On this Saturday, National Trails Day, hike a California state park, while you still can. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to close Sutter's Fort, where California's history as a state started, 
along with the state reserve for the California poppy, emblem of our fools-golden state, 
and 220 more parks -- 80% of the state park system -- representing the state's best efforts to preserve its history, culture, and natural beauty.
As background, our Governor is proposing that the state parks budget be cut in half, from $140 million to $70 million, for 2009-10, then reduced to zero 2010-11, to help close a $24 billion budget deficit. This means laying off virtually every employee, and without employees to run parks, 223 of the state's 279 parks will be closed. The few parks that are self-sustaining -- i.e., can pay for themselves with user and/or other governments' money -- will remain open. So far, that's a short list including Hearst Castle ($20 and up for a tour), seven off-road parks where motocross riders play, and all of the Orange County state beaches (Los Angeles beaches will close). However, he's proposing closing all -- every single one -- of the camping and hiking parks. Although the money saved by closing parks is less than 0.1% of the state's budget deficit, the impact on California will be enormous.
No one can visit the state Capitol region without touring Sutter's Fort and Columbia State Historic Park. My boys time traveled to the 1850s, shot imaginary cannonballs from real cannons, panned for gold, drank sarsaparilla sodas, and touched what they'd only read about in their history books. 
Schwarzenegger will close both. The Republican state senator for Columbia State Historic Park, Dave Cogdill, wavered during the February state budget crisis but ultimately sided with the Republicans.
I once drove a car along the Big Sur coastline at twilight as its battery and headlights started failing. I tried to navigate by having a friend hold a flashlight out the window -- NOT recommended on a flat road, let alone the rugged hairpin turns and bridges of Highway 1. Luckily for us, the kind rangers at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park took pity on us and let us camp overnight while their generators recharged the car battery enough to get us to a sympathetic friend and mechanic. This park is a camper's heaven! It's one of the two state park campgrounds (and one of the very, very few cheap places to stay) in the world famous Big Sur area.
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park will both be closed under Republican misrule over our budget crisis. Both are in the district of Republican state senator, Abel Maldonado, one of the primary villains of the current budget crisis.
As a child, every summer I ran amok in Santa Susana Pass State Park, in Chatsworth.
This park of rugged sandstone outcroppings is a paradise for kids who want to climb rocks, play cowboys & Indians, discover caves, or marvel at trains. Horses and hikers wander miles of trails. We started at tiny county-run Chatsworth Park, then wandered into Santa Susana, leaving our moms behind to do whatever moms did at parks in the summer. If you ever watched an episode of The Lone Ranger, you've seen Santa Susana too -- the opening sequence was filmed there, as were numerous other Westerns.
Santa Susana Pass will be closed if Schwarzenegger and the Republicans have their way. Its Republican state senator, George Runner, is circulating an initiative to require a photo ID at polls (pdf), a standard minority-vote suppression tactic.
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, near Bakersfield, celebrates the pioneer spirit of a group of African Americans determined to create their own community. Allen Allensworth was born a slave in 1842, sold downriver when he tried to learn to read and write, escaped to the North, became a colonel in the Union army and then a Baptist preacher, and moved to California long after the Civil War ended. His thriving town had its own schoolhouse, library, drug store, and general store -- but, because of ongoing struggles with neighboring white cities, no potable water. The town decayed in the 1970s, but has been beautifully restored.
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park will fall back into decay if Schwarzenegger has his way. Its freshman Republican state senator, Danny Gilmore, voted along party lines during the budget crisis, and rails against California's wasteful spending.
Emerald Bay, the prettiest bay in gorgeous Lake Tahoe, will be closed 
along with the recreation meccas of Topanga (Los Angeles Westside) and Mount Diablo (East Bay Area) state parks. Beaches from Mendocino (Caspar Headlands) to Malibu (Lagoon) will be closed. (By a strange coincidence, state beaches will be closed in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, but all five of the Orange County state beaches will remain open.) Parks created to showcase coastal redwoods, elephant seals and sea lions, deserts, high Sierra forests, Native American history, Mono Lake's tufa spires, Gold Rush history -- all gone.
Then the vandals and arsonists will move in, and the state will spend far more policing and fighting fires than it ever did running the parks. Fighting wildfires cost the state $305 million from July to November 2008 (compared to $140 million to run the parks). And, if the state ever solves its budget crisis, it will cost far, far more to recut overgrown trails, repair dilapidated buildings, retrain and rehire rangers, and reopen the parks than it ever did to maintain them.
To take action, California State Parks Foundation has a petition, map, and all-too-long list (pdf) of parks to be closed. I don't expect much, given the depths to which this once great state has sunk. However, I ask:
A park is a hallmark of a civilized society. If paying our taxes can't even buy us a civilized California, what will happen to us?
