Photo courtesy of California State Parks
California State Parks is one of our greatest treasures, and a visionary leader in protecting nature, history, and recreational resources for the people of California and beyond. The first parks were redwood parks, and state parks are vital to the protection of these incredible forests. But unfortunately, the park system is straining to meet its promise.
From the redwood forests of the north coast to the peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the deserts of Southern California to our epic Pacific coastline, California’s 280 state parks preserve and protect the best of our natural values and cultural history. More than 68 million visitors from around the globe enjoy the California State Parks System every year, generating more than $100 million in annual revenue and pumping many times that amount into local tourism economies.
But recent years have been hard on this system. It faces more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance, compounded by significant costs resulting from recent fires and storms, and has added only one new property to its system in the last 14 years. The system is not large enough or resourced to meet the needs of California’s growing, diverse population.
As lawmakers consider a new conservation bond, there is an opportunity to set California State Parks on a better course.
Please send a note to your elected representatives today, asking them to support sufficient funding for California State Parks.