Keeping parks afloat
Written by Kurt Madar, The Triplicate July 24, 2009 03:18 pm

Budget deal likely to spare the redwoods

Escaping the coastal fog, Simone Wendt paddles in the sunny day use area of Jedediah Smith State Park on Thursday. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant AndersonThe specter of closed state parks has haunted Del Norte County since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed shutting down almost all of them to help bridge a $26.3 billion deficit.

With a tentative budget agreement now reached in Sacramento comes the question, what is going to happen to Del Norte County’s state parks?

No one is sure, but the fact that the redwoods parks attract so many visitors each year may spare them.

However, smaller parks in the county like Tolowa Dunes State Park and Pelican State Beach aren’t as well known.

“This would be devastating for our little community, not to mention harmful to the park itself,” Tolowa Dunes Stewards spokeswoman Sandra Jerabek has said.

While some might think that closing Tolowa Dunes State Park north of Crescent City would decrease the human impact on sensitive plants and wildlife in the area, Jerabek said the result would be quite the opposite.

“It won’t be possible to keep people out of Tolowa Dunes,” Jerabek said. “People will continue to use the park, but all the good stuff like oversight and infrastructure will go away.”

To see more photos from the river click here.

Pelican State Beach is a beach access point north of the Lucky 7 Casino in Smith River. The beach has a bathroom and picnic area.
According to Andy Bird, Assemblymen Wesley Chesbro’s media liaison, the budget deal contains a net reduction in revenue for  California’s park system totalling $8 million, but where those cuts will be made is still unknown.
The reason that the parks are only losing $8 million is due to funds being found from other state sources, said California State Park Foundation Vice President of Government Affairs Traci Verardo-Torres.
The state parks budget is approximately $143 million a year from California’s general fund. In the proposed state budget, $70 million will be cut from the parks general fund allotment Verardo-Torres said.

Jedediah Smith State Park is expected to remain open under the budget deal. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson“State legislators found $62 million from other sources,” she said. “We are happy, given the overall economic condition of the state right now, it’s the best we can do.”

Verardo-Torres is not happy about what this may mean for the future.
“We are definitely worried about next year given that they did actually take $70 million,” Verardo-Torres said. “We are not out of the woods yet.”
At least for this year, however, the outlook is mildly optimistic.
“This will allow a majority of the state parks to stay open,” Bird said. “But some might close based on popularity.”
Redwood National Park superintendent Steve Chaney has indicated the area’s redwood parks would stay open even if more of the burden of operating them fell to the National Park Service.
He said one reason the state has delayed releasing new details about park closures is to provide time to examine how public and private partnerships might keep some parks open.
“There won’t be a list until they look at which parks they can fund through partnerships,” Chaney said.
Ron Mastrogiuseppe, Director
Crater Lake Institute
http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com
541-810-3944