California has some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States, ranging from the beaches of Southern California, to rugged rocky coasts of Big Sur and Central California, to redwood forests with the tallest trees on earth, to high rocky peaks of the Sierra.
Some of the best areas of the state are protected in 278 State Parks.
Protected for now, that is. As the California legislature continues to struggle with its seemingly never-ending budget crisis, one thing often mentioned to cut the state budget would be to close state parks.
Think of that, what a disaster it would be to California—and to Californians—if the parks closed!
But the November 2 election provides a solution, an answer that would raise an estimated $500 million annually for California State Parks.
The State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010 would provide revenue dedicated specifically for parks, open space preserves, and other environmental concerns, funding that would not be subject to legislative thievery or gubernatorial shenanigans.
Proposition 21, if passed, would raise the money through an annual $18 fee on California vehicle registrations. However, there’s a reward for Californians if they vote to raise their auto registrations: The state would eliminate all day use fees at state parks and beaches. You could go to a different park or beach every day and never spend a dime to get in!
With entry fees to some parks and beaches more than $10 per day, you can see that, if you go there just three times per year, passage of Prop. 21 would save you money in the long run.
But it’s more than just a matter of money. Audubon California offers 50 reasons to vote for Prop. 21. (Note: Following is printed with written permission from Audubon California.)
- Budget cuts in recent years have created more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance at state parks. Prop. 21 will restore parks to their rightful condition.
- Twice in the past two years, state parks were on the brink of being shut down because of California’s budget cuts. In 2008, 48 parks were proposed for closure, and in 2009, 220 of state’s 278 parks (80 percent of the entire system) were proposed for closure. In each case, a last-minute budget reprieve kept the parks open. Last year, nearly 150 state parks were shut down part-time or suffered deep service reductions because of budget cuts, and more closure proposals are expected this year because of the state’s continuing budget woes. Prop. 21 will create a sustainable funding stream that will ensure that parks no longer be a pawn in Sacramento budget negotiations.
- Budget cuts have reduced funding for lifeguards at state beaches, leaving many swimmers unprotected. Prop. 21 will put the guards back on duty.
- With fewer resources for oversight, crime and vandalism in California State Parks has increased threefold in the last decade. Prop. 21 will provide funds for patrols and enforcement.
- Nearly 400 organizations hailing—including those representing the environment, business, outdoor recreation, tourism, and many others—support Prop. 21.
- Prop. 21 gives us the opportunity to keep a promise that was made to future Californians many decades ago.
- California State Parks contain all or part of more than 50 Audubon Important Bird Areas, and are critical to the conservation of these vital habitat areas.
- We’ve tried everything else to protect California State Parks and nothing has worked. Raising fees didn’t work. Working with the governor and the legislature didn’t work. Prop. 21 is the last, best solution to the problem of our under-funded parks.
- California State Parks play a vital role in the protection of the Threatened Western Snowy Plover on state beaches. If this work goes unfunded, the future for this bird is bleak.
- California State Parks provide necessary conservation and public education for the Threatened Marbled Murrelet at Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Without this effort, this sensitive bird population could disappear.
- Prop. 21 will provide approximately $500 million toward State Parks annually, providing a dependable source of revenue outside the annual battle over the state budget.
- Audubon California and Audubon chapters in California have a long history of support for California State Parks that has included partnering on conservation and education projects, and providing both funding support and volunteers.
- Prop. 21 will create a State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund which could only be used to fund state parks, urban river parkways, wildlife, natural lands and ocean conservation programs. This money will not be available for other governmental uses.
- Prop. 21 is a great deal. When passed, the measure will place an $18 annual surcharge on most California vehicles. Vehicles subject to the surcharge would receive free, year-round admission to all state parks. Californians will no longer pay day-use fees at any state parks. In comparison, park visitors currently pay up to $125 for an annual pass or $10‒$15 per day at most parks.
- California State Parks contain habitat for about 10 percent of the entire breeding population of the California Least Tern, which is listed under the Endangered Species Act. Three parks in particular provide essential habitat: Oceano Dunes SVRA (not an IBA), McGrath State Beach, and Huntington State Beach. The last two are within Audubon Important Bird Areas.
- More than 500,000 schoolchildren participate in interpretive programs in California State Parks each year. State parks regularly serve as outdoor classrooms that help bring to life concepts from science, history, math and environmental education. Without a reliable source of funding, these important educational resources could be lost forever.
- Each year, California State Parks log nearly 80 million visits from children and families – and many of these visits mark the first time that these people interact with nature and learn about birds and wildlife firsthand. Closing state parks denies people this important opportunity.
- In 2007, Audubon California established an endowment to provide long-term financial assistance to local Audubon chapters to conduct conservation, restoration and public outreach at California State Parks. Prop. 21protects this investment.
- California State Parks are one of the things that make our state great. California leads the nation in the number of state parks with 278 spread across nearly 1.5 million acres. California parks include more than 280 miles of coastline, 625 miles of lake and river frontage, nearly 15,000 campsites, and 3,000 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails. The state parks represent the diversity of California, ranging from the last stands of primeval redwood forests to vast expanses of fragile desert; from the lofty Sierra Nevada to the broad sandy beaches of our southern coast.
- If you’re a hunter, you should vote for Prop. 21, as it will enhance and expand hunting opportunities on Department of Fish and Game land, particularly its heavily used wildlife management areas, to ensure that all California sportsmen and their families have a high quality, low cost place to hunt and enjoy the outdoors.
- The erosion of California State Parks has a negative impact on our economy. Every year, the parks attract millions of tourists, who spend $4.32 billion annually in park-related expenditures in California. State park visitors spend an average of $57.63 in surrounding communities per visit.
- Prop. 21 is a good investment. State Parks generate so much economic activity that every dollar spent on state parks creates another $2.35 for California’s treasury.
- The abundance of outdoor activities at California State Parks entices visitors to exercise, fight obesity and lead healthier lifestyles. Exercise helps maintain healthy bones and muscles. It builds cardiovascular fitness and relieves the psychological and physiological stress linked to poor health. Parks also contribute to public health by protecting forests and natural areas that are sources of clean air and water and by combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gases.
- State Parks preserve and protect California’s cultural heritage. Of the state’s 278 parks, 235 contain significant cultural features, representing the wide diversity of California’s population in traditional tribal buildings, historic structures and communities, prehistoric archaeological sites and cultural landscapes. The state parks include missions, forts, ghost towns, cemeteries, churches, temples, lighthouses, gold mines and much more.
- The oaks, sycamores, coastal sage scrub and rolling grassy hills of Chino Hills State Park in Southern California provide rare habitat for the California Gnatcatcher and Cactus Wren. Surrounded by urban areas, maintaining this habitat requires constant care from park officials. Prop. 21 will ensure that this vital conservation continues.
- Prop. 21 will actually help the state budget. With a new dedicated and reliable funding stream, California State Parks no longer will need to receive a portion of their funding from the state’s General Fund, freeing up approximately $130 million to prevent cuts to other vital services—like schools, healthcare and transportation.
- A broad group of business interests support Prop. 21, including dozens of local chambers of commerce and tourism groups.
- Parks aren’t the only natural resources that have suffered under recent state budget cuts. A portion of the revenue from Prop. 21 will go toward other state wildlife and ocean protection agencies, including: 7 percent to the California Department of Fish and Game to manage and operate wildlife refuges, ecological reserves and other lands it owns or manages; 4 percent to the Ocean Protection Council for marine wildlife conservation and the protection of coastal waters; 2 percent to state conservancies for park and wildlife habitat; and 2 percent to the Wildlife Conservation Board for grants to local public agencies for wildlife conservation.
- Revenues generated by Prop. 21 will subject to strict financial management safeguards. The Trust Fund will be subject to an independent audit by the State Auditor every year. The findings will be released to the public, placed on the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s website and submitted to the State Legislature for review as part of the state budget. In addition, a Citizens’ Oversight Committee will be created to ensure funds from this measure are spent appropriately. These measures will be limited to just 1percent of the annual revenues.
- Prop. 21 will help preserve vitally important tidal marsh habitat in San Francisco Bay. Development has whittled away the vital bird habitat in San Francisco Bay, which is a globally important area for migratory birds. The Benicia State Recreation Area is one of the few places in the Bay where one can find large sections of tidal marsh habitat. The conservation of this area is important for birds—and Prop. 21 ensures that it continues.
- State parks offer California’s youth the opportunity to learn life skills and ways to be stewards of natural resources through state parks programs like Junior Rangers and Junior Lifeguards. These programs have an invaluable positive impact on the lives of youth in California. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, students involved in programs like those offered by the state parks, are 49 percent less likely to use drugs and 37 percent less likely to become teen parents than those who didn’t participate.
- Surfers dig Prop. 21. Just ask Surfrider Foundation. Why wouldn’t they? California State Parks preserves some of the state’s best surf breaks at places like Half Moon Bay, Doheny, San Onofre, San Clemente and Malibu. And don’t even talk about what surfers pay in annual passes.
- From abalone diving to freshwater and marine fishing, many of our best fishing opportunities are in state parks, beaches and Department of Fish and Game lands. Prop. 21 ensures that these areas will remain open, accessible and properly managed.
- California is known for its magnificent beaches, and of our 278 California State Parks, 64 are beaches. In 2007‒2008, seven of the 10 most popular state parks were beaches and these comprised nearly 25 percent of the annual attendance for the entire state park system. At a time when beach access is always under threat, state parks and beaches ensure that one-third of California’s coast is made accessible to the public. State beaches are located in every region of California and provide access for all of California’s children and families.
- Prop. 21 protects the investment that Californians have made in their state parks. Californians have invested billions of dollars in their state parks since 1901, and that investment has paid off many times over. If we walk away from that investment now, we dishonor the sacrifices of previous generations of Californians and guarantee fewer "dividends" in the future.
- Prop. 21 helps preserve California’s important historical assets. Among California 278 State Parks are dozens of sites that are vital to the preservation of our history. This includes places like Sutter’s Mill, Bodie, the California State Capitol Museum, Hearst Castle, and many others.
- Prop. 21 is supported by a long list of conservation organizations, including Audubon California and local Audubon chapters. Among these groups are The Nature Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, California League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Los Angeles River, Sierra Club, Save the Redwoods League, The Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, and many, many others.
- Conservation on California State Parks helps protect neighboring agricultural property from the spread of invasive, non-native plants. Think that’s no big deal? According to the California Invasive Plant Council, invasive plants in pastures and farmland cost California $82 million annually. Invasive plants crowd out natural vegetation, agricultural crops and can be toxic to livestock. With nearly 1.5 million acres of state parks land, Prop. 21 will provide important funds to combat the growth of invasive plants. As a result, agricultural property adjacent to state lands will have better protection from the threat of invasive species.
- Voting for Prop. 21 will create and protect thousands of California jobs. Rangers, maintenance crews, gatekeepers, firefighters, lifeguards, the list of jobs with California State Parks goes on and on.
- California State Parks go a long way toward keeping filming in California. Last year, more than 900 permits for more than 2,000 days of filming were issued for state parks—helping ensure that one of California’s signature industries stays home.
- Anza-Borrego State Park is the largest state park in California, and the second largest in the continental United States. Among the many species found there is the Least Bell’s Vireo, an endangered bird that relies on the protection of this vast habitat region for its survival. Supporting Prop. 21 helps ensure the future of this bird.
- Prop. 21 will greatly improve management of the 2.5 million acres of land under the control of the Department of Fish and Game and the Department of Parks and Recreation. Seven percent of the revenues from Prop. 21 will be dedicated "for the management and operations of wildlife refuges, ecological reserves and other lands owned or managed by the Department of Fish and Game for wildlife conservation." Annually, this will double the Department of Fish and Game’s woefully inadequate land management budget—and it must be dedicated to management, not capital expansion.
- Prop. 21 helps ensure the protection of rare and threatened plant and animal species. California State Parks preserve examples of nearly half the rare habitat types in California, including coastal prairie, valley oak woodland and Mendocino pygmy cypress forest. They are second only to the national forests in the number (162) of endangered, rare and threatened species they protect. (The national forests have 14 times more acreage than state parks.)
- The Boy Scouts of America support Prop. 21.
- According to a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, increasing access to parks and recreation space is an important part of combating the rapidly growing rate of obesity and diabetes in the state. Without the dedicated, reliable source of funding provided by Prop. 21, residents could lose state parks as a resource for outdoor exercise, something health experts say Californians sorely need.
- Prop. 21 helps provide invaluable nature experiences for low-income, underserved families who are unable to pay an increasingly larger percentages of their family budgets for entry into state parks. Now, for the cost of one or two visits, these people will gain access to all the parks, year-round.
- California State Parks offer some of the best opportunities for viewing birds and other wildlife. Voting for Prop. 21 ensures that these opportunities available at all 278 California State Parks, year-round.
- California State Parks provide key foraging habitat for the endangered California Condor at sites such as Andrew Molera State Park and Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park in Big Sur. Without these facilities protected in their range, the great birds will face even more obstacles to survival.
- Closing state parks is not an idle threat. Just look at Arizona, which has closed two-thirds of its parks due to its budget difficulties. This is not a problem for which we can always expect an eleventh-hour solution. We’ve tried everything else—Prop. 21 is the only real solution we have.
- Although budget cuts have not forced the closure of any parks, hours at many of the state’s most popular parks have been cut, leaving many facilities unavailable on weekdays or off-season. Prop. 21 will keep the parks open.
I see the importance of California State Parks on a regular basis, as I am one of more than 100 uniformed volunteers at Henry W. Coe State Park, which is located in the mountains south of San Jose.
I also see the impact of State Parks budget cuts every time I make the drive up to Coe Park:
- Trash is not picked up as often as it should be.
- Rangers are not always on duty, and they have been forced to take furlough days because the state cannot afford to pay them.
- Part-time staff have been laid off.
- This year the state has shut down the Dowdy Visitor Center.
Coe Park is the second-largest State Park in California, at almost 90,000 acres of wilderness and former cattle ranches. There are countless acres I’ve never been in, and wildlife, such as mountain lions, that I’m not likely ever to see without a good deal of luck.
Below are a few photos of Coe Park taken over the past couple of years. We can’t let this place be shut down!
White Mariposa Lilly Opens in Sun Near Dowdy Ranch
Carolyn Hiking Along Pacheco Creek
California Poppies at Henry W. Coe State Park
Sunset at Pine Ridge Ranch at Coe Park Headquarters
Sponsored by the California State Parks Foundation and others, Prop. 21 has hundreds of groups, government officials and city governments, chambers of commerce, tourist organizations, and many more as public sponsors.
Numerous newspapers have also editorially endorsed Prop. 21. Some of these endorsements include:
San Jose Mercury News:
Not many of California's problems could be solved with a single ballot measure. Education? Way too complicated. Health care? No way. Plus, for challenges like these, technology or societal change could shift needs in unexpected ways.
But the very nature of state parks is that they should be kept as they are. More than 90 percent of the acreage system-wide is in its natural state, from old-growth redwoods to ocean cliffs. This is why the costs are predictable.
California's state parks should be our legacy. The refuge they provide will only grow more precious with time. On Nov. 2, vote yes on Proposition 21.
Sacramento Bee:
California's state parks attract millions of tourists each year, and those visitors help the bottom line of nearby motels, restaurants and other businesses. Every dollar invested in parks flows back to us in healthier lifestyles, business retention, sales tax revenues and a cleaner environment. On Nov. 2, consider a "yes" vote for Proposition 21.
Los Angeles Daily News
Even smaller papers, including those you might think are from more conservative areas, have endorsed, including:
The Bakersfield Californian:
Many business groups support the initiative because they recognize the value of preserving these resources, which keep the tourists coming and strengthen the state's image as a place of natural beauty.
Ballot-box budgeting is typically replete with land mines, but Prop. 21 will solve an ongoing problem in a long-term and meaningful way. The projected revenue will be sufficient enough to both build an inflation-proof trust fund and keep park facilities at a steady level of maintenance.
Prop. 21 also removes state parks from budget negotiations so that legislators no longer need to agonize over which recreational programs must take the hit. It's a small price to pay to preserve and protect a vital part of California. Vote yes.
Modesto Bee
Fresno Bee
Clearly, supporting Proposition 21 is the best chance that California state parks have to avoid the death of a thousand cutbacks in the future.
Voting for this proposition will ensure a healthy State Park system for all to enjoy, forever.
Please, vote for Prop. 21 on Nov. 2!