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Group managing Dana Point Headlands preserve submit plan to reduce hours for Bluff Top Trail access

March 7, 2025

An environmental group that manages lands on the Dana Point Headlands — one of only three locations in California where the endangered Pacific pocket mouse is found — has submitted a plan to again reduce the hours the public can use the trail.

The Bluff Top Trail along the ridge of the massive rock outcropping is popular for viewing marine life and sea birds in the ocean below in a town trademarked as the Dolphin and Whale Capital of the World. The trail, now open daily from sunrise to sunset, takes visitors past coastal sage brush and other natural vegetation that’s home to the mice — in 2022, there were 77 counted — and the threatened California gnatcatcher.

But for years, there has been a tug-of-war between the Center for Natural Lands Managment and the city about how much public access should be allowed. The center wants to reduce use down to four days a week and set hours that keep people from being present during low-light times when the mice are more likely to be above ground.

The city, which secured an easement for the trail when home development was allowed at nearby Strand Beach, says the public should be able to enjoy the grounds and vista seven days a week. In 2022, a court order allowed for the daily use, and in May, the city’s Planning Commission solidified those hours by issuing a permit.

The center has responded with its own permit application, which included more than a hundred pages of documentation arguing for reducing access. The city has had it for review since October.

Recently, the Planning Commission agreed that enough information was provided to move it forward and, pending some additional environmental studies, it is now likely the commission could review the center’s application for more limited access by early summer. Center officials called the delay a stall tactic.

“I’m inclined to keep this moving forward,” said Commissioner Eric Nelson, adding the trail high above the Pacific Ocean lies on about 1% of the land set aside as part of the Headlands Development and Conservation Plan agreed to when the homes were built on Strand Beach. “The trail was to maximize public coastal access.”

Nelson said that for the city to consider modifying the trail hours, more review is needed to see how critical the daily times are now in allowing people to travel by foot from the harbor to Salt Creek Beach.

“That’s a 60% reduction in overall use,” Nelson said, referring to the center’s proposal. “That is a significant decrease in access to a public resource.”

While the commissioners may view the center’s proposal as an infringement of public use, the nonprofit’s leaders say their plan is necessary to provide a more ideal habitat for the endangered pocket mouse to exist and breed.

The only other locations where the pocket mouse exists now are on Camp Pendleton and in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, where some mice raised at the San Diego Zoo were released. In 2017, studies of the new population showed they had begun breeding independently.

A Pacific pocket mouse peaks its head out of a hole after scientists from the San Diego Zoo pulled out the cages to release them into the wild at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park on Monday. (File photo KYUSUNG GONG, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

“We are pleased that (Center for Natural Lands Managment’s) appeal was granted,” said Sarah Mueller, attorney for the nonprofit, but added she is unhappy the city has not moved quicker and the group is concerned continued delay and the public’s daily presence are setting things back for the conservation effort.

“(Center for Natural Lands Managment’s) application should have been deemed complete last year,” she said. “This seems to be yet another tactic by the city to improperly delay any decision on the hours for CNLM’s trail.”

City officials are arguing the center needs to examine its management of the headlands preserve and do more to improve the pocket mouse population before considering trail closures. They call the trail an “important visitor-serving coastal amenity.”

According to Mueller, CNLM tracks the mice and data that is already helping understand how the population is doing. They also track the number of people who come through the gates to the preserve and trail. Putting the information together, the group is concerned more use is impacting the mouse population, Mueller said.

With a grant from the Steel Foundation, the center bought the land from developer Sanford Edward in 2005 for $11.9 million to preserve open space on the headlands. The group also received $800,000 from the Department of Defense as mitigation for base impacts on the mouse population.

CNLM is responsible for the preservation and day-to-day management, and the public trail, for which the city has an easement, must be accessible.

The trail opened in 2009 and had the same public hours until early during the pandemic when CNLM closed it. Once it reopened, access was limited until 2022.

Group managing Dana Point Headlands preserve submit plan to reduce hours for Bluff Top Trail access Orange County Register

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Group managing Dana Point Headlands preserve submit plan to reduce hours for Bluff Top Trail access

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