San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Recreation: Widely varied park, beach rules cause confusion
Drive to South Lake Tahoe this weekend, and you’ll risk getting a $1,000 fine for violating El Dorado County’s notravel order, put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet anyone in California can tow a boat to the Berkeley or Richmond marinas to launch on San Francisco Bay.
In the five weeks since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the stayathome order, every county, city, park district and water agency has its own interpretation of how it would be implemented. As a result, closures of park and recreational sites across the state have been haphazard. Those looking to engage in outdoor activities are often confronted by a clashing series of regulations.
“We have people here in Marin that are using great care to shelter at home, but we have people showing up at the dock from Fresno, Placerville and Manteca,” said Keith Fraser, who runs a bait shop at Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael.
The governor’s order includes the provision, that “individuals may leave their residence … to engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with the Social Distancing Requirements, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, or running.” While the order doesn’t have an expiration date, many cities have set May 3 as the date to consider lifting at least a portion of the rules.
On the Peninsula, San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow ordered that travel be restricted to within 5 miles of a residence. In many rural counties with no or few cases of coronavirus, the consensus is to restrict travel to within a county.
In San Diego, where the county has shut down all lakes, parks, beaches and boat ramps, more than 20 residents called in to a virtual Fish and Game Commission hearing last week to assert that their “constitutional rights as Americans” give them the freedom to drive five or six hours to the Sierra.
“That places everybody in harm’s way,” responded James Richardson of the Inyo County
Department of Health.
The California Department of Parks and Recreation recommended residents leave their cars at home. “Public health officials are advising the public to walk, run, hike and bike in their local neighborhoods and walk to parks,” said Adeline Yee, spokeswoman at California State Parks.
Here is how different areas have reacted to the governor’s stayathome order:
Rural versus urban: According to The Chronicle’s Coronavirus Tracker, Trinity, Modoc, Lassen, Sierra and Mariposa counties have no positive cases of the coronavirus; Tehama and Alpine counties have one case each; Del Norte two; Plumas four; Siskiyou five (one active, four recovered); and Mendocino five. To put that in perspective, Los Angeles has more than 17,000 cases (and adding about 1,000 per day) and the Bay Area has passed 7,000. This has rural areas, many with large senior populations and limited health care facilities, on edge that visitors from cities could bring the coronavirus into their small towns. “We’ve requested people stay away right now,” said Nicole Williamson, director of Alpine County’s Health and Human Services.
Cities versus coastal towns: In San Francisco, Marin and the Peninsula, most parks, open space and watersheds are closed to parking, and on weekends on the Peninsula trailheads, nearly all parks are closed to all access. With few recreation outlets during good weather, city residents are traveling to the coast, clogging Highway 1 in Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, Stinson Beach and Point Reyes Station. Outraged residents see the arriving vehicles as an invasion of the coronavirus to their towns. After a Saturday encounter with gridlock on Highway 1, Derek Mitchell, a Marin resident, sent an email to The Chronicle asking: “Did everyone go to Marin?”
Baydelta boating: For access to San Francisco Bay, boat ramps are open at marinas in Berkeley and Richmond. “We have a ton of people coming from Sacramento, Stockton, new people,” said Eddie Mendoza at Berkeley Marina. Yet other harbor districts shut down their boat ramps at Oyster Point in South San Francisco, Coyote Point in San Mateo,
Loch Lomond in San Rafael, and Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay. On the Petaluma River, the ramp in Petaluma is open, yet the one just downriver at Black Point is closed; same river, different counties, different rules. In the SacramentoSan Joaquin River Delta, public boat ramps are closed but resort and privately operated boat ramps are open.
Santa Cruz: This month, County Health Officer Gail Newel shut down all surfing, beaches, parks and trails, and banned outoftown visitors. Deputies then issued $1,000 fines to 249 violators in a week, a story that made national news. In a reversal, Newel then lifted the order. Beaches are again open. In a news conference last week, Newel said she was working with officials in Bay Area cities on rolling out less restrictive rules after May 3.
Lakes near, far: In the Sierra foothills, Lake Amador near Ione, Bullards Bar near Camptomville, and Camp Far West near Lincoln are open, yet nearby Camanche, Pardee and New Hogan are closed. In the north state, Shasta, one of the few open lakes, has been crowded with boats and fishing traffic. Distant Trinity and Almanor are also open. Meanwhile, Lake Tahoe, Berryessa, Don Pedro, New Melones, Folsom, Collins and Jenkinson are closed. In the greater Bay Area, San Pablo, Los Vaqueros, Del Valle, Chabot, Lafayette and Loch Lomond reservoirs are closed.
State parks: At all 280 state parks and beaches, roads, parking, camping and picnic sites are closed. It’s a mishmash of what is open and closed to hiking or biking, as long as you don’t drive to get there. According to State Parks’ listings of closures on its website, the list “is dynamic,” which means, like everywhere across the state, according to who makes the call, it could change at any time.