I think this closure has to do with the fact that there remains lots of unburned lands that are North, North East, and North west of the mountain communities like Crestline, all the way east to the Green Valley lake area. The lands to the south of these communities are largely burnt now. I'll bet there is alot of heat and anger regarding this situation of hundreds of burnt homes in those areas, even lots of finger pointing about the reasons. There are no doubt thousands of folks, who are the owners of thousands of homes that remain unburnt in these communites, that were facing dire peril from these late summer fires. Just the homes around Arrow Head lake are worth many, many millions of dollars. All of the business and homeowners in those areas ( the ones that didn't get burned out ) now have bluntly seen how far these big fires can go, and how close they came to thier worst nightmare. All those businesses and homeowners have surely been talking it up big time to the USFS that something needs to be done about these big fire threats. This OLD fire burnt all the way up the hills, clear over the top of them into the desert in Hesperia, and over the hills skirting the very edge of Lake Arrowhead, blasting the Hook Creek area and on into Deep Creek around Devils Hole and even further north. I think for these many people, the areas in a Northerly direction from them , like the area around DCHS as part of this, being largly unburnt, present the possibility, give the right conditions, like we saw this late summer, of producing another nightmare fire heading toward these communities from the opposite directin of the other fires. The Willow Fire at its origin, under hot Santa Ana wind conditions would have headed essential right for the community of Lake Arrowhead. As it turned out, the winds in that fire pushed initially North, then eventually to the East. I think the USFS is responding to the ongoing situation of dealing with the aftermath of these devestating fires, and with influence from fears of the mountain communities, closing these unburned areas within the San Bernardino Forest which are unburned close by, areas looked upon as a serious threat. The thing is, much of the forest trees are dead, more are dying everyday, and the threat to communities, is showing itself to be a worsening situation. 85 to 90% of the Bark Beetle killed trees are still unburned. There are still many routes from lowlands to these higher forest areas for big fires to travel under the right circumstances. I don't think anyone truly believes that the USFS, or any agency, can remove a meaningful or significant portion of the dead trees in the expansive San Bernardino Forest. I think sooner or later, these thickly overgrown and disease ridden areas will have to burn. So what is the policy going to be, keep the unburned areas closed until they burn, and when they burn, keep these same areas closed again untill some " Expert " deems that the public can " safely " go back to spend time in whats left. Unfortunatly DCHS, being in the San Bernardino National Forest area ( at the extreme edge ) will get impacted with policies which will in my view, not many times make sense in terms of its specific situation, but this clothing optional hotsprings and the community of visitors who frequent it, will see thier interest far down the list as compared to the economic power and influence of the many business and homeowners in all the nearby mountain communities, and thier concerns and interest. I do find satisfaction in the work we do as the DCV group, and in the considerate contributions of time and effort of its various members. We all know DCHS to be a wonderful place to spend time, and I know many of us will not stop in our efforts to have it available for future rewarding visits.
