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Tujunga Wash Golf Course Approved More Coastline Will Be Armored |
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In Santa Barbara County, access roads, campgrounds, and parking lots were extensively damaged and were closed to the public in Gaviota, Refugio, and El Capital State Beaches. Stearns Wharf's pilings, decking, and sewer and water lines were damaged. In Ventura County, part of the Port Hueneme Pier collapsed. In Los Angeles County, State Parks requested an emergency permit for 700 feet of riprap to repair and expand a revetment to protect a parking lot and two State Parks residences at Leo Carillo State Beach. In San Diego County, parking lots at North and South Cardiff State Beaches were damaged, as were restrooms, walkways, and railings. Five emergency permits were issued for riprap adjacent to destroyed or severely damaged homes. At Pacific and Mission Beach, portions of the boardwalk had to be closed to the public. Highway 1 was closed along several stretches of the state's coast. In the wake of this and other damage, about two more miles of the coast will be armored, according to Lesley Ewing, associate civil engineer at the California Coastal Commission. "We would like to see more state and local programs for beach nourishment," she said, "so you start building a beach in front of what's there." With much of the buffer of sand gone along the coast and with groundwater levels high, coastal bluffs and low-elevation oceanfront development will be highly susceptible to future storms, according to a Commission staff report on storm damage.
In Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, winds wreaked havoc on the trail's Lost Coast section between Chemise Mountain and Whale Gulch. Much of the magnificent old-growth fir forest that once shaded the trail now lies pointing seaward and blocking the route, which is passable but difficult. In McKerricher State Park, near Fort Bragg, the Old Road portion of the Coastal Trail was seriously damaged but is still passable. At Point Reyes National Seashore, storm damage closed almost three miles of the dramatic stretch between Woodward Valley and Sky Trail. The available detour offers a route twice as long and much steeper. Storms also knocked out access to Kelham Beach and Sculpture Beach. Repairs may take until summer's end. Farther south, the Palomarin Beach Trail was closed indefinitely. In San Francisco, several slides and slip-outs created rough spots between Seacliff and the Cliff House in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and parts of the Coastal Trail were closed for repair. Some of the storm-driven changes have actually improved the Coastal Trail. For six years a massive mudslide south of Centerville Beach at the north end of the Lost Coast had made beach passage treacherous. In February, waves washed away tons of the mud, leaving the beach clear and passable. While many California beaches were severely eroded, sand piled up at Schooner Gulch and Bowling Ball Beach near Point Arena, leaving the beaches larger and accessible at high tides. In Sonoma County, where driving or cycling Highway 1 near Fort Ross currently requires a storm-wrought detour, another link in the Coastal Trail will be constructed this summer. A new trail will connect Stillwater Cove Regional Park to the upper meadow of Salt Point State Park, eliminating a mile of highway shoulder-walking on the Coastal Trail. - BL Bob Lorentzen, author of several guidebooks to the North Coast, hiked many miles with Richard Nichols while working on their guidebook, Hiking the California Coastal Trail. Volume One: Oregon to Monterey, was published in June and will be reviewed in the next issue of Coast & Ocean.
YOTO events, activities, and resources are multiplying rapidly. The internet may be easiest way to learn what's going on. The United Nations web site: www.ocean98.org; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site: www.yoto98.noaa.gov; and NOAA's new site: www.yoto.com are all loaed with information and links that will connect you with sites all over the planet.
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