Tentative List of CA State Parks Closures

<p>Announced today by California State Parks officials are the tentative list of 70 State Parks slated to close due to the CA budget deficit. Closures will begin as early as September for some of the listed locations and all locations listed will be closed by July 2012 barring improvement in the state budget. Yes, that's 2012 not July 2011.<br>

<a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/05/california-officials-70-state-parks.html">http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/05/california-officials-70-state-parks.html</a><br>

Plan your photo travels to these locations this spring and summer, just in case. There are some notable State Parks on this list, such as Mono Lake Tufa SNR. Obviously this list can change, but just keep this info in mind. </p>

 

 

<p>Here's a full list of the closures from the parks department (pulled from the article):</p>

 

 

<p>Anderson Marsh SHP<br>

Annadel SP<br>

Antelope Valley Indian Museum<br>

Austin Creek SRA<br>

Bale Grist Mill SHP<br>

Benbow Lake SRA<br>

Benicia Capitol SHP<br>

Benicia SRA<br>

Bidwell Mansion SHP<br>

Bothe-Napa Valley SP<br>

Brannan Island SRA<br>

California Mining & Mineral Museum<br>

Candlestick Point SRA<br>

Castle Crags SP<br>

Castle Rock SP<br>

China Camp SP<br>

Colusa-Sacramento River SRA<br>

Del Norte Coast Redwoods SP<br>

Fort Humboldt SHP<br>

Fort Tejon SHP<br>

Garrapata SP<br>

George J. Hatfield SRA<br>

Governor's Mansion SHP<br>

Gray Whale Cove SB<br>

Greenwood SB<br>

Grizzly Creek Redwoods SP<br>

Hendy Woods SP<br>

Henry W. Coe SP<br>

Jack London SHP<br>

Jug Handle SNR<br>

Leland Stanford Mansion SHP<br>

Limekiln SP<br>

Los Encinos SHP<br>

Malakoff Diggins SHP<br>

Manchester SP<br>

McConnell SRA<br>

McGrath SB<br>

Mono Lake Tufa SNR<br>

Morro Strand SB<br>

Moss Landing SB<br>

Olompali SHP<br>

Palomar Mountain SP<br>

Petaluma Adobe SHP<br>

Picacho SRA<br>

Pio Pico SHP<br>

Plumas-Eureka SP<br>

Point Cabrillo Light Station<br>

Portola Redwoods SP<br>

Providence Mountains SRA<br>

Railtown 1897 SHP<br>

Russian Gulch SP<br>

Saddleback Butte SP<br>

Salton Sea SRA<br>

Samuel P. Taylor SP<br>

San Pasqual Battlefield SHP<br>

Santa Cruz Mission SHP<br>

Santa Susana Pass SHP<br>

Shasta SHP<br>

South Yuba River SP<br>

Standish-Hickey SRA<br>

Sugarloaf Ridge SP<br>

Tomales Bay SP<br>

Tule Elk SNR<br>

Turlock Lake SRA<br>

Twin Lakes SB<br>

Weaverville Joss House SHP<br>

Westport-Union Landing SB<br>

William B. Ide Adobe SHP<br>

Woodson Bridge SRA<br>

Zmudowski SB</p>

 

 

<p>Some folks in California fought to keep property taxes a no-no. So some parks will become a no-no option for the people living in California. If you don't have money in bank, you can't keep spending the cash....</p>

 

<p><strong>I hope California citizens speak up and you don't lose one park. </strong>You can bet the developers are drooling. I thought Jerry Brown was an environmentalist. He must of became a ''real'' politician. Hopefully it is just a bluff.<br>

They tried that crap here in Florida this year and there was a huge uproar. Then, Jack Nicklaus and a couple of Florida Senators wanted to create a Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail around Florida in the State Parks. Again Florida residents raised h*ll. Florida already has more golf courses then any state. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/rss/article/195633/3/Are-Proposed-Golf-Courses-in-Florida-Out-of-Bounds-<br>

The problem with most of our State Parks is they charge to much for daily and annual pass. They would get more local visitors if they dropped the fee a little. <strong>I get a federal park pass for $25.00 a year. </strong></p>

<p><strong><br /></strong><br>

<strong>Florida State Pass</strong></p>

<table cellspacing="0px">

<tbody>

<tr>

<td >Individual Annual Entrance Pass</td>

<td >$60.00</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td >Family Annual Entrance Pass<br /> <em>(up to eight people in a group; only allows up to two people at Homosassa Springs and Weeki Wachee Springs)</em></td>

<td >$120.00</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

Jerry,

 

Blaming this problem on a law that was written in the 1970s is a mighty long axed stretch.

<p>- Its certainly not a bluff. Republicans don't want to extend some taxes another 2 years (actually, they don't even want it to be put to a statewide vote), so cuts have to be made. Shall we cut more services for poor/mentally ill? Or close some rarely visited parks?? This is a much better option than that offered by the previous administration a couple years ago that was defeated. <br>

- Where the hell do you get a Federal Park Pass for $25?? I just bought one for $80?</p>

<p>"Blaming this problem on a law that was written in the 1970s is a mighty long axed stretch."</p>

<p>Are the parks on the closing block <strong>due to under-use</strong> by the folks in California?</p>

<p>Or are the parks on the closing block <strong>due to</strong> "<strong>no cash</strong>" to keep them open and operating?</p>

<p>History is a bummer, and tough to hide the results of what once was....</p>

<p> </p>

<p> Do you know how much money closing all these parks will save? A mere 25 million dollars! Sacramento spends more than that on toilet paper every year ! This is political posturing to get people to vote for increased taxes in the up coming special election. In fact,I'll be sure NOT to vote for those taxes because they tried this dirty trick/threat.</p>

<p>"Sacramento spends more than that on toilet paper every year"<br>

Really? Where'd you find that statistic? </p>

<p>And @John- putting the blame on Jerry Brown is a bit of a stretch. After all, he inherited this budget deficit and all along he's been saying that the economic recovery is going to be a long, hard road and sacrifices will be necessary to make. As I see it, he's one of the only politicians telling it like it is.</p>

<p>So are American state parks fenced off completely with the ability to close the gates and keep everyone out? The closest thing we have in the UK are national parks which are open areas of land with many footpaths crossing them. These are impossible to close.</p>

<p>http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/index</p>

<p>This is a wide range of parks, some will be easy to close, some won't. Last attempt at coercing voters by "closing" facilities, the DoT decided (some drone in union/management?) decided to cut the contractor who tests water quality in a couple of wells mid-desert - so rest areas crossing the deserts were closed, but not the rest areas located adjacent to areas where every ramp has fast food places. Or the choice to not open rest rooms at public beaches in Orange County on weekends.</p>

<p>As to Prop 13? Again, a feeble and transparent attempt to draw on greed and envy. My parents purchased a home in the late 60s. Approx mid $30,000s. By the time they sold it, local values had exceeded $700,000 and dropped back some (and while they did make a fair amount of that, much of it went into the next home - they sold to move from a two story to a single story for health reasons).. Now consider that anyone flipping or buying in is (supposedly) able to handle those prices. How many elderly or retirees could handle the tax burdens of their properties if any time someone else sold a home, their own taxes went up? Likewise, there were other propositions which allowed for transfers between parents/children, grandparents/grandchildren to occur without incurring the massive tax increases/reassessment might incur. Are there some areas where there are some wildly disparate tax assessments on adjacent properties? Sure. But the issue shouldn't be that Grandma isn't paying "her fair share," but that the state has become dependent on the ghastly home prices to support bloated taxing and spending. <br>

As an example, if the rate were 2%, the $35,000 home would be taxed at $700 a year. Were it to have been reappraised up to $700,000, the tax bill would be $14,000. If we could just smoke a few of those folks, we'd pay for the parks, right?</p>

<p>Oh yeah, they've just found $6.6 billion dollars in revenues (not sure where but that's possibly a result of just under-reporting the story) and Brown only wants to increase spending by 5% next year - notwithstanding approx. $6 billion still in deficit. "They" still want to return to the expired "temporary" income tax rates (not sure if the lowered rates resulted in any increased spending by tax payers, the rates returned to the prior level 1 Jan.) and to extend the "temporary" car taxes and other taxes 5 more years.</p>

<p>"As an example, if the rate were 2%, the $35,000 home would be taxed at $700 a year. Were it to have been reappraised up to $700,000, the tax bill would be $14,000. If we could just smoke a few of those folks, we'd pay for the parks, right?"</p>

<p>Just be glad your parents are not in Florida. If property value goes down, the tax law includes a neat provision for a *upwards adjustment* to the property tax...your real estate taxes can never decrease --> unless you are hit by a hurricane, flood, fire, or tornado. As the cost-of-living seldom goes in reverse, the tax spending continues on and on....</p>

<p> </p>

<p>"So are American state parks fenced off completely with the ability to close the gates and keep everyone out?"<br>

It depends on the state park in question. For a place like Mono Lake Tufa, more than likely they will close the gates leading into the parking areas and the restroom facilities. Could you still gain access? Sure. But the next question is where would you park. It's dirt roads about a mile away from the highway leading to the parking lots, so would people just start parking on the sides of the dirt roads? Would that then cause the local authorities to issue citations? Other places would close parking lots and which makes access more difficult as street/highway parking is not allowed.<br>

And obviously any visitor centers and programs/tours would be shut down as well.<br>

So depending on the park, the closure will either close the location completely (mansions/buildings), make accessibility much more difficult due to where gates may be closed relative to the actual interesting area of the park, or it will just be a minor inconvenience.</p>

<p>Will the gates be locked and no one let in(and this enforced) or just the centers closed?<br>

No State Parks should have fees attached as taxpayer money funds them. The fees keep many away and that just increases the problem.<br>

A donation container rather than a fee would be appropriate. Still do fees for camping facilities and special amenities but not for admittance.</p>

<p>In Florida (Perdido Key) we have the honor system box but most people don't pay. I used to work at the park one summer as an ops worker. (ops-An employee without benefits and terrible pay.) I hoped that it would help lead to a ranger position later, but it never happened. In fact the state parks has made big cutbacks over the years. Florida threatens to close parks, but tourism is one of the state's main industries. I had to patrol a couple of parks. If someone slipped in and did not pay, I would have to go find them on the beach and get the fee or ask them to leave. I have no problem with a dollar a day to park but $4-6 dollars is too high. Again, I think Florida beach parks would do better if they had a less expensive ''local parking pass.''<br>

<br /> You can imagine how the BP oil spill affected coastal businesses from Louisiana to the Florida gulf and west coasts. Our area got hit hard by the oil. Don't believe the bs news reports. There is still lots of oil on the gulf. The tar balls come in daily if conditions are right. We are doing much better tourism-wise then last year but now we have a governor (Rick Scott) who is not to keen on the environment. He is all about bringing in business and relaxing environmental laws. Developers are doing back flips. Regarding getting into the parks on the gulf, if your walking the beach they cannot keep you from getting into the park and as mentioned there is not much in the way of guards at the parking lots. Heck, we don't even have a lifeguard along miles of beaches unless you go to the local federal park (Johnson Beach). I think the lifeguards there start on Memorial Day.<br>

<br /> <strong>David Daniel-</strong> I have a correction to make from earlier. The $25.00 federal pass that I had was just for the Gulf Islands National Seashore Parks. http://www.nps.gov/guis/index.htm Now I have a free pass that is good for all Federal Parks I am told. You have to be disabled or a senior citizen. I used it last year at Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Moab and a few others while going cross country. I still have to pay $30.00 a year for a Night Owl pass. This gets me into the Gulf Island National Seashore Parks at night. Comes in real handy. I don't think Florida gives any breaks on entrance fee for disabled or a senior citizens. Senior citizens and disabled citizens receive a discount of one-half of base rate of the camping fee. Recipient must be a Florida resident, over 65 years or 100% disabled.</p>

<p>California gave voters the option of paying a measley $20 per year on car registration to keep the parks open. The voters wouldn't go for it. How many times have I been to Point Lobos and have seen $40,000 SUV's parked out on the road to avoid paying $10 to support the park? Californians want the perks but don't want to pay for them. People will use the park lands, anyway, but we will have to take our chances with the pot growers, dog crap leavers and the graffiti crowd. </p>