By Serena Guentz

Noozhawk Staff Writer

With the arrival of the new year also comes a long list of new laws taking effect in California, ranging from housing development to food waste recycling, minimum wage increases, and police and criminal justice system reforms.

The following are just some of the several laws that went into effect in California starting on Jan. 1.

Senate Bill 3, which was approved by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, will be increasing the minimum wage in California to $15 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees and $14 per hour for those with 25 or fewer employees.

There are a few news laws targeted at reducing waste and methane emissions, including Senate Bill 1383 which requires residents and businesses to recycle green waste and food waste.

Santa Barbara County residents who are served by the Tajiguas Landfill and live within the ReSource Center “wasteshed” do not have to change how they manage waste, and that includes Buellton, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Solvang, and the unincorporated areas of the Cuyama Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and the South Coast.

The landfill’s Materials Recovery Facility, also known as the ReSource Center, processes and separates organic waste from trash to be made into compost and energy.

The County Public Works Department asks people in these areas not to mix food scraps in with yard waste (green containers) since it interferes with the mulching process.

In an effort to reduce plastic waste, Assembly Bill 1276 prohibits restaurants from providing single-use foodware accessories or standard condiments unless requested by consumers. Correctional facilities, health care facilities, residential care facilities, and public and private school cafeterias are exempt.

For housing development, Senate Bill 9 allows property owners to split lots and build additional residential units in areas zoned for single-family housing.

Many jurisdictions, such as Santa Barbara and Goleta, have approved ordinances to put local conditions on SB 9 or to make high-fire-hazard zones exempt.

Senate Bill 10 authorizes local governments to zone for up to 10 residential units per parcel in urban areas or “transit-rich” areas.

Several police reform bills will be going into effect Jan. 1, including Assembly Bill 48, which restricts and sets standards for the use of rubber bullets or tear gas for crowd control, and Assembly Bill 26, which requires officers to immediately report potential excessive force and requires officers who fail to intervene to be disciplined up to and including in the same manner as the offending officer.

Assembly Bill 490 prohibits law enforcement officers from using restraint or transport methods that carry a significant risk of positional asphyxia, or suffocation.

Assembly Bill 89 raises the minimum qualifying age for peace officers from 18 to 21, and Senate Bill 2 creates a process for peace officer decertification by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training for serious misconduct. SB 2 also eliminates several legal immunity provisions for officers.

Senate Bill 73 will end mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and allow eligibility for probation in these cases.

New laws relating to labor and employment include Senate Bill 62, which prohibits by-piece pay for garment workers, and Assembly Bill 701, which would require warehouse employers to disclose quotas upon hire and provides that employees are not required to meet quotas that interfere with mandatory rest or meal periods and bathroom breaks.

Assembly Bill 397 requires the Employment Development Department to provide notice before disqualifying an unemployment claim so the individual can correct any mistakes.

A few pieces of legislation extend COVID-19-era practices.

Assembly Bill 37 requires vote-by-mail ballots to be sent to every registered voter for each election.

Under Senate Bill 389, eligible businesses can sell alcoholic beverages to-go with meals until Dec. 30, 2026, extending a practice allowed under COVID-19 restrictions.

Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com.

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By Giana Magnoli,

Noozhawk Managing Editor

Redistricting commissioners met Friday to review proposed Santa Barbara County supervisor district maps submitted by members of the public.

More meetings are scheduled in the next two weeks to narrow down the field to four or five focus maps.

On Dec. 8, the commissioners will choose one map to adopt.

The Santa Barbara County Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is charged with picking a map with boundaries for the five county supervisor districts based on 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Map-drawing criteria include districts that are about equal in population, minimize dividing cities and communities of interest, and be geographically contiguous and compact.

County residents have been weighing in on the maps and which communities they think should be linked in a district together. Comments are accepted during public comment at the meetings and by sending written comments redistricting@countyofsb.org.

You can review and compare the proposed maps in a map view here and view them all in PDF form on the website at https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/view-draft-maps/.

Santa Barbara County’s South Coast communities have a population too large to fit fully into two supervisorial districts and too small to completely fill three districts, and it’s the same situation for North County and Mid-County communities.

So the question becomes, which South Coast communities are split off from the rest, and to join which North County and/or Mid-County communities for the Third District? 

The current map for the Third District groups together Isla Vista and southwestern Goleta with the Santa Ynez Valley, part of the Lompoc Valley and Guadalupe.

At Friday’s meeting, some speakers advocated for Isla Vista to be in the same district as Goleta, and for Guadalupe to be with Santa Maria.

Upcoming Meetings

» Monday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. meeting in person in Santa Maria and accessible via Zoom.

Meeting held at Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building Board Hearing Room, 511 East Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria.

» Thursday, Nov. 18 at 12 p.m. meeting accessible via Zoom only.

» Monday, Nov. 22 at 6 p.m., meeting in person in Santa Barbara and accessible via Zoom. Narrow down submitted maps under consideration to a group of four or five focus maps.

Meeting held at Planning Commission Room, 123 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara.

» Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m., meeting in person in Santa Maria and accessible via Zoom. Narrow to two or three focus maps.

Meeting held at Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building Board Hearing Room, 511 East Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria.

» Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 6 p.m., meeting in person in Santa Barbara and accessible via Zoom.

All meetings can be viewed live via Zoom, with links on the agenda website here: https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/calendar-agenda/.

The county redistricting page with the meeting calendar, draft maps and other information is available here: https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/.

— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com.

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By Joshua Molina

Noozhawk Staff Writer

Santa Barbara will join other jurisdictions in the county to create a combined Regional Fire Communications Facility.

The city expects to pay about $756,000 to be part of the single communications facility designed to improve response times for fire calls. 

The council voted 6-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to move forward with a five-year contract to share the technology. 

“This is absolutely the best thing for the community,” Fire Chief Chris Mailes said. 

The jurisdictions that will be part of the group include Santa Barbara County Fire, the Santa Maria Fire Department, the Montecito Fire Protection District and the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District. The Lompoc Fire Department is expected to jump on board in the coming weeks as well, Mailes said.

Mailes said the current system is outdated and “fragmented.” The systems don’t have electronic access to one another in order to see other agencies and who is available to help with a fire. 

“It would be like having Verizon and AT&T as your cell phone providers, but they can’t talk to each other,” Mailes said.

What that means is often when someone calls 911 for medical help, the firefighting crew that responds isn’t always the closest in terms of geography. With the new system, the closest team will respond, regardless of jurisdiction.

“We will have fire-centric, expert emergency dispatchers with expert interrogation dispatchers,” Mailes said. “There will be robust staffing for major incidents.”

Santa Barbara County will pay for the regional dispatch center, which includes the building design and construction, all telephone and computer aided dispatch, equipment, hiring and training of all dispatchers, and logistics from county departments. The city’s commitment includes an annual payment based on a per-call basis.

The total calls for service in Santa Barbara have increased from 10,620 to 11,347 annually.

Mailes said the new dispatch center will be placed next to the county office of emergency services building, 4408 Cathedral Oaks Road.

Members of the Santa Barbara City Council praised the plan. 

“The closest, most available help will be coming, regardless of jurisdiction,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said. “True fire knows no jurisdiction, and really it’s the front lines for our whole city to be safe. Regardless of jurisdiction, the closest truck will come.”

Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com.

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Noozhawk Sports Editor

Junior quarterback Luke Gildred had a career night, rallying the Santa Ynez High football team to a 34-30 non-league win over Lompoc on Friday night at Pirate Field.

It was the Pirates’ first win over the Braves since 2009 and the first for Santa Ynez coach Josh McClurg in the rivalry.

Gildred completed 20 of 34 passes for 328 yards and five touchdowns. Aidan Scott and Tyler Gregg each caught two touchdown passes and Daulton Beard hauled in the other.

Lompoc quarterback Cavin Ross threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Deville “Joker” Dickerson and Sheldon Canley Jr. broke off a 48-yard run to help the Braves take a 17-13 lead in the first half.  Canley ran for another score in the second half to help the Braves take a 30-20 lead.

Gildred guided the Pirates to two touchdowns with 4:30 to go in the game. 

Between the two scores, the Santa Ynez defense stopped Lompoc on downs with two minutes to go. 

The Pirates scored to take a 34-30 lead. 

On Lompoc’s next possession, Nolan Oslin intercepted a pass to end the game.

It was the second straight defeat for Lompoc, which falls to 3-2. The Braves have a bye next week before opening Channel League play at home against Santa Barbara on Thursday, Sept. 30

Santa Ynez won its fourth straight game. The Pirates (4-1) are back in action Oct. 1 against Cabrillo in their Pacific View League opener.

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By Tom Bolton, Noozhawk Executive Editor

Mike Eliason is known to many as a source of timely information about wildfires, crashes and other public-safety incidents in Santa Barbara County.

But the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department found himself in a very different role Sunday night, when a stranger broke into the home he shares with his wife, Kathy, in the Mesa neighborhood in Santa Barbara.

Eliason was out of town at about 6:45 p.m. when he was alerted by cameras on the property about a possible intruder.

“The guy pulled right in and parked in the driveway,” Eliason told Noozhawk.

Eliason watched via his security cameras as the man walked into the courtyard, then climbed a fence and proceeded into the backyard.

The man found a crowbar or piece of metal in a backyard shed, Eliason said, and smashed a side window, gaining access to the inside of the home.

Eliason called the Santa Barbara Police Department’s communications center to report the break-in, and officers were dispatched to the scene.

He provided a description of the suspect, and kept the dispatcher apprised of where the man was in the residence.

The intruder spent a lot of time rummaging around in the house, Eliason said.

“He was going through drawers, opening cabinets and taking down pictures,” Eliason said. “He went into the garage and got into my car.”

Police officers quickly surrounded the home and ordered the man to come out, but he was not compliant, and the incident continued for nearly two hours, according to police.

Eliason was able to remotely open the window blinds, which aided officers in tracking the suspect’s whereabouts in the residence.

Eventually, a police K-9 dog was sent in to locate and detain the suspect, who in the meantime had gone into a bedroom closet and donned one of Eliason’s County Fire Department uniforms.

After a brief struggle with police, the man was taken into custody shortly after 9 p.m., according to police Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale.

The suspect, identified as Trey Von Duus, 21, of Buellton, was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of felony burglary, resisting arrest, and vehicle theft, Ragsdale said.

He remained in custody Monday, with bail set at $50,000.

The vehicle Duus arrived in was found to be stolen out of Santa Ynez, Ragsdale added.

The whole experience was a unique one for Eliason.

“I’m used to providing information about fires and crashes, but this was something I’d rather not do,” he said.

— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. 

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A San Jose educator has been hired as the next superintendent for the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District.

Andrew Schwab was selected Tuesday night to replace Superintendent Scott Cory, who announced his departure in March after eight years on the job. 

The board also approved a three-year contract, starting July 1, for Schwab, with an annual salary of $171,360 for a work year of 220 days.

“We’re excited to have you on board,” said Jan Clevenger, president of the district’s board. 

Most recently, Schwab has served as associate superintendent of learning and innovation at the Union School District in San Jose.

He comes to SYVUHSD with a background as a high school teacher, plus experiences with educational technology, strategic planning, cutting-edge curriculum development, budget and fiscal planning, and professional development, Clevenger said. 

“Mr. Schwab brings a vast compliment of educational initiatives and outstanding leadership opportunities to the district,” Clevenger said. “His vision and expertise in the use of technology implementation to improve student learning will impact the success of all students and staff.”

Schwab also has a sound track record in building and implementing sustainable technology plans, Clevenger added.

Other details of his contract include that Schwab will not receive paid vacation or holidays, but will accrue sick leave at a rate of one day per month. 

He also will receive a $50 monthly cellphone payment and $250 allowance for transportation within Santa Barbara County.

“I am very excited to be joining the district,” Schwab said. 

Information about upcoming meet-and-greet opportunities for students, staff and community will be shared soon, he added.

Previously, he worked as an information technology consultant, including being focused on getting technology into the classroom.

He earned his associate’s degree from Oxnard College, bachelor’s degree in computer information technology from Humboldt State University, and master’s degree in information technology from American InterContinental University.

He also is pursuing his doctorate in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California.

The Army veteran also held a number of IT and computer-related jobs for various firms and organizations before entering the education field.

Schwab has been involved in state-wide education advocacy, and served two elected terms on the board of directors of Computer-Using Educators (CUE). He also served on the California Department of Education’s K-12 High Speed Network advisory board, and currently is a member of the advisory board for the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.

The Santa Ynez Valley board hired a consultant, McPherson & Jacobson LLC, to guide the search for a new superintendent. The firm has ties to the California School Boards Association.

The high school district includes two campuses, the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School and a continuation school, Refugio High. 

Students come from six elementary school districts — Solvang, Buellton, College, Los Olivos, Ballard and Vista De Las Cruces — in the Santa Ynez Valley.

— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com.

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By Janene Scully
Noozhawk North County Editor

Vandenberg Space Force Base accounts for a $4.5 billion economic impact annually in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, but that value could grow in the coming decade to reach $6 billion based on forecasts.

On Friday, the same day Vandenberg was renamed to note its role in the U.S. Space Force, a study revealed the installation’s contribution to the regional and state economies — and forecast how future plans could benefit. 

“What we found is what many people in communities around the base already know — that Vandenberg provides substantial positive economic benefits well beyond its borders and that its anticipated future growth presents even greater economic opportunities to nearby counties and the state as a whole,” said Dr. Cyrus Ramezani, a finance professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and lead author of the study.

The study, commissioned by REACH, a regional economic development organization, and conducted by Cal Poly, also was funded in partnership with Santa Barbara County. 

The base is responsible for 16,000 direct and indirect jobs in the two counties, the study noted.

According to estimates, 1,968 new jobs per year could be added in key careers such as professional, scientific and technical services as well as construction and administrative services. 

However, longtime Santa Barbara County residents know that programs planned for Vandenberg often never materialize. Additionally, the axe can fall abruptly on programs — such as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, the West Coast space shuttle and American Rocket Co. — before any liftoffs because of government cancellations or financial woes, especially among commercial firms.

“The analysis undertaken in this report showed that the economic impact of VAFB on the surrounding communities and the State of California will grow over the next decade by the anticipated increase in military activity on the base, the potential infrastructure improvements in the City of Lompoc, and the proposed private-sector commercial space activities envisioned in the Commercial Space Master Plan,” the report states.

The first phase of that plan, a multiagency effort, should be released in the coming weeks, REACH officials said. One proposal calls for building a business park outside Vandenberg’s security area to foster aerospace and technology firms as the base looks to become “the spaceport of the future.”

“Vandenberg is excited to be launching into a new era of cooperation with commercial partners to further national security strategic interests while contributing to the economic vitality of the region,” said Col. Anthony Mastalir, commander of the base’s renamed primary unit, Space Launch Delta 30.

The study also noted that retired military personnel and veterans, who remain on the Central Coast, boost the local economy through direct spending and contributing valuable skills as employees for local industries and as small-businesses owners.

Additionally, local communities benefit from a sizable number of government and business visitors to the base along with tourists attracted to the area for missile tests and rocket launches. Both employees and tourists fill hotel rooms, rent vehicles and eat at local restaurants, providing a boost to the economy.

The study identified several benefits of growing military and commercial space activity at the base beyond total economic impact and job creation.

Those include creating more long-term, higher-paying jobs, which have been growing more slowly than lower-paying jobs in the two counties and increasing employment opportunities while helping reduce income disparities in the county. 

More activity at Vandenberg also would mean additional avenues to retain and attract high-skilled talent, including graduates of UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. 

“This study really illuminates the many and far-reaching ripple effects of having the nation’s premier West Coast launch site in our backyard,” said Andrew Hackleman, REACH chief operating officer.

Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com.

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Noozhawk North County Editor

Solvang City Attorney Chip Wullbrandt has resigned days ahead of the expected termination of his contract. 

Wullbrandt reportedly submitted his resignation late last week, ending his gig as city attorney days before Monday’s special meeting of the Solvang City Council. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Monday.

That meeting, called by new Mayor Charlie Uhrig at the end of Dec. 14 meeting, has two items set to be discussed in closed session as allowed by the Ralph M. Brown (Open Meetings) Act. 

The first item identifies public employee discipline, dismissal or release of the city attorney. 

A second item involves public employee appointment and identifies the position as the city attorney. 

After meeting behind closed doors, the council is set to return to open session to possibly approve the city attorney contract and direct City Manager Xenia Bradford to execute the new deal. 

Neither Wullbrandt nor Bradford would release Wullbrandt’s resignation letter, and Uhrig did not respond to a query about the matter Saturday night.

Wullbrandt, from the Santa Barbara-based firm of Price, Postel & Parma LLC, has spent 18 months as Solvang’s city attorney. 

“I was essentially recruited by the former mayor, Ryan Toussaint, in mid-2019. I really liked his and the City Council’s vision for Solvang, and very much enjoyed working with and for the former City Council,” Wullbrandt told Noozhawk in a written statement. 

He said the former council had “big goals and a very active agenda.”

“I worked many hours beyond what I billed, and we got a lot accomplished. At PP&P, we pride ourselves on doing a thorough and professional job for our clients. We are not cut-rate or cheap, but we are efficient and effective,” he said. 

Solvang, like other jurisdictions, has experienced challenges because of the COVID-19 restrictions, which severely affected tourism industry. During the time, Wullbrandt contends, PPP “served the city well in response to the numerous challenges it faced.”

“The new mayor and at least some of the new council want to go in a different direction from the former council, and it makes sense that they have the ability to work with counsel of their own choosing. We wish the city the best.”

Wullbrandt was named interim city attorney after the former legal counsel resigned in May 2019. Although his hourly rate exceeded others who submitted proposals to serve the city, the council hired Wullbrandt as the permanent city attorney. 

He quickly racked up a tally that far exceeded the former attorney’s annual rate of approximately $100,000. From July through November, Wullbrandt has submitted invoices seeking payment amounting $159,905.

At some point last year amid concerns about his high costs, Wullbrandt included a “courtesy discount” on invoices.

For instance, an invoice on the August agenda and dated July 30 cited $49,181 as the total, but included a courtesy discount of $13,717, putting the price at $35,421. 

An invoice dated June 30 added up to $61,869, but was trimmed by $34,717 with the courtesy discount, so the payment sought amounted to $27,152.

For the first nine months of the prior fiscal year, his payments topped $500,000.

Wullbrandt also was more involved than most city attorneys, such as riding in the 2019 Julefest Parade with City Council members.

He often touted the fact that since he was local, the city did not pay for travel to meetings. 

With Wullbrandt as legal counsel, Solvang has been accused of violating state law on open meetings, forcing the panel to rescind the improper actions. 

The prior city attorney, Dave Fleishman from the Atascadero-based firm of Hanley & Fleishman, announced the resignation in May 2019.

“The City Council majority is entitled to and should be served by a city attorney whose ethical standards and commitment to the rule of law more closely match their own,” Fleishman said in a written statement.

Since then, Hanley has retired and Fleishman has joined the firm of Richards Watson & Gershon, which has a San Luis Obispo office.

Fleishman serves as the contract city attorney for Pismo Beach.

— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. 

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Noozhawk North County Editor

Citing COVID-19-related street closures, the Solvang City Council decided Monday night to defer any decision regarding allowing a second horse-drawn carriage firm to operate.

DoubleTree Carriages applied to operate horse-drawn carriages in the city, but Councilwoman Karen Waite made a motion to deny the request and suggested that the business reapply later.

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Contributing Writer

Wednesday, June 3, along perennial Davy Brown Creek: It’s 91 degrees at 11 a.m., buggy, and not surprisingly, there are no other campers at this enticing U.S. Forest Service backcountry camp.

The forest service finally opened up overnight camping at many campsites on June 2, yet ironically closed down open campfires, except for specific developed sites listed at its website, including Davy Brown in the Santa Lucia District.

In any event, my spouse and I wouldn’t dream of making a campfire in such warm conditions, and one is honestly unneeded. The springtime breeze wafts gaily through the small, well-watered canyon as wildflowers wilt and fall to the ground. The ubiquitous yellow monkey flower bushes hold on bravely while their friends huddle in the dust.

A view from Davy Brown Camp.
Photo by Dan McCaslin

Davy Brown Creek’s waters spurt wildly over the rocks and boulders, creating the water music melodies that human brains instinctively enjoy.

At campsite No. 7 — my favorite — we backed the small truck beneath the towering oaks to a position just 10 to 15 feet from the musical water’s melodious warbling. At night, we heard the booming hoot owl’s cries, and daytime redtail hawks relentlessly hunted about. Quail ran all over the roads.

For $20 per night, we slept in the truckbed covered by a fiberglass shell while the hydro-orchestra churned vigorously all night beneath shining moonlight. Go to https://campone.com/campground-finder/ to make reservations online.

Here’s what you get for $20: a wooden table, an iron firepit (legal for fires), a stand-up barbecue grill, a pit toilet down the road and access to a trash dumpster. It’s about the same at nearby Nira Camp and over at Figueroa Mountain Camp (no water there at all). The heat and wind must be brutal high up in little-used Figueroa Mountain Camp.

My partner and I vividly recall camping at Davy Brown in the late 1980s with our son; the feds (not Parks Management Co.) charged $2 per night, and they provided running water from a faucet at each campsite (and trash pickup). Later, when the shaky plumbing failed, Davy Brown campsites were free, but the earlier pit toilets were sensationally gross, and there was no trash pickup.

Later in the day, we ambled along the very rough camp road to the uppermost campsite, “behind the huge boulder,” where we met the only other overnight camper — a wonderful fellow I know, and quite a rhythm-and-blues musician. After a chat, we walked back to No. 7 and never saw him again.

Married in the iconic year 1968, three weeks before the Black Student Union took over UC Santa Barbara’s North Hall (Oct. 14), my partner remembers enjoying our car camping adventures in Greece (the Peloponnese), the eastern high Sierra Nevada, Mexico, Anza-Borrego and other locales, but the Davy Brown site at the edge of the San Rafael Wilderness rocks in special ways.

As Henry David Thoreau knew, we humans need both a social life and solitude, and he discussed both states in depth.

Photo by Dan McCaslin

As environmental historian Jedediah Purdy writes in his latest book, “This Land Is Our Land,” Thoreau thought both states were absolutely necessary but obviously impossible: “Alone, you were in the company of received ideas, condescending self-judgment, anxiety that you were not doing your part; in company, you were alone in your strange mind … throwing words like stones into the pools of other people’s minds, disturbing their smooth surfaces” (Purdy, p. 62; see 4-1-1 Books).

“Adjacentcy” is my neologism that I often use in my hiking books when trying to explain some of the odd benefits of the unhappy Anthropocene Age we’ve created as a species.

Adjacentcy describes the situation, for example, in Los Angeles County with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy trails area of 75,000 acres, or how 4,300-acre Griffith Park in Los Angeles is the largest U.S. municipal park with an urban wilderness in the United States.

We Barbareños pushed up against the sea by the Santa Ynez Mountains also enjoy a magnificent adjacentcy with the literally adjacent 400-acre Rattlesnake Canyon Wilderness Area and the many frontcountry and backcountry trails.

Thus, in a single overnight spent in our small truck at Davy, we experienced a welcome adjacentcy and tight proximity to genuine wilderness, yet we’re only a 90-minute drive from Santa Barbara. As I have pointed out in earlier columns, there are at least five very good day hikes coming out of Davy Brown (or nearby Nira).

Certainly, other city folk come up just for the day, and if you park just outside Davy Brown Camp, you need not give your money to the Parks Management Co. since you won’t be staying the night or using the amenities.

We vagabonds from town flee to the outback, and the lucky adjacentcy eases our exits from town. When I’m sitting at site No. 7’s rickety wood table at 4:40 a.m. (June 4), I can just detect the predawn light in the east, although sunrise is actually at 5:47 a.m.

The creek’s cackling cacophony and merry roars never cease and accompany adjacentcy cogitations.

Davy Brown and the other backcountry sites are “primitive” in the best sense of that term — no white noise, few humans, consistent wassermusik, abundant flora and fauna. Since I’ve never owned a cellphone, I don’t miss the constant contact and cannot stand the idea of being alone together.

Campfires do seem to be allowed in developed campsites, but the forest service isn’t very clear about it. Reading the fine print on the board at Cachuma Saddle indicated that Davy Brown and Nira Camps were OK for woodfires (lead photo).

On the Wednesday afternoon, amid high humidity, heat and flies buzzing, the storm gods sent a brief 20-minute shower with ominous thunder simply to astonish the denizens below. I didn’t even bother to put a rainfly on the erected small tent that held some of our gear.

One great thing about the wilderness is how she always surprises you.

4-1-1

» Books: J. Purdy, “This Land Is Our Land” (Princeton University Press, 2019).

» Driving the 47 miles to Davy Brown Camp: Take Highway 101 north to Highway 154, drive past Lake Cachuma to the Armour Ranch Road turnoff at the Santa Ynez River concrete bridge. After one mile, turn right again on Happy Canyon Road. Davy Brown Camp is one mile before the road ends at Nira Camp.

— Dan McCaslin is the author of “Stone Anchors in Antiquity” and has written extensively about the local backcountry. His latest book, “Autobiography in the Anthropocene,” is available at Lulu.com. He serves as an archaeological site steward for the U.S. Forest Service in the Los Padres National Forest. He welcomes reader ideas for future Noozhawk columns, and can be reached at cazmania3@gmail.com. 

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