NPS Threatens To Take Back Cali Parks
If Schwarzenegger shuts down California State Parks, the National Park Service might take past gifts back
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Through the Federal Lands to Parks Program, the National Park service donated thousands of acres to the California State Parks, in order create more access to open space in the most populated state. But as we previously reported, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to shut down several California State Parks in light of a looming budget crisis.
Schwarzenegger didn’t read the fine print: If he goes through with his plans, several gifts from the National Park Service will return to the NPS’s control, and they plan to keep those parks open. The six parks include Angel Island, the parking lot at the summit of Mount Diablo near San Francisco, a lighthouse at Point Sur State Historic Park in Big Sur, the beaches at Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey and Point Mugu State Park near Malibu, and Border Field near the Mexican border.
“The public has no less need for recreational opportunities and access to open space in times of economic hardship,” (NPS Pacific West Regional Director Jon) Jarvis wrote. “If anything, the need for such recreational opportunities is greater now.”
Unfortunately, that saves only a handful of the 220 parks Schwarzenegger hopes to shut down (including Redwoods State Park). If you’d like to urge to Governator to reconsider terminating state parks, let him have it via letter or petition here.
—Ted Alvarez