[pct-l] campfires
Eric Lee
saintgimp at hotmail.com
Mon May 18 16:14:47 CDT 2015
Judson wrote:
>
I was under the impression that fires of any kind were illegal in So. Cal.
Are they completely forbidden, or just discouraged, or does it vary from
place to place?
>
To specifically answer your question, the legality of a campfire varies from
place to place and from season to season in any given place. In many areas
campfires are not a great idea, even if technically legal at the time, and
are strongly discouraged. Especially this year.
You'll see a lot of people journaling about having campfires, even in places
where it's prohibited, because a lot of people aren't interested in changing
their behavior. Campfires in particular are kind of a difficult behavior to
change because a lot of people have very strong associations between outdoor
camping and campfires, like you're not even really "in the wilderness"
unless you build a fire. Fires are really nice for warmth, and for
companionship, and for cooking, and for all of those reasons many people
aren't willing to give them up. Add a large dose of, "I'm a thru-hiker, I
live in the woods, I know what I'm doing, ain't no one going to tell me what
I can or can't do in my own living room," and, well, you get a lot of
campfires. Very occasionally one escapes and causes problems, but usually
they don't, which only increases the sense of complacency.
Education can help a little bit but a lot of the problem comes down to
"will", not "knowledge".
To be clear, I'm not saying that campfires in high-fire-danger areas are ok;
quite the opposite. I'm just describing why you see what you see.
Eric
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