Lake Shasta businesses can apply for exemptions to national forest closures. Here's what it means.

Buoyed by concerns from businesses that depend on Lake Shasta, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest is allowing those businesses to apply for an exemption to the temporary forest closure.

Due to the unprecedented number of fires and the limited resources to fight them, the U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed all national forests in California until at least Monday, Sept. 14. Lake Shasta sits in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

“This is good news for us. We are already calling employees back,” Lake Shasta Caverns General Manager Matt Doyle said on Friday.

Doyle said the U.S. Forest Service told the caverns and other businesses on the lake on Thursday that they had to close.

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The decision comes as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has been reporting this year's acres burned is 26 times higher than the acres burned in 2019 for the same period.

“We were reeling,” said Doyle, who’s also president of the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association. “We had a great, fantastic weekend at the caverns. The marinas, it’s been one of the best years ever and then to get this uppercut.”

Doyle said he and other business owners didn’t understand the mandate, especially since the lake was open to tourists in 2018 amid the Carr, Delta and Hirz fires.

“We were an island. We were surrounded by fires and we weren’t closed then. I had to take a boat to come to work,” Doyle said because Interstate 5 was closed for a time.

Nonetheless, the wildfires raging in California this season have been moving and growing at unusually fast rates, creating terrifying situations. 

A fire that broke out over the Labor Day holiday moved so fast in the Sierra National Forest south of Yosemite National Park that it trapped hundreds of campers. They had to be rescued by helicopters from the Creek Fire. Fire officials said they’d never seen a fire move so fast in forestland — 15 miles in a day, the Associated Press reported.

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On Wednesday, a wildfire in Plumas National Forest spread 25 miles in a day and charred an estimated 400 square miles, the AP reported. And the day before, there was also the Dolan Fire in Los Padres National Forest that doubled in size overnight and trapped 14 firefighters who had to deploy their shelters.

Lake Shasta businesses and some of their employees met with U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, on Thursday afternoon to talk about the closure and express their frustrations.

By getting the exemption, the businesses will be required to take full responsibility for the safety of their customers and make sure their employees and customers follow the rules of approval, the Forest Service said.

The exemptions are being allowed on Trinity Lake, too.

All other closures will remain in effect, which means no shoreline or land-based activities. All boat launches on forest land also will remain closed, the Forest Service said.

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David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.