Pismo Preserve to close due to regional stay-at-home-order
–In response to recent statewide guidance and regional stay-at-home orders, the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County has decided to temporarily close the Pismo Preserve. The closure was effective starting Friday evening at dusk.
The Land Conservancy posted the announcement, along with the following FAQs, on their Facebook page.
FAQs
Q: How has @landconservancyslo adjusted operations at the Pismo Preserve in response to COVID-19?
A: In March 2020 we temporarily closed the Pismo Preserve in response to state-wide stay-at-home orders. During that closure trails were re-signed for one-way travel and all messaging and maps were updated to reflect travel direction and some temporary trail closures. Restroom cleaning was increased from several times a week to once a day, & additional staff resources were allocated specifically for Pismo Preserve outreach and stewardship. Throughout the summer & early fall we gradually increased the hours and days of operations until it was open daily, knowing that we may need to reverse course if the situation worsened in our community and statewide.
Q. Why can’t you just have more staff and volunteers on the trails to help direct people where to hike and inform them of the rules?
A. The Land Conservancy has increased staff & volunteer presence on the preserve throughout the year. However, the huge increase in visitors over the last few weeks does put our staff at a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 – especially as cases have risen locally and tourism has increased. While we have a few volunteers who continue to help us steward the trails, we are not asking them to put themselves at risk by engaging in public outreach at this time.
Q. If increased trash is a problem, can you put out more trash cans?
A. We ask all of our visitors to embrace the “pack it in, pack it out,” method of engaging with our local open spaces. It may be an inconvenience to hike a mile with your pet’s waste in a bag, but it is a major inconvenience for our staff to hike 3 miles with an entire garbage bag of it. Additionally, the more trash our people have to handle on the trails, the higher their risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Q. Can’t you just reduce capacity, require a permit, or charge for admission?
A. Monitoring capacity or requiring a permit would require significant staffing resources that The Land Conservancy is not prepared to cover at this time. We cannot charge for admission due to funding agreements with our project partners, nor would we want to. Our goal has always been to make this a free and accessible open space for all. Additionally, while high attendance increases the risk of exposure, we are seeing non-compliance with state and federal guidelines and orders no matter the level of use on a given day.
Q. When will the Pismo Preserve re-open?
A. We will continue to monitor state and local guidelines and orders, as well as the overall status of the pandemic in our community. It will remain closed for at least the next three weeks in alignment with state guidelines and our team will re-evaluate the closure at that time
