By If you’re heading to a Southern California beach with your dog, or if you’re hoping to build a beach bonfire, here are some tips:
Beaches and Dogs
For dog owners, please call ahead. Most Southern California beaches don’t allow dogs on the beach, and for good reason. It can be fun to take Fido for a run through the waves and throw him a Frisbee or two. But beach rangers say the dogs can cause two problems. First, the poop factor, so clean up after Fido! Second, dogs, even if well behaved and leashed, tend to drive away wildlife and reduce beach habitat values.
Wes Chapin is an interpretation specialist for the California State Parks Canal Coast District, which operates state beaches from Oxnard to northern Santa Barbara. He says studies of beach trails that allow dogs have come up with surprising findings: In areas where dogs are allowed on the trails, even on leashes, wild animals stay much further away than in areas where dogs are prohibited.
The finding probably has to do with the predatory ancestry of dogs and the understandable wariness of wild animals, says Chapin. But whatever the reason, the presence of dogs discourages wildlife.
Find a dog beach
That said, dog beaches beyond. In Southern California, the communities of Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Ocean Beach, Oceano, San Clemente, and Seal Beach, as well as Mission Bay in San Diego, have dog-friendly beaches. Check with each community’s website for specific information.
Beaches and Bonfires
Fire pits are practically ancient: a gathering place for storytelling, and when they’re a beach bonfire, there’s the added fun of that ancient beach desert: s’mores. Building fires by the sea, California however, with our ever-present wildfire dangers, well, some beaches ban beach fires or have strict restrictions.
Chapin points out that many well-meaning beachgoers carefully put out their fires at the end of the night and painstakingly cover the remaining embers with sand. That may sound like a good idea, says Chapin, but all he does is keep the embers buried and the sand above them warm so that some beachgoer burns their feet the next day.
Find a bonfire beach
California state beaches don’t allow beach fires, period. If you have your heart set on a fire pit, call ahead to find a beach that allows them and find out what the beach rules are. Some cities, such as Huntington Beach, maintain concrete fire rings that have become a local tradition. Also, be sure to use only natural, unprocessed wood that won’t pollute the beach with contaminated debris. And of course, take out your trash, including bottles and cans.