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Moderator's Note:
Please note that this is a closure to CAMPING and the closure is due
to unsanitary conditions that are affecting water quality.
The Friends of The Rubicon have been active for the past two years
promoting a "Pack It Out" program as a means to help control
sanitation.
For more information: http://www.delalbright.com/Rubicon/sanitation.htm
Please pay particular attention to sanitation, water quality and your
recreation opportunity.
**********************************
Subject: Fw: El Dorado Co. declares Public Health Emergency next to
Rubicon Trail
Unsanitary conditions causes Board of Supervisors to take action
Unsanitary conditions close camping area on Rubicon trail
Gregory Crofton
gcrofton@tahoedailytribune.com
July 14, 2004
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared a state of local
emergency, closing an area off the Rubicon trail to the public because of an
accumulation of human feces.
The area includes a couple of hundred acres around the Spider
Lake-Little Sluice
area, the most popular place to camp along the 14-mile trail.
The order calls for the area to be closed for 120 days so it can be cleaned up
to the point that it no longer presents a threat to public health
and safety and
the environment, said Jon Morgan, director of the El Dorado County
Department of
Environmental Management.
The order takes effect immediately and is to be enforced by the El
Dorado County
Sheriff's Department and U.S. Forest Service. It does not shut down
any portion
of the Rubicon trail.
"We had a number of reports from the public about the increasing unsanitary
condition and we confirmed it over the weekend," said Jon Morgan, director of
the El Dorado County Department of Environmental Management. "There is human
feces and urine everywhere up there. Hopefully this sends a message
and reduces
the impact of people on nature up there."
The trail boss for the Friends of the Rubicon, which represents more than 400
off-road clubs from around the world, adamantly opposed the closure.
"The government agencies involved have had three years of management
opportunities on this trail and yet have not completed those," said Del
Albright, trail boss for the Friends of the Rubicon and member of the county's
Rubicon Oversight Committee. "This closure is too radical and too premature."
The Rubicon trail, a county road, runs west to east around the
northeast corner
of Desolation Wilderness. It starts in the Eldorado National Forest
at Wentworth
Springs near Loon Lake and ends at Lake Tahoe at Homewood.
On a busy weekend there can be 1,000 people camped within a
half-mile of Spider
Lake, with at least a couple of hundred camped around the lake, Albright said.
Part of the land that surrounds Spider Lake is privately owned. The
rest is land
managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is granite, making it
difficult if not impossible to dig a hole and bury human waste. The terrain is
too treacherous to accommodate any restroom facilities.
"This (closure) is the result of irresponsible parties," Morgan
said. "There are
a lot of responsible Jeepers who pack it in and pack it out."
In 2002, the county bought $10,000 worth of portable toilets and gave them to
people who use the Rubicon trail, according to Albright. The county also
established the Rubicon Oversight Committee in 2001 to work on a
master plan for
the trail.
"There's been no follow up by the county, the Forest Service or the Rubicon
Oversight Committee," Albright said. "I believe before closing it the Forest
Service should have taken the bull by the horns and developed some campsites."
Albright said closure of the area will cause four-wheelers to camp at Buck
Island Lake, just down the road from Spider Lake.
"They are going to find other places; the same number of people are going to
go," Albright said. "If these people move to the next lake, are they going to
close that too?"
Lester Lubetkin, a Forest Service recreation officer, said people
need to bring
portable toilets when they travel the Rubicon.
"What they really need to be doing is packing out their waste," Lubetkin said.
"Otherwise there are just so many people and they'll go to another
spot and end
up with the same problem in a new spot."
- Gregory Crofton can be reached at (530) 542-8045 or by e-mail at
gcrofton@tahoedailytribune.com
Rich Farrington, USFS Pacific SW Region
MOTORIZED RECREATION PROGRAM LDR
Phone (707) 562-8849 Fax (707) 562-9055
email: rfarrington@fs.fed.us
Please note that this is a closure to CAMPING and the closure is due
to unsanitary conditions that are affecting water quality.
The Friends of The Rubicon have been active for the past two years
promoting a "Pack It Out" program as a means to help control
sanitation.
For more information: http://www.delalbright.com/Rubicon/sanitation.htm
Please pay particular attention to sanitation, water quality and your
recreation opportunity.
**********************************
Subject: Fw: El Dorado Co. declares Public Health Emergency next to
Rubicon Trail
Unsanitary conditions causes Board of Supervisors to take action
Unsanitary conditions close camping area on Rubicon trail
Gregory Crofton
gcrofton@tahoedailytribune.com
July 14, 2004
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared a state of local
emergency, closing an area off the Rubicon trail to the public because of an
accumulation of human feces.
The area includes a couple of hundred acres around the Spider
Lake-Little Sluice
area, the most popular place to camp along the 14-mile trail.
The order calls for the area to be closed for 120 days so it can be cleaned up
to the point that it no longer presents a threat to public health
and safety and
the environment, said Jon Morgan, director of the El Dorado County
Department of
Environmental Management.
The order takes effect immediately and is to be enforced by the El
Dorado County
Sheriff's Department and U.S. Forest Service. It does not shut down
any portion
of the Rubicon trail.
"We had a number of reports from the public about the increasing unsanitary
condition and we confirmed it over the weekend," said Jon Morgan, director of
the El Dorado County Department of Environmental Management. "There is human
feces and urine everywhere up there. Hopefully this sends a message
and reduces
the impact of people on nature up there."
The trail boss for the Friends of the Rubicon, which represents more than 400
off-road clubs from around the world, adamantly opposed the closure.
"The government agencies involved have had three years of management
opportunities on this trail and yet have not completed those," said Del
Albright, trail boss for the Friends of the Rubicon and member of the county's
Rubicon Oversight Committee. "This closure is too radical and too premature."
The Rubicon trail, a county road, runs west to east around the
northeast corner
of Desolation Wilderness. It starts in the Eldorado National Forest
at Wentworth
Springs near Loon Lake and ends at Lake Tahoe at Homewood.
On a busy weekend there can be 1,000 people camped within a
half-mile of Spider
Lake, with at least a couple of hundred camped around the lake, Albright said.
Part of the land that surrounds Spider Lake is privately owned. The
rest is land
managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is granite, making it
difficult if not impossible to dig a hole and bury human waste. The terrain is
too treacherous to accommodate any restroom facilities.
"This (closure) is the result of irresponsible parties," Morgan
said. "There are
a lot of responsible Jeepers who pack it in and pack it out."
In 2002, the county bought $10,000 worth of portable toilets and gave them to
people who use the Rubicon trail, according to Albright. The county also
established the Rubicon Oversight Committee in 2001 to work on a
master plan for
the trail.
"There's been no follow up by the county, the Forest Service or the Rubicon
Oversight Committee," Albright said. "I believe before closing it the Forest
Service should have taken the bull by the horns and developed some campsites."
Albright said closure of the area will cause four-wheelers to camp at Buck
Island Lake, just down the road from Spider Lake.
"They are going to find other places; the same number of people are going to
go," Albright said. "If these people move to the next lake, are they going to
close that too?"
Lester Lubetkin, a Forest Service recreation officer, said people
need to bring
portable toilets when they travel the Rubicon.
"What they really need to be doing is packing out their waste," Lubetkin said.
"Otherwise there are just so many people and they'll go to another
spot and end
up with the same problem in a new spot."
- Gregory Crofton can be reached at (530) 542-8045 or by e-mail at
gcrofton@tahoedailytribune.com
Rich Farrington, USFS Pacific SW Region
MOTORIZED RECREATION PROGRAM LDR
Phone (707) 562-8849 Fax (707) 562-9055
email: rfarrington@fs.fed.us