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11 California State Parks temporarily “saved” from closure

Mono Lake tufa

Roy Stearns, the deputy director of California State Parks, said that foundations, private donors, and government entities have stepped up with funds or operating agreements to keep 11 stated parks that were on the list of 70 (out of 278 in the system) to be closed, open for another one to three years! Most of the parks to be closed are in Northern California and are less visited that parks in the more densely populated south. A complete list of the state parks and reserves in California is here!

The National Parks System will provide money and staff to keep three parks that border federal parks open: Del Norte Coast Redwoods, Samuel P. Taylor and Tomales Bay. An agreement with the nonprofit Bodie Foundation will keep the Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve open. The Antelope Valley Indian Museum near Lancaster will be kept open by an anonymous donor. Entrepreneur J. Daniel McCranie is donating most of the $900,000 needed to keep the Bay Area’s Henry W. Coe park open for three years.

In addition, the following parks are “spared” for now: the Colusa-Sacramento River State Recreation Area, McGrath State Beach, South Yuba River, Jug Handle State Natural Reserve (beautiful, but I have no high-resolution photos of it to show you) and Plumas-Eureka. Stearns said that his department is in talks with possible sponsors of 24 more parks and has asked for proposals concerning 11 more!

The system’s operating and maintenance budget has fallen to $110 million for the next fiscal year from $175 million five years ago. Services and staffing have been reduced at all parks, and a budget deal calls for more slashing if Gov. Jerry Brown‘s proposed tax increases don’t go through.

Thieves have struck one park that was already closed, stealing equipment and breaking into the Mitchell Caverns visitors center at the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area in the Mojave Desert.

Jerry Emory, communications director of the California State Parks Foundation, said:

“We’re not considering these parks saved…. The long-term solution is a sustainable public funding source.”

California’s operating and maintenance budget for the parks decreased to $110 million for the next fiscall year. The budget was $175 million a short FIVE years ago!

-Bill at

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