LAKE COUNTY –At the Clear Lake State Park (CLSP) in Kelseyville, more than 1,000 school children visit each year.
Due to California”s booming population and a sharp increase in park visitation, coupled with slashes in state funding, CLSP is struggling to meet its potential. Schools may miss out on a visit due to lack of facilities in the winter.
A solution is on the way in the form of a new, year-round outdoor educational pavilion. Members of the non-profit Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association (CLSPIA) have spearheaded fundraising for the pavilion, and hope to break ground next summer.
For CLSPIA member Leona Butts, the decision to build an outdoor facility was a no-brainer. But the process takes a long time?two years of planning, applying for grants and encouraging community members to financially support the pavilion.
“It”s vital we get local support for our park?CLSP is one of the few remaining in the state without an outdoor educational facility. An indoor facility does not lend itself to teaching natural subjects. Children, researchers and college students can”t take water samples indoors. In the pavilion, even if it”s raining, they can learn. This will make a big difference in providing public education at the park,” Butts said.
“Parks are about kids,” Butts said, and area rangers and volunteers are active in an effort dubbed “No Child Left Inside,” to encourage the well-being of California”s parks, and thus the well-being of the 750,000 school children who visit parks annually.
In the past 20 years, park visitation has jumped 40 percent, staffing is up only 11 percent and rangers are up just three percent. Operation funding per capita in 1982 was $3.07 per visitor. In 2007, it was $2.07 per visitor, according to Ranger Val Nixon, who learned the information at a recent California League of Park Associations conference in Santa Barbara.
For parks, another 10 percent is expected to be cut in the state budget next year. In 2007, the Legislature gave parks $78,000,000, but parks are short annually $118,000,000, with accumulated costs now totaling $1 billion, Butts said.
CLSP is not expecting any more funds from the state for the pavilion project, according to Butts. So far, two-thirds of the necessary funds for the pavilion have been raised. About $50,000 is still needed. Two years ago, CLSPIA created the initial design, and artist Bud Hurkett drafted a model. At that point, the state took on the design, assigning an architect. “We”re excited that the state will send a bid out [for construction] this spring. We started with one architect [with the state] and then they left and another took it on, so it”s been one of those long, interesting projects.”
The group received a grant from the state, for an amount Butts said she could not disclose. She said it is essential the public contribute to the project in order to see its completion.
“Through the state budget deficit, funding for California”s state parks has decreased and decreased. It needs to be a community-supported state park, because it”s for our children. When people from outside the county visit the park, they boost the local economy as well. For every dollar that goes to state parks, $2.60 goes back to the community,” Butts said.
She said CLSP is special because it offers a lake-side area where water can be studied, along with a variety of ecosystems. Cultural studies including historical American Indian communities are an important educational component of the park as well, Butts said.
“We work with all of the local schools to add to their curriculum?the schools do not have the facilities that we offer them. Children can hike and learn the importance of the environment, see and talk about a variety of animals and learn about their relationship to all that is the natural world,” Butts said. With an osprey nest on site, a sand bar area, and an hour-long hike revealing 23 species of birds last week, the park is a valuable educational asset just waiting to be discovered during winter months, Butts said. CLSPIA hopes to see construction finish in one year, but that all depends on funding.
If you wish to donate to the effort, please send tax-deductable donations to CLSPIA Education Pavilion Fund, P.O. Box 367, Kelseyville, Calif., 95451.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
