Title
Chief Administrative Office, Parks Division, recommending the Board:
1) Approve and authorize the Chair to sign a letter of support to the Placer County Board of Supervisors for efforts to consolidate maintenance work on the Rubicon Trail; and
2) Direct staff to coordinate with Placer County in pursuit of an agreement between Placer County and El Dorado County.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The Rubicon Trail traverses El Dorado County (14.6 miles) and Placer County (7.5 miles) and across three national forest units. The two counties have authority and responsibility to enforce state and federal laws and county ordinances within their respective jurisdictions. El Dorado County has jurisdiction of the 14.6 miles of the trail within El Dorado County, the Eldorado National Forest has jurisdiction of 0.3 miles of the trail within Placer County; the Tahoe National Forest has jurisdiction of 5.3 miles of the trail within Placer County; and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has jurisdiction of 1.9 miles of the trail within Placer County. In the past, there was some confusion around which agencies held official jurisdiction and management responsibility of trail segments within the different agencies' boundaries, which led to minimal maintenance and management in certain areas along the trail. Since the 2009 Clean-up and Abatement Order issued by the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board in 2009, which has since been rescinded, the counties, Forest Service, and the State of California Parks, Off-Highway Vehicles Division have worked together to address sanitation, contamination, and erosion issues along the trail.
El Dorado County has successfully implemented a program for the Rubicon Trail, reliant on State Parks grant funding and Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) registration fee funds, for ongoing maintenance and management of the Rubicon Trail within El Dorado County, and often outside El Dorado County boundaries. In recent years, El Dorado Cou...
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