State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes closing 48 California state parks, including Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and Clear Lake State Park, in a budget that he introduced to the State Legislature on Thursday, Jan. 10.
The state faces a shortfall of $3.3 billion in the current fiscal year, which Schwarzenegger says will grow to $14.5 billion without “swift and decisive action.” He proposes to implement 10-percent across-the-board reductions to nearly every General Fund program effective March 1.
“While these reductions are unquestionably difficult and challenging, this across-the-board reduction approach is designed to protect essential services by spreading reductions as evenly as possible, so that no individual program is singled out for severe reductions,” he said in his Jan. 10 message to the Legislature.
The State Department of Parks and Recreation faces a reduction by $1.0 million in the current fiscal year and $13.3 million in 2008-2009. This reduction would close 48 state parks out of 278 and would also reduce seasonal lifeguards by 50 percent at state beaches in three California counties.
Clear Lake State Park and Anderson Marsh State Historic Park are among the parks proposed for closure. The State Department of Parks and Recreation decided which parks to close based upon three factors according to Roy Stearns, deputy director of communications.
“First, can the unit be effectively closed to the public and will such closure result in savings?” he explained. “Second, how many people use the park unit? All other things being equal, we preferred to close units with lower attendance to minimize lost attendance. Third, how much revenue does the unit generate? Again, all other things being equal, we preferred to close units with lower revenues to minimize lost revenue.”
Anderson Marsh in Lower Lake draws about 40,000 visitors a year according to outdoor writer Terry Knight. Both parks are on the Clear Lake shoreline and are home to wetland and oak woodland habitat. Anderson Marsh is for day use while Clear Lake State Park also has camping sites.
State parks facing closure would be placed into caretaker status, although local governments could also assume the parks” operation; Stearn cautioned that these operations would require trained and skilled personnel including a licensed water plant operator, a licensed sewage plant operator and badged law enforcement.
The state would maintain patrols of parks in caretaker status; however, Stearns indicated the cost of patrols would be less than keeping them open because the department will have eliminated operations costs and eliminated positions. “Be advised that we have never done this before and are working on how to do it as we go. It is a very complicated process, but one that we feel we just have no other choice on because of these proposed cuts on top of a decade and more of others cuts that eliminated all possible efficiencies within the system and brought us to a point where closure is the only viable option left to keep the bulk of the system open and operating with adequate public resources.”
Stearns added that the proposed reductions reflect a long-term, accumulated decline in funding that began long before the present administration came into office.
“Stated in economic terms, here”s what has happened to funding for the park system,” he reported. “In 1990-1991 the state spent $4.16 per visitor to state parks. That figure has continued to drop ever since, with this latest 2008-2009 budget reduction proposal bringing that figure to roughly $2.80/visitor (in inflation-adjusted 2006-07 dollars).”
Responding to news of the proposed closures, the Sierra Club Lake Group has organized a letter-writing campaign to bombard the governor”s office with faxes. Lake Group chair Victoria Brandon has been networking with Lori Peters and Melissa Fulton, who are executive directors respectively of the Clear Lake and Lakeport Regional chambers of commerce.
“They [the letters] will be churning out, so the governor”s office will really notice it,” Brandon said. “We want to let people know what they can do to make a strong difference here (by writing the letter).”
Brandon said a resolution to send a formal protest will appear on the Tuesday, Jan. 22, agenda of the Lake County Board of Supervisors and that she hoped the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport would also take it up. “The more audible the public protest, the stronger position Berg and Wiggins will be in,” she said, referring to Assemblymember Patty Berg and Senator Pat Wiggins. The state legislature must approve a formal budget.
“Fortunately they are both strongly supportive but presumably people in the other communities with parks slated for closure will be raising a rumpus too,” Brandon added.
Letters can be mailed to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, State Capitol Building; Sacramento, CA 95814; and can also be sent by fax to (916) 558-3160. A form letter can be downloaded from www.redwood.sierraclub.org/lake/ in both pdf and Microsoft Word format.
Contact Cynthia Parkhill at cparkhill@clearlakeobserver.com. Staff writer Liz Wilson also contributed to this article.
