After major fire damage, rebuilding at Toro Park will begin in the spring. Plans are a blank slate for community input.

This time last fall, Toro County Park would’ve been teeming with people on any given day. Families would be grilling and kids climbing all over the playgrounds in the flat grassy area; hikers and mountain bikers would be traversing the 20-plus miles of steep trails; and athletes would be playing softball or volleyball in the athletic fields.

These days, there are no people. Instead, deer roam freely through the picnic area, wild pigs have torn up the turf in search of insects to eat, and flocks of turkeys stand on picnic tables as if they were groups of children playing king of the hill.

The park has been mostly closed to the public for much of the past six months due to the pandemic, and it closed entirely on Aug. 17 when Cal Fire set up an incident command post to fight the River Fire. (Cal Fire evacuated all nonessential personnel from their base camp on the night of Aug. 20, as the fire moved in their direction.) Cal Fire has since packed up and moved on, but it’s now been more than a month since Monterey County officials announced the park would be closed indefinitely.

More than half of the 5,595-acre park burned in the River Fire, including as much as 90 percent of the trail network. Even weeks after the fire was fully contained, the smell of smoke lingers. Footprints of wildlife are visible not in dirt, but in layers of black ash. Moonscaped hills where there was once thick chaparral are the primary view.

That’s the scene on a recent media tour of the park damage led by the Monterey County Resource Management Agency. Their plan is to let nature continue to reign over the park until next spring when rebuilding efforts begin.

Winter rains are expected to wash out loose soil and debris, and trails damaged by the fire will likely be eroded making the rebuilding process pointless if done beforehand.

“We have to let nature do what it’s going to do,” says RMA Parks Operations Manager Bryan Flores. “Why would we build something that could potentially be destroyed?”

County parks officials are also waiting for Cal Fire to complete an initial Watershed Emergency Response Team report, which will include a soil burn severity map and also an analysis of the terrain, flood history, fire history and geology to create a model of what might happen in the fire area as the ecological recovery begins.

“We have to let nature do what it’s going to do.”

Until trail restoration begins in the spring, Flores asks that people respect the park closure for two reasons: to let the park heal, and because it’s still an extremely dangerous area where Cal Fire crews continue working.

Stump fires are still burning at more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. There are dozens of “killer trees” marked with a skull and crossbones; they might not appear burned on the outside, but have been hollowed out by fire and could collapse at any moment. And there are stress fractures in the soil in places that may appear to be stable, but could fall away.

Rangers are patrolling the park for would-be trespassers, and violators can be arrested for trespassing.

“We know people want to come in because they’re curious,” Flores says. “But it looks like any other fire area.”

There will be a time when community members will be encouraged to come back though Toro Park. In fact, they’ll be invited to participate in the rebuilding process when it comes to planning.

Cal Fire is responsible for the repairs of fences and dozer lines, anything caused by firefighting tactics. County Parks will be responsible for repairing damage from the fire itself and any subsequent slides this winter.

Flores sees this as an opportunity to rebuild the park in a way that solves problems that existed before the fire, and to have more community input.

The Monterey County Parks Commission trail advisory committee will confer with biking and hiking groups, equestrian centers and other community members about what they want to see in the rebuilt park.

“It’s going to be a community effort once it starts,” Flores says.