Text Given July 2008 at Legislative Hearing on Parks Budget
by President Sevrens

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. The California State Park Rangers Association is a 44-year-old organization of active and retired park professionals from all classifications of park service--maintenance, administration, scientists, archaeologists, emergency dispatchers, engineers, lifeguards, historians, equipment operators, rangers, and others. We are not a union, but rather a professional organization dedicated to protecting park values and professionalism.

You have had the opportunity today to hear from the experts on all aspects of the status of California State Parks. I think that it is evident that we stand at a crossroads: protect these treasures, this legacy, this natural beauty that we ourselves did not create, or risk their irreversible degradation and loss.

You have heard how the number of employees and budgets have stagnated and been slashed, even as California population has skyrocketed. At the same time, outside our boundaries, natural areas and cultural treasures are increasingly lost and land values have increased, leading to opportunities forever lost for future generations.
You have heard the vital role our State Parks play in the economic engine of the State, in communities statewide and to our General Fund.

You have heard the threats posed to the Parks by those who see them as nothing more than a blank space on the map, waiting to be filled in with the trappings of modern civilization.

Fifty, seventy-five, one hundred years ago, people now long dead followed their visions and set aside these magnificent places for you and me, and for our children and grandchildren. It pains me every single day to watch these sacred places erode and deteriorate.

You today have the power to follow in the footsteps of the visionaries of previous generations. You have the opportunity--and the responsibility--to protect the natural and cultural infrastructure of this great state.
Today, the California State Park Rangers Association asks you to:

Support and promote the State Parks Access Pass introduced by Assemblymember John Laird;
Proactively seek and support legislation to specifically and explicitly protect parks from outside development such as transportation and utility corridors;

Support acquisition of land liable to be lost to Californians forever.

One hundred years from now, will your grandchildren’s grandchildren praise your vision?