Los Angeles County Dept. of Parks and Recreation will close all botanic gardens, lakes, and local, community and regional parks to the public on Sunday, April 12 in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. An anticipated influx of visitors to parks on the Easter holiday would make it impossible for the public to adhere to the County’s “Safer at Home” order, which requires six feet of physical distance and prohibits group gatherings.

“With the top priority being the health and safety of our park guests, team members, and community, we made the difficult decision close all LA County Parks location,” said Norma E. García, acting director of LA County Parks, in a press release. “We know Easter is day of celebration for many park guests and fun tradition for LA County Parks, and we appreciate the public’s support and understanding as we collectively work to flatten the curve of the coronavirus.”

The city is still under the “Safer at Home” order, “ordering all residents of the City of Los Angeles to stay inside their residences, and immediately limit all movement outside of their homes beyond what is absolutely necessary to take care of essential needs.” Despite this, the parks remained open for public use for leisure time on every other day except April 12.

In addition to parks closing, the Angeles National Forest will temporarily shut down portions of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Los Angeles Gateway Ranger District effective April 3 through July 1.

The closure includes four formal trailheads and 23 informal trail access points, resulting in a larger closure of 23 trails and 19 roads. In total, this results in closure of 81.5 miles of trail (out of 760 open miles) and 54.5 miles of road. The closure does not close the ability to walk on to National Forest System land but does restrict access to roughly 40,000 out of 700,000 acres of the Angeles.