Highway 33 is a National Forest Scenic Byway taking travelers on a winding, narrow mountain road through the heart of the Los Padres, bisecting some of the most spectacular and remote scenery in the region. When several new and expanded gravel mines threatened to send hundreds of semi-trucks per day along this dangerous route, ForestWatch spearheaded a community effort to keep our forest from becoming an industrial trucking route.
In 2007, ForestWatch organized a town hall meeting in Ojai, spawning the formation of the Stop the Trucks Committee and catapulting local residents into action. With the community’s support, ForestWatch convinced mine operators in Ventura County to prepare the highest level of environmental study before expanding their operations. Just a short year later, our diligent work stopped a proposed mine from sending 138 gravel trucks per day through the heart of the Los Padres. This precedent-setting agreement spurred two other mines not to send any trucks through the forest.
