HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-21-2017 Item 8, KrejsaCOUNCIL MEETING: -21-11
ITEM NO.: 5!
FEB 2 2 2017
CITY CLE
From: Richard J. Krejsa [
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 4:39 PM
To: E-mail Council Website <emailcounci! slocit .or >
Cc: Harmon, Heidi <hharmon@slocity.org>; Pease, Andy <apease@slocity.org>; Gomez, Aaron <agomez@slocity.org>;
Rivoire, Dan <DRivoire@slocitv.crg>; Christianson, Carlyn <cchristianson@slocity.org>
Subject: NIGHT HIKING IN CITY OPEN SPACES
To: City Council <emailcounciWslocity.yr >
cc: Heidi Harmon <hharmon@slocity.or>; Andy Pease <apease@slocity.or >; Aaron Gomez
<agom ez @ sl ocity. o r >;
Dan Rivoire <drivoire@slocity.or >; Carlyn Christianson <cchristianson@slocity.org>
From: Dr. Richard J. Krejsa <
Subject: Night Hiking in City Open Spaces
Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,
My name is Dr. Richard J. Krejsa. In 1971, 1 became Co -Founder and Frist Chairman of ECOSLO. In 1994, after
35 years of teaching fisheries biology, resource conservation, and comparative anatomy at a total of 5 well-
known institutions of higher education, I retired from Cal Poly's Biological Sciences Department as Emeritus
Professor.
During 1994 and 1995, 1 was one of two biologists that served on the City of San Luis Obispo's Environmental
Quality Task Force (EQTF). At that time I also contributed to and helped review our first Open Space Element.
Our goal on the EQTF was to understand the diversity of organisms, plant and animals, that lived within the
planned borders of the City of SLO and to plan the preservation of Open Spaces that would be saved, not
developed, to protect those organisms in our greenbelt. If you have not yet read the EQTF's final report, I
heartily recommend that you do so.
City Parks were to exist for People. The Open Spaces were to be protected spaces for the natural organisms
living therein or upon: They were NOT to become parks! Aside from erosion and plant damage, one major
potential widespread ecological damage of night hiking would be the role of lighting on behavioral activities,
e.g., feeding, mating, nesting, etc., on local terrestrial vertebrate fauna, i.e., amphibians, reptiles, birds, &
mammals. Lots of life histories!
Over those past years as professor, my job was to profess to my students whatever I believed, on the basis of
scholarship and experience, to be the current biological truths as I understood them. I now profess to you
that I am vigorously opposed to allowing any form of night -hiking in any of our City's Open Spaces and/or
Greenbelt. Asking city residents to allow night -hiking will definitely degrade the precious open space ecology
that some of us have spent thousands of hours trying to preserve over the last 20+ years.
Recently, a Cal Poly student, hiking illegally on Bishop Peak after dark, fell off a cliff and was severely injured.
Peakside neighbors and those from adjoining neighborhoods were subject to: the chopping noise from three
rescue helicopters; beams of powerful searchlights scanning the peak and surrounding areas; hillside
disturbances of rescuers climbing up and down the mountain; and sheriff's sirens. No one likes to hear of
anyone being accidentally injured but this accident happened while the hiker was illegally hiking on the
mountain after dark. It should and could have been avoided.
As a final thought, I don't know what the civic fine is for night-time hiking on Bishop Peak but I doubt if it
comes anywhere close to paying for the costs of such a rescue all of which, I presume, are borne by
city/county taxpayers. Please increase, but don't repeal existing fines for night-time hiking.
Dr. Richard J. Krejsa