for dispersed camping. That is now closed too
• All open flames are now banned on USFS land. This includes wood fires, charcoal, and gas and propane stoves
• Forest Service roads, trail heads and trails are open

Update: On September 9th: Ten additional forests were included in the full closure order. These additional forests include the Eldorado National Forest, Klamath National Forest, Lassen National Forest, Mendocino National Forest, Modoc National Forest, Six Rivers National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Tahoe National Forest, and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

These complete closures essentially mean that all uses of 18 national forests are now prohibited. In addition to restrictions on camping, day use areas and open flame, this closure includes national forest uses like hiking, bike riding, hunting, fishing. The order will be reviewed on a daily basis. Other sources are saying that these orders are in place until at least September 14th. We wouldn’t anticipate changes in camping or open flame & fire restrictions until there is a significant rainfall.

That will leave a pretty big gap in tourism, especially in South Lake Tahoe. As of now, California State Parks, which are more prevalent on the west and north shore of Tahoe, remain open with a fire ban in place. Update: On a morning bike ride, I passed through the Donner Lake SP campground. They had it posted as closed and only a couple of campers remain. I was unable to find anything online about the closure as to why or how widespread state park closures are.

I am in full support of the closure, as the fire danger has been off the charts lately. More than 2 million acres has burned in California this season, and that number is likely to reach 3 million soon…and the fire season is just getting going.

More concerning is that drought conditions have led to some amazing rates of spread this season. The CZU Complex and Loyalton Fires demonstrated that last month, and the Creek Fire near Shaver Lake is rapidly expanding in the southern Sierra this week. California’s fire resources are currently stretched to the breaking point.

It’s not just in California. Yesterday, the Cold Springs fire in Washington expanded to 350,000 acres and ran a distance of 50 miles in one day. That is frightening.

Update: Fires in California, Oregon and Washington were literally beyond belief yesterday. The North Fire Complex near Quincy jumped containment lines and ran 25 miles to the edge of Oroville yesterday. Entire towns were nearly obliterated in Oregon. These conditions are extraordinary. Again, the closures in place around Lake Tahoe, and all of California, are absolutely necessary. It’s a great day to assess your fire readiness, no matter where you are.

The closure will certainly affect businesses that rely on tourism, but I am a firm believer that we are seeing a different kind of tourist this year. That’s a big problem. With shopping malls, movie theaters, theme parks and beaches closed in many areas of the state, people are looking at going camping for the first time this year. If you have walked through the camping goods aisle at WalMart or REI this summer, they are stripped of merchandise. These new campers are not necessarily coming to enjoy the great outdoors. They also don’t understand the concept of “leave no trace.”

It definitely has gotten the attention of not only locals, but also those that have come to Tahoe for years as responsible campers. A group on Facebook focused on litter in the Tahoe area has gained over 2000 followers in the last month. An Instagram account that has been documenting poor behavior by visitors has gained 11,000 followers this month. It’s even dubbed South Lake Tahoe as “San Tahoe”.

People just have not been following the rules this year. Even though campfires have been banned in the Lake Tahoe Basin for a few weeks now, stores continue to sell firewood, and people continue to make campfires. Local fire agencies spent much of the Labor Day weekend patrolling local campgrounds and short-term rentals enforcing the fire ban. We were very fortunate that nothing got out of control.

It’s not just the fire danger. Tahoe is getting trashed. Litter and graffiti problems have skyrocketed. Law enforcement can’t keep up, and neither can local groups that have been volunteering to keep Tahoe someplace that we all want to be. There’s at least a half dozen clean up events today scattered around the Tahoe area, all meant to deal with the impacts of over tourism this summer. Kudos to those out there making it happen.

We’re all waiting for a ski season, that we are all hoping will happen, in some way, for 20-21. A wildfire raging through Tahoe this fall would not be a good thing at all. Hopefully, we can all come together and understand the importance of extreme caution at this time, at least until the rain season begins. We look forward to that happening sometime soon. In most years, we see our first snows in September and the long range forecasts are hinting at that possibility.