Preparation of a new San Jacinto Mountains Community Wildfire Protection Plan has begun. To prepare an update to the 2006 plan, the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council has received a $55,000 grant from the California Fire Safe Council, which received the funding from the U.S. Forest Service. Dave Kehrlein, ESRI of Redlands, presented the steps…

As of Saturday, May 21, the Idyllwild office of the San Jacinto Ranger District on the San Bernardino National Forest reopened following a more than two-year closure. The office closed in March 2020 due to COVID, according to Natural Resource Specialist Andy Smith. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday to Monday, and…

April showers fell on the Hill as the month ended. But these were kinder and gentler than the February downpours, and many April flowers have already bloomed. At the U.S. Forest Service’s Keenwild Ranger Station, 0.4 of an inch was recorded Monday. This brings the total recorded rainfall at Keenwild to 28.27 inches since Oct….

Riverside County’s Planning Department has proposed major changes to Ordinance 927, “Regulating Short Term Rentals” (STRs). The draft is available for public comment. (See the March 10 edition of the Town Crier for details on the proposed changes.) The existing ordinance was approved six years ago when STRs were raising hackles mostly in the county’s…

By Flavia Mangan ColganContributor Flavia Mangan Colgan is a former political commentator and newscorrespondent who works as a writer and in the nonprofit sector. Shelives in Idyllwild and San Diego. Corporate influence on the single-family home market is growing at adisturbing rate and is a nefarious problem that deserves more scrutiny.Institutional investors have advantages over…