On June 10, at the Marina del Rey Hotel, in Marina del Rey, the California Coastal Commission will meet to discuss Malibu’s fate about putting overnight camping in our small one-lane box canyons-Ramirez, Corral and Escondido. CalFire and the L.A. County Fire Department have written letters expressing concern over this plan as has county Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky.
Neither the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy nor the Coastal Commission has acknowledged that Malibu has a unique topography, is subject to sudden Santa Ana winds up to 70 mph or more, has a variety of microclimates within the city and that these canyons are designated by the state as very high fire hazard severity areas. Further, the commission and the conservancy have not acknowledged that Malibu has about 700 campsites already in safe areas by the beach, most of which go unused throughout the year.
On its own Web site the commission says (the typos are theirs), “Southern California’s stored hillsides nurture native vegetation that is literally explosive…They are the most desirable, expensive real estate in California. And they burn. Oak woodland, and coastal grasslands also exist here, yet it is among chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats where most of the wildland/urban interface occurs, and where the greatest danger of wildland configuration is present.”
The issue isn’t who starts a fire but what might happen when it starts. Good people do careless things like having a cigarette, drinking too much and starting a campfire to keep warm. The Tea fire and the Corral Canyon fire are good examples. Red flag days mean little as they can arise in minutes.
Picture people in cars, horse trailers, humans leading animals coming down the one lane, steep, pot holed canyon roads bumper to bumper in a fire with flames 40 feet high and winds blowing smoke so thick you cannot see. First responders will be trying to get up the canyon while people are trying to get out. First responders are often from other cities so they don’t know the area. Now let’s add one more layer. Panicky visitors. Total chaos. It happened with the Corral Canyon fire in 2007.
Further, budget cuts will certainly leave us vulnerable with no ranger supervision.
Susan Tellem