UPDATED 9/01/20: In an effort to minimize the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) on park patrons, staff, and the Orange County community at large, and consistent with the guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Governor’s office, the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA), OC Parks are operating in the following manner.

OC Parks is initiating a new firewood policy designed to reduce the risk of damaging Orange County’s oak and sycamore woodlands and other trees from invasive pests.

Effective today, visitors to OC Parks’ two camping parks, Caspers Wilderness Park and O’Neill Regional Park, may no longer bring or burn outside firewood, unless it is commercially produced, heat treated and labeled “Pest Free” or “Safe to Move.” This is due to highly invasive and destructive non-native insects that could travel in firewood and decimate local tree populations.

OC Parks serves as the steward of 60,000 acres of County parks, beaches and open space. This stewardship involves the protection and preservation of sustainable, healthy habitat both for generations of future visitors and also the local wildlife that live in it.

The County’s regional and wilderness parks and open space offer hundreds of miles of existing trails for pedestrian, bicycle and equestrian uses. Building and use of unauthorized trails, however, remains an ongoing issue.

These unauthorized trails cut through preserved habitat and jeopardize public access, native habitat and wildlife. In many parks, OC Parks does not even have the discretion to allow or disregard unauthorized trails; it is bound by state and federal agencies to preserve the land.

Here are some of the top reasons to stay off unauthorized, unmarked trails.

The clocks spring forward early March 8, marking the beginning of daylight-saving time and OC Parks’ spring-summer operating schedule. Most regional parks will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wilderness parks and selected regional parks are open at 7 a.m. and close at sunset year round.

For the past 20 years, Orange County Codified Ordinance OCCO 2-5-29(n) prohibited the use of all motorized conveyances, including electric bicycles (eBikes) on all County bikeways and trails.

On July 17, 2018, the Board of Supervisors passed a revision to the ordinance, making the following exception: “Class 1 and Class 2 electric bicycles, as defined by the California Vehicle Code, on those regional paved, off-road bikeways designated for such use by the Director of OC Parks.”

Currently, this means that Class 1 and 2 eBikes are now permitted on more than 75 miles of paved Orange County regional bikeways. Due to safety concerns, all classes of eBikes continue to be prohibited on unpaved trails within regional and wilderness parks.