MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·MTJP Corps
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MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·
A place we watch

Los Padres National Forest

Timing

Nothing is open on this one today. It is a place the Corps keeps an eye on, so we see the paperwork the day it lands.

What is worth photographing here

Along any trail through the mature chaparral slated for the 90,700-acre clearing project, photograph the brush itself: a person or pack for scale, how much is green and living versus dead and gray, and how far the stand runs.

Why we watch it

The wild backbone of California's Central Coast, home to condors, steelhead, and some of the most biodiverse chaparral on Earth. The Forest Service is proposing the largest vegetation removal project in the forest's history: 90,700 acres of logging and clearing across six counties, cutting through critical habitat for nine federally listed species.

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Stand in the unit. Photograph the stand at eye level in four directions.
  2. 02Photograph the ground fuels: needles, brush, downed wood, with a pole for scale.
  3. 03Photograph whether a fire on the ground could climb: low branches and small trees making a continuous run of fuel from the forest floor up into the treetops.
  4. 04Estimate the share of standing trees that are dead in a circle around you, and write it down with the photos that show it.
  5. 05Photograph any evidence of past fire or past treatment.
What would count
  • Live and dead in the same frame. "Mostly green" with the photos to prove it.
  • The fuel on the ground and the way it connects upward, with something in the frame for scale.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Nothing to answer yet

Nobody is asking you to go here today. We watch this place so that the day a decision opens on it, the people who already know it hear the same week. If you are out here anyway, what you photograph now is worth more later than anything taken after the paperwork lands.

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.