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The lush green hills of a quaint vineyard valley lead to trails in the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. Located in St. Helena, Calif., the park is known for its rare redwood trees. For the first time, the park is undergoing a seasonal closing, but may remain closed as one of 70 California state parks to be officially shut down this summer.
Park rangers, such as Karyl Woodward, are concerned over the closures proposed by California Gov. Jerry Brown, to begin July 1.
“Mostly, I’m concerned about where they relocate me, because right now my kids are in a great school system,” said Woodward. “I might get moved to a place where there is more crime.”
Woodward and other park service employees are also worried that historic buildings will be vandalized, wild fires might start, and illegal marijuana growth will propel while there is no supervision.
Rural and local businesses will also be affected by the 70 closures, for “not all of California is a big city,” said Jerry Emory, director of communications at California State Parks Foundation. “There are a lot of local communities that depend on traffic from state park routes, where people stop to get gas, ice, groceries …,” he said.
Last year Gov. Brown announced that 70 of its 278 parks will be closing in a effort to save $22 million in FY 2012–13. California’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) was asked to pick the 70 parks that would least affect revenue and public visitation.
“In the past six years, our general tax supported budget has gone from $175 million to what will be $99 million on July 1 of this year,” said Roy Stearns, deputy director of communications at DPR.
“Based on that, we felt we could no longer adequately operate all parks on an acceptable public level,” he said.
Stearns says the villain here is not the government, but the Californian economy. “That is the reality … until our economy turns around, we can’t spend money we don’t have. This is not the fault of any governor or legislature.”
All departments across the state—including education, healthcare, and welfare—will have to undergo cuts, according to Gov. Brown’s Budget Summary.
DPR says that, based on the choices made as to which parks will be closed, 94 percent of existing revenues will be preserved, despite losing 70 parks.
Some say the closings are unnecessary and detrimental. “Compared to the overall deficit, maintaining state parks is just a blip on the screen,” said Emory.
With 70 million annual visits, the state parks are a popular and “affordable way for people to enjoy the outdoors and recreate amidst economic hard times,” Emory said.
According to Emory, studies have proven that for every dollar the government puts into state parks, three dollars is generated through local spending. It would be “foolish” to close the parks.
Playing Politics?
With Gov. Brown’s new budget proposal announced Jan. 5, the jobs of park rangers and seasonal lifeguards may serve as “trigger cuts,” according to Emory.
Gov. Brown suggests a “temporary tax increase on the wealthy, and a modest and temporary increase in sales tax,” in order to cut less from education, according to the governor’s Budget Summary.
If the proposal is rejected, 24 percent of park rangers will lose their jobs and some seasonal lifeguards will lose their jobs in order to continue shortening the deficit, according to Stearns.
“It’s probably a negotiating tactic on his part, because how can you not have lifeguards?” Emory said. “He’s definitely playing politics with state parks.”
The government “only wants to reduce the deficit,” said Stearns. “Economic times are tough and cuts need to be made.”
So far, nine of the 70 parks have been rescued by donations from various organizations and partners, but will only operate on weekends. The funding will also only last for a year, according to Emory.
With the new budget and deadline for full park closures being implemented July 1, Stearns is optimistic that there is still time to receive support and keep the doors open. “We will definitely find more partners by then,” he said.
In addition, the California State Parks Foundation is planning on copying England’s National Trust program of using historic buildings as hostels.
“This generates revenue … and they’ve had a lot of success,” Emory said. “We are also doing research on that. There are a lot of people who are very interested in history.”
The foundation is also looking into being more strict with park tolls to generate more money for the parks.
According to Emory, there is currently a $1.2 billion deferred maintenance bill for state parks, and that total will be “increasing daily when you close them,” despite closures.“How do you reopen a park? It might cost them more to reopen parks than the money saved by closing them,” Emory said. “That’s what the park managers think.”
