Hunting Ban Extended At Santa Barbara Ranger District

[McKenna]

Goleta - A hunting ban within the Lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area of the Santa Barbara Ranger District remains in effect.

Los Padres Forest officials say the Forest Order issued last summer to provide public safety and is now being extended through Feb. 28, 2013.

Violators are subject to a $5,000 fine for an individual or $10,000 for an organization or imprisonment for not more than six months or both. The public is strongly encouraged to report any violations to the Los Prietos Ranger Station on Paradise Road.

For more information please call the district office at 805-967-3481.
http://www.keyt.com/news/local/Hunting-Ban-Extended-At-Santa-Barbara-Ranger-District-145240245.html

I'm not sure what the heck is going on but this is ridiculous, The Forest Service was able to get this ban in place by a max of a couple hundred signatures last year. For those of you that do not know but this will be the 2nd year that hunters will not be allowed to hunt in the lower San Ynez recreation area.

 

[Hikingwithguns]

Yeah they are just going to have an "emergency closure" forevor now. Hilarious that I got back into hunting after a hiatus during college right as this area was closed and its like oh yeah welcome back to hunting in Cali... land of the tree huggers living in wood houses. I'm nervous that hunting access in upper Santa Ynez may be closed down too sometime of they get any complaints. Also, I can't seem to get a straight answer on how far the closure goes, the maps on the website have the closed area going up to falls day use area but that is clearly not the case, and in a call to the forest service station they said the closed area extends all the way up to Gibralter dam.

 

[Rob P.]

The FS has decided that one way to "control" the forest use is to ban certain disliked activities under their emergency powers. Thus, they have banned hunting and shooting sports in a LARGE chuck of the national forest behind Montecito, Santa Barbara and Goleta. The fact that they have now extended the ban shows that they are putting these "emergency" orders into place for unnecessary reasons since an "emergency" cannot logically last over the course of several years.

This is, in effect, a local policital statement being imposed through an abuse of the "emergency" powers of the agency. And, once such an abusive tactic is begun, there is no limit on how far it can be taken. For example, what is to stop the FS from banning ALL hunting/shooting in the entire LPNF under some sort of contrived "emergency?" (Like for heightened fire danger because of a drought.) The answer is none and the only remedy is to sue in Federal Court.

 

[Hikingwithguns]

So I talked to the FS at the LP ranger station, supposedly I can walk through the area with an unloaded weapon to get to areas outside the closed area. Anyone had any problems while doing this, or gotten a ticket while walking through with an unloaded weapon? I'm a bit nervous as the lady at the station while friendly said things like "keep bullets out of your gun in the closed area..." when I use shells not "bullets" for turkey. And she said an area on the topo map was open to hunting, yet when I compared it to the topo of the closure and my gps it was about a 1/4 mile inside the closure. Now I do have 2 areas in mind that are clearly outside the boundaries, but one spot requires me to hike through a closure.

Anyone have any experience hiking through the closure?

 

[Rob P.]

In areas that are closed to the discharge of firearms, you cannot have ammo in the weapon. So, the FS person was correct, keep the bullets out of your guns while going through the closed area.

Passing through should bring you no problems IF your guns are unloaded. The FS is well aware that the trails to legal hunting areas go through the closed portion and that hunters are entitled to use the trails to access those hunting areas.

 

[GSP4Runner]

Does this ban still expire on Feb 28?