Sometimes it seems as if no one notices.
In the field, we work 6 days or 60 hours, no time off in the busy season, holidays, Mother’s Day. In the office, we stress over the endless deadlines, decreasing budgets, more with less, and work through lunch. “Duct tape and bailing wire” has become such a cliché that we roll our eyes when we hear it.
Yet the visitors arrive, enjoy the park, and leave. A friend tells you their child’s class had a nice field trip to a park or that they stopped at a pretty park somewhere on a drive back from Aunt Betsy’s. Maybe someone complains about something, but for the most part it seems like the public doesn’t realize how hard we’re working and that behind the scenes the duct tape is peeling, the bailing wire is rusted, the volunteers are staffing the visitor centers and leading the tours, and one ranger is on duty to cover 300,000 acres (a true example).
On April 8, we saw that people notice.
And not only are they noticing, they are doing something about it.
From all across California, volunteers
and park advocates swarmed the state Capitol for the largest Park Advocacy Day in history. The California
State Parks Foundation once again organized the event, which was co-sponsored by two dozen other park protection groups, including CSPRA. (Huge kudos to CSPF President
Elizabeth Goldstein, Director of Legislation and Policy Traci Verardo-Torres, Legislative Coordinator Linsey Fredenburg, intern Kate Litzky, and all their other staff members who worked so hard to pull off this massively
successful event!) |
Members of our cooperating associations,
parks users, individuals from advocacy groups, park volunteers, even kids: hundreds of people roamed the halls, pleading our case to legislators and their staffs. And even more stood on the steps of the Capitol building at noontime as speaker after speaker demanded action to stop park closures and bring more funding to us.
Legislators from both sides of the aisle—Senator Chris Kehoe (D-San Diego), Assemblymember John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), Senator Abel Moldonado (R- Santa Maria) rallied the crowd, declaring that “not one park” should be closed. California State Park and Recreation Commissioner
and Honorary Ranger Caryl Hart exhorted that now is the time to be expanding parks, not closing them. Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, who brought a busload from her small Northern California city that might see both its State Parks shuttered, shared the podium with California League of Park Associations (that’s our coops) President Randy Widera and members of the public and our park user groups. And California State Parks Foundation President Elizabeth Goldstein forcefully
drove home the message: fund our parks.
When it was my turn to speak, several of the above dignitaries had hit many of the compelling reasons to fund the parks: all the benefits we provide to the public, our understaffed units and lack of equipment, our maintenance backlog, the critical resources we hold in trust for future generations, and our huge financial benefits to local communities
and the state’s general fund.
I approached the podium and told the |
sea of supportive faces that I was going
to tell them why the proposed cuts to state parks didn’t make fiscal sense to me. The few millions in savings being demanded of our department would mean a lot to our operations, but would save the state only $0.24 per California resident. That’s two cents per person per month. I took out two pennies from my pocket, raised them over my head, and declared: “Ladies and gentlemen of the legislature, here’s my two cents!”
And it is now up to the legislature. They have heard the voices from throughout California: thousands of letters and emails, demonstrations, articles and media segments, and their own members. But as of this writing, they have not come up with a solution.
So, when you’re at home tonight, surfing on your computer, why don’t you swing by www.savestateparks.org and see how you can help California State Parks Foundation and all our other supporters turn up the heat? Click on the link to endorse the campaign, listen to ads by Honorary Ranger Huell Howser supporting us, see five things you and your family and friends can do to help out. Or go to www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html and enter your zip code to find the homepages of your senator and assemblymember, and from there you can drop them a brief email. (Remember, please use your own computer and email accounts for advocacy activities.
And be sure to identify yourself as a member of CSPRA or concerned individual.)
People do notice what we do. Let’s join them in raising our voices for Parks. |
