I've only been there a few times, but what I saw was dry and arid, but it may have been different on the other side.
Posted on 09/24/2020 6:19:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It’s the most popular park in Monterey County, but Toro Park, which was under a partial shutdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is now closed to all visitors indefinitely due to extensive damage from the River Fire.
The park, which measures more than 5,500 acres in size, saw as many as 4,000 acres burned from the fire. Its extensive maze of hiking, biking and equestrian trails have been damaged.
Advertisement “A vast majority, 80-90% of the trail network was destroyed, so it's a lot of environmental damage,” said Brian Lopes, operations manager for Monterey county parks.
Thursday morning, Lopes led a media tour of the park, giving reporters a firsthand look at the huge burn scar left by the River Fire. Damage in the park and surrounding hillsides could take months and millions of dollars to repair.
“Preventative measures that we need to put in place before winter for erosion and debris control and then rebuilding, replacing fence lines, signposts fencing, repairing trails, some of which are going to require heavy equipment and hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiple millions of dollars. We just don't know,” said Lopes.
Until then, the park that could attract thousands on any given weekend will remain closed. The park is just unsafe. Huge trees damaged by the fire are now described as “killer trees” and pose extreme danger.
“They just aren't safe to be around. They're still burning in the interior where they've been compromised so much that they can fall over at any time,” said Lopes.
Another danger are so-called “ash pits” that continue to burn hot.
“Is still burning upwards of 2,000 degrees. If you step in one of those, you're going to lose your leg,” Lopes said.
No structures were destroyed by the fire and there’s little visible damage to the main park area that contains the playgrounds and picnic areas. But Lopes said the decision to close the entire park was made to prevent many from venturing into burned-out areas.
Lopes and county leaders are asking the public to be patient while damage assessments and repairs are made and obey all closure signs in the meantime.
“Hardest thing to do is tell people not to use a park for what it's intended to be used for and then to have the fire come through and, you know, shut us down indefinitely. It is really tough, it's heartbreaking, it's sad for us,” Lopes said.
Lopes said anyone caught inside the park could be cited.
I've only been there a few times, but what I saw was dry and arid, but it may have been different on the other side.
I am confused as to how a grass fire destroys a dirt trail.
Ping
Where? No information as to locale for those not in whatever area the fire occurred. I suspect west coast, because that’s where all the fires are, but be specific, if not in the title as a topic or keyword. PLEASE!!
Most of the birds on the west coast will be gone for sure.
Monterey is in the keywords, and the first sentence says Monterey County.
Killer trees! To the leftist in CA, everything is bad and extremely dangerous. The freaking leftist are afraid of everything. What they're good at is locking people out, and locking down everything. Manage the parks and forest? Eff that, just lock everyone out and cancel everything.
Ha Ha Ha Ha! to all you California progressive Leftie A88holes! Y’all got exactly what you deserved after voting in socialists and listening to enviro-whackos!
That landscape should have been subjected to controlled burning, using a checkerboard pattern on an annual rotating basis! But, Nooo, you had to leave it alone until it became a fully loaded tinderbox....Ha Ha Ha Ha !!
Y’all put your masks on and go rot in your basements!
It does mention Monterey County which kind of helps but not that much, adding California would not have been that difficult. I agree with you, often I read stories here and have to dig to find out where the heck is the place they are talking about.
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