Monday, June 1, 2009

CA State Parks in the news

Governor Schwarzenegger's budget plan may close 80% of California's entire state park system.

Monterey County state parks on the list:
• Andrew Molera State Park
• Carmel River State Beach
• Fort Ord Dunes State Park
• Fremont Peak State Park
• Garrapata State Park
• Hatton Canyon
• Henry W. Coe State Park
• John Little State Natural Reserve
• Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
• Marina State Beach
• Monterey State Beach
• Monterey State Historic Park
• Moss Landing State Beach
• Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
• Point Lobos Ranch
• Point Lobos State Natural Reserve
• Point Sur State Historic Park
• Salinas River State Beach
• San Juan Bautista State Historic Park
• Zmudowski State Beach

other Nature ID state parks on the list:
• Humboldt Redwoods State Park
• McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park
• MontaƱa de Oro State Park
• Morro Bay State Park
• Morro Strand State Beach
• Natural Bridges State Beach

Is this proposal designed to freak people out?

There have already been lines of cars parked along Hwy 1 to Julia Pfeiffer when it was closed after the fires last year. I'm guessing it will be nearly impossible to keep people off the state beaches here, including Del Monte Beach! So, I'm wondering how much more money it would cost to put up fences to keep the public out. Goodness knows rangers make paltry livings compared to construction folks. The state park employees will lose their jobs, the 4 volunteers for every paid employee will move on to other endeavors, and the local businesses that benefit from the state park tourism will be hurt. It's a bad, short-sighted decision.

This has the potential to lead us into a new era... Um, thanks, Mr. Terminator.

ps 04/21/10 - This post was written before I decided to add local nature news to my blog. I've since found many online news articles are archived quickly and are not easily retrievable. I'm perplexed as to why this is common practice. From now on I'll copy and paste the text with appropriate credits.