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If Vertigo or Star Trek IV are among the films you love, you're lucky California has a lot of parks. Scenes from those and many other movies were filmed in iconic spots in California state parks -- which is why you should care about the strain Californian parks are under right now.
Because while you can still visit many of those film-famous spots, Cali state parks are getting tougher to get in to, thanks to our state budget crisis. Last year, the parks made big news when Governor Schwarzenegger suggested closing many of them as a money-saving measure. A huge public outcry put the kibosh on that idea, but many state parks have still suffered from major cutbacks.
About sixty parks, for example, are now open limited days a week -- some even closed for most of the year, according to Elizabeth Goldstein, President of the nonprofit California State Parks Foundation. Half the restrooms in Southern California state beaches are closed. Up to 150 of the 278 parks in the California state parks system have had to make do with service reductions.
The good news is that a bunch of eco-minded groups are working to put a measure on the ballot to deal with the chronic underfunding of Cali state parks once and for all. Called California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, this measure would put an $18 annual State Park Access Pass surcharge -- collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles on non-commercial vehicles -- raising more than $500 million a year.
"This will produce roughly twice what [the parks'] general funding is now -- or what it was last year," said Elizabeth at a California State Parks Foundation reception last week. In addition, the state general fund -- which is where the parks' funding comes from right now -- would get a boon, because the parks would no longer need money from that pot. The state would then be able to use that extra money for other non park-related programs.
In exchange, state parks would no longer charge day use fees. "One trip to the beach can be making your money back," said Elizabeth, who believes this measure resonates with Californians who want to preserve their parks, know exactly how much of their money would go towards that cause, and have the opportunity get a benefit in return.
Plus, everyone who visits the parks would have a better, fuller experience once the parks are adequately funded. Parks would be open more days, park bathrooms would all be open, and trails would be better taken care of. In fact, funding our parks could even increase and elaborate interpretive programs and campfire programs.
I visit Santa Monica State Beach pretty often since I can walk to it, but I can't say I visit the other local state parks very often -- which is why when Schwarzenegger proposed closing a bunch of the parks, I felt indignant but chagrined. On the one hand, I felt strongly that the parks should stay open, yet on the other, I hadn't even bothered to spend time in the parks. I felt I simply hadn't done enough to support the parks -- to show that they were important to me.
That's why I was especially curious to hear about what motivates Elizabeth to go beyond most people's sort of theoretical support for parks, to actually act as a relentless advocate for the parks through her role as the president of California State Parks Foundation -- especially when the parks are going through such a tough time financially.
"In the end the goal is more about just you or whether you win or lose, but whether millions of Californians get access to their state parks," says Elizabeth. "If you're constantly remembering this is an intergenerational thing that'll go on for many many decades and hopefully centuries after you, it helps put whatever your loss of the day in perspective. This system in California has been developing for 150 years. There are literally generations before us who've been working on this, and it's kind of to them that we can't give up. And for the people that come after us -- we can't give up for them either."
After all, even the funding cuts for the park system have come with a silver lining: Many Californians were so outraged that they joined the California State Parks Foundation
