U.S. Closes Popular Recreation Site : Bubonic Plague Found in Squirrels at Pine Mountain Area

The U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed the Pine Mountain Recreation Area north of Ojai in the wake of a bubonic plague infestation in squirrels found in one of the area’s two campgrounds.

The Forest Service blocked the entrance to the four-square-mile area’s only access road, off California 33 about 30 miles north of Ojai, said Steve Horne, a Forest Service employee. The move thwarted campers, hunters, hikers and hang-glider pilots who take off from Pine Mountain’s 5,084-foot peak, Horne said.

The closure will last past the beginning of bow-hunting season on Aug. 19, and could be in effect until October, he said.

Thousands annually flock to the area, which includes two semiprimitive campgrounds and some majestic scenery, including a view southwest across the Oxnard Plain to the Channel Islands and northward into the Cuyama Badlands, Horne said.

During a routine check last month, the Ventura County Department of Environmental Health discovered that squirrels in one of the Pine Mountain campgrounds were infested with plague-carrying fleas.

After the discovery--the first “in recent memory” in the Ojai Range area, Horne said--the Forest Service shut the campground, and the county tried to kill the fleas by dousing rodent burrows with insecticidal dust.

Plague-Carrying Fleas

But warning signs about the plague discovery failed to deter vacationers, Horne said.

“We were having trouble keeping people out of the closed campground,” he said. “We’d drive up to check on the area, and people would be picnicking right next to the sign that said ‘bubonic plague.’ ”

That forced officials to take the more drastic step of eliminating access to the entire area, Horne said. The area will remain closed until the plague-carrying fleas are eradicated, he added.

Meanwhile, the dusting failed to bring the campground’s flea population down to an acceptable level--about half a flea per squirrel, said Randall Smith, Ventura County environmental health specialist.

The county is waiting for the state to deliver a more powerful insecticide before it tries again, he said.

Not That Unusual

Smith said plague is not all that unusual in wild rodent populations throughout California.

“It’s not a bloom of plague or anything like that,” he said. “We know that there is plague in Los Padres National Forest. It’s scattered throughout the forest. We just look in campgrounds because that’s where most people would come into contact with it.”

Another Ventura County campground, Chuchupate, near Frazier Park, has been closed since 1981 because of bubonic plague infestation. The county’s Department of Environmental Health is conducting a plague ecology study in an effort to track it in the animal population and find a way to successfully eradicate the carrier fleas, Smith said.

He said the study is due to be completed next summer.