Owens Valley drama over re-opening, or never opening, or who knows?

Allegra Davis wrote: There's a lot of wrong information information in this thread, as well as old information. The Sheet article was based on a meeting that occurred a few weeks ago. There was an Inyo County Supervisors meeting last week  that cleared a lot of things up. DeSenze was part of this meeting, representing Inyo NF (he is a district ranger, not the sheriff).

From what I heard in the meeting, Whitney will remain closed via the winter gate because it is a huge tourist draw and an area where lots of SAR is required. Inyo County controls this gate and does NOT want people "hiking in from the gate".

Buttermilk Road and Pine Creek road are not going to close because they are more local recreation areas in summer months. However, Inyo County does not currently want people traveling to use these areas  and they will close if they become overwhelmed with people. (Also there isn't any mining going on in Pine Creek anymore).
Inyo NF avoided large scale closures because they are difficult to quickly reverse once the Eastern Sierra decides to re-open.

This is not how I read it.

First, the Buttermilk and Pine Creek roads are already closed, until at least May 15, and not apparently as winter closures.  Moreover, the stated and documented intent of the INF Supervisor, Randal-Gates, was to have this closure go until (at least) June 30, per official "Forest Order".  According to the article by Zachary Hite, closure through June was deemed unlikely to be approved at the Washington level, and quotes Randal-Gates as saying that they decided to keep them closed under winter closure rules.  But that's not how the current order reads, and more importantly, it appears that Randal-Gates issued an order that she apparently did not have the authority to issue.  I note also, that you can't find the April 14 order at the INF website--the link to it by Monical Prelle goes to an entirely different, archival website.

As for the various local meetings, I don't know, it's not clear to me, but those two articles are within four days publication date of each other.

EDIT: As pointed out by Allegra below, the Buttermilk and Pine Creed roads are NOT currently closed--my mistake and apologies.

FYI - As far as I know, all seasonal road closures are still in effect. 168 is closed at Aspendell, Rock Creek is closed at the Sno Park, Whitney Portal is closed at the low gate, and I think the White Mountain Road is gated as well. Additionally, the Alabama Hills, the Gorge, and the Happy and Sad Boulders are all closed. All Forest Service campgrounds are currently closed. All PCT permits for the entire season and Inyo Backcountry Permits through at least 5/15 have been cancelled.

My guess re: Buttermilk and Pine Creek is that they were looking at areas with easily controllable access to primitive camping. As of now, they remain open, but you can bet they'll shut them down if a ton of people start living up there.

Alistair Veitch wrote: East-side local here. All the land managers and different local authorities (town, county, forest service, BLM, LADWP, ....) are in a tough spot. On the one hand, we have limited local health facilities and have seen what high visitation rates do to drive local outbreaks. On the other hand, that tourism/visitation is the lifeblood of the local economy. Everyone is trying to figure out how to reopen, when to reopen (given that LA area still looks bad, and most visitors come from there) and what to reopen. Whatever happens, someone is going to be unhappy. Looks like things will open up gradually over next few weeks/months, and hopefully we will not see another jump in infections to go with that. 

Actually LA isn’t that bad.   Almost half the deaths have been residents of long term care facilities.    That is a tragedy but it really isn’t bad in LA.  Hospitals aren’t overburdened and there is no lack in care.  In fact hospital occupancy is down 50%.All this is good news but it doesn’t mean it will stay this way.  The state has to start reopening slowly and as it does people need to be prepared for a spike in deaths, this will happen.   How we respond to it is what matters.  My fear is that the government will overreact and double down on closures.   If towns like Bishop and Mammoth don’t start opening up it will decimate the local economy.  I know there are MANY locals who would be happy never to see another out of towner again and I get it.   Many of those people rely on out of towners to spend money in Bishop which in turn goes to pay for the hospital, police, fire and many other services they enjoy.   Those who left the big city will be forced to move back to the big city as the economy drys up and jobs disappear.    Inyo and Mono need to be doing what the rest of the state has been doing for awhile and wear masks and social distance, I just read an article in the Mammoth Times that said the county now suggests wearing masks when shopping.  That’s a little late to the game if you are that worried about it, this story was less than a week ago.   If Mono and Inyo counties are going to survive they need to start slowly opening up. 

Ethan Ayer wrote:

I think people who will flock to the Sierras for outdoor recreation will still be cautious about patronizing retail and restaurant stores.  They will use gas stations, supermarkets because they have to and still impact the area by parking and camping wherever they can. I'm not sure how much re-opening the area will benefit the local economy overall. It will certainly help some businesses more than others.

I don't know, but if and when I make it to the east side, I will specifically come down 395 and patronize whatever I can in the small towns along the way, Topaz, Bridgeport, Lee Vining, Big Pine etc.

J. Albers wrote:

Unfortunately, "people getting outside responsibly" is unlikely to be what actually happens. Here in CO, at least one of the local mountain counties (maybe more) were essentially forced to close down roads to non-locals because they were being absolutely flooded with Front Range people. Cars parked everywhere in totally inappropriate ways, clogging roadways, and absolutely flooding the trails with people (not to mention the requisite SAR calls that go with the flood of people). They tried asking nicely for people to 'be responsible", but the reality is that people are selfish a-holes and the only way to manage things was with a closure order. And yeah, a lot of people screamed "my rights are being trampled!!", but tough sh*t if you ask me. My guess is that LA and Bay Area folks are no different than Front Rangers and without enforced dissuasion, Eastside rec areas would be similarly overwhelmed. 

What I read about colorado was that "locals" found an excuse to try to keep others out, as an over-reaction.  If people parked illegally, the solution is called a parking ticket.   When people are out in the snow, they tend to spread out and are generally too far apart for virus spreading.

Climbers may be closer together,  and some will not separate enough.  So the question becomes if a few people seem to be gathering, does that mean the entire area needs to be closed?  Because the same question can be asked about almost every other activity on the planet.  Are you planning to close the entire planet?  Social gatherings up to 10 people are legal here in San Diego, whether that is a good idea or not.  So making climbing rules tighter than other activities is not going to solve the disease problem.  Or are we still claiming that climbing accidents will overwhelm the emergency rooms?

I met some people in Wrightwood who were doing the PCT and they are headed your way!!!  The HORror!

J. Albers wrote:

Unfortunately, "people getting outside responsibly" is unlikely to be what actually happens. Here in CO, at least one of the local mountain counties (maybe more) were essentially forced to close down roads to non-locals because they were being absolutely flooded with Front Range people. Cars parked everywhere in totally inappropriate ways, clogging roadways, and absolutely flooding the trails with people (not to mention the requisite SAR calls that go with the flood of people). They tried asking nicely for people to 'be responsible", but the reality is that people are selfish a-holes and the only way to manage things was with a closure order. And yeah, a lot of people screamed "my rights are being trampled!!", but tough sh*t if you ask me. My guess is that LA and Bay Area folks are no different than Front Rangers and without enforced dissuasion, Eastside rec areas would be similarly overwhelmed. 

LA is 4 hours to Bishop and the east side.  The Front Range is a little more accessible for day use users than the east side is for LA folks.  It’s not as if when things start opening up you are going to get Mule Day crowds.   I live in a town of over 100,000 closely spaced residents and people aren’t getting sick and dropping dead around us.  At last count there were 260 cases and 20 deaths, all but one of the deaths were convalescent residence.   If people maintain distancing and wear a mask around others the risk is very manageable. 

Holy sh#t, how fast do you drive?

I live on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, but I can look at a map. Four hours? Damn, warn me when you're leaving please.

And to that poster above, it's the Sierra. There's no "s" on the end. Unless you're talking about the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre, and other "sierras," plural.

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

LA is 4 hours to Bishop and the east side.

Bishop to downtown LA is 4.5 hours with normal speeding (e.g., 70 in a 65 zone). 

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

So the fishermen are acting like climbers now??

Nah, they still shower and don’t shit all over the boulders.

Brad Young wrote: Holy sh#t, how fast do you drive?

I live on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, but I can look at a map. Four hours? Damn, warn me when you're leaving please.

And to that poster above, it's the Sierra. There's no "s" on the end. Unless you're talking about the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre, and other "sierras," plural.

Google Maps is showing 4 hours and one minute right now from my house in Burbank.   I’ll be driving up that way tomorrow but rest assured I won’t be stopping anywhere in the Owens.

^^^

Thanks for the warning ;)

Allegra Davis wrote: These roads are not currently closed. 

You're right, I mis-read--it's apparently only the Whitney Portal and Red's Meadow roads that are closed right now (plus all the campgrounds and visitor centers).  

My main concern is the original (Apr. 14) intent to close them all until June 30.

Jon W wrote:

There is no hydroelectric plant in pine creek. The pine creek mill is maintained by caretakers so that the owners can retain the claim. They applied for a permit for a hydro plant a few times but were repeatedly denied (at a federal level). 

Thanks, Jon.

Kevin Mokracek wrote: Actually LA isn’t that bad.   Almost half the deaths have been residents of long term care facilities.    That is a tragedy but it really isn’t bad in LA.  

Still got the highest per-capita infection rate in the state (it was Mono for a while, but we've dropped down to ~6th. yay?)

(Edit: I had mistakenly written country instead of state above)

Inyo and Mono need to be doing what the rest of the state has been doing for awhile and wear masks and social distance, I just read an article in the Mammoth Times that said the county now suggests wearing masks when shopping.  That’s a little late to the game if you are that worried about it, this story was less than a week ago.   If Mono and Inyo counties are going to survive they need to start slowly opening up.

Mask wearing in Mono is more than a suggestion, it's required, and has been for a couple of weeks. No mask, no service is the rule, and it's going to stay that way for a while I suspect. Mono was also one of the very first places to shut down (maybe SF was first, but we were within a day of that I think) in the state. Everyone here been pretty good about the social distance thing.

Alistair Veitch wrote: Still got the highest per-capita infection rate in the country (it was Mono for a while, but we've dropped down to ~6th. yay?)

You meant in the state (I hope at least, otherwise you're woefully uniformed).

Inyo County has had one COVID fatality, which gives a per capita rate of 6 per 100k, which is also the statewide rate, and about half the rate in LA County (14/100k).

Austin Donisan wrote: You meant in the state (I hope at least, otherwise you're woefully uniformed).

Yes, mistype. Edited, thanks for pointing that out.

So the California Depatment of Finance just came out with a report that estimated a $54 billion proposed state budget deficit over the coming year. And a rumor is going around that the 2022 proposed state budgetary deficit is being estimated at $45 billion. This means that the State is expecting a very long, agonizing recovery. This also likely means mass layoffs of state employees, reductions in funding for parks and other recreational areas, less protection of natural resources, etc.

This is all to say that, even if Owens Valley does open up again soon, the quarantine has probably already sealed the fate of most of the locals up there. I expect depopulation to occur.

I don't think DWP will be laying to many people off. We have a high % of retired folks up here. It will be interesting to see the long game. Where are we going to go? The rest of the state will be in worse shape & other states will be in much worse shape. Ca. has a huge rainy day surplus which most states do not have.