News and Views, November 1956
Chiefly Speaking
by Newton Drury
What is a State Park?
It is easier to ask a question like this than to answer it definitively.
Over many years some of us have felt that we knew what were the
appropriate standards to which a great state like California should
adhere in selecting areas for its State Park system. These standards,
in my opinion, have been adhered to surprisingly well, considering
everything. Much has been written on the subject, but until the
issue of deciding upon the worth of certain projects that were
added by amendment to the 1956 budget we have not recently put
in concise form the considerations involved in the basic concept
of State Parks. A the meeting in Los Angeles on October 191956,
the State Park Commission, after due consideration and review
of the text, adopted the following set of principles:
State Park Criteria
Ever since the Legislature in 1927 authorized the establishment of a State Park System, and by statute (Public Resources Code, Section 5006) empowered the State Park Commission to acquire, as a part of that system such lands and other properties as "the Commission deems necessary or proper for the extension, improvement or development of the State Park System", there have been definite criteria for the establishment of State Parks.
These have been used as a guide by the Commission in the acquisition of State Park lands in accordance with their understanding of the State Park concept since the founding of the system. They have been frequently stated, notably in four documents: (1) The Olmsted Survey and Report tot he Legislature (Chapter 764, Statutes of 1927); (2) Statement by the original State Park Commission in 1928, entitled "State Parks-What are they?"; (3) Supplementary Olmsted Survey of 1950 (Section I, Chapter 1422, Statutes of 1945); and (4) The Five Year Master Plan, 1956.
These criteria involve certain principles:
1. Areas in the State Park System should be of statewide and
not local significance.
2. They should possess outstanding qualities of landscape or features
of special significance that make their preservation and public
recreational use a matter of statewide concern.
3. They should be on a scale worthy of inclusion in the State
Park System.
4. They should be unified and complete areas with logical boundaries.
5. State Parks are primarily natural areas. Developments are for
the purpose of making the areas available for public enjoyment
in a manner consistent with the preservation of natural attractiveness
and should be of the simpler sorts in a natural environment (i.e.
camping, picnicking, sightseeing, nature study, hiking, riding,
boating, swimming, fishing, etc.) involving no major modification
of their lands, forests and waters and without extensive introduction
of artificial features such as athletic fields, playgrounds, golf
courses, and other forms of recreational developments that primarily
are for local benefit.
6. Funds for the State Park System are not intended to be used
as a subsidy to local recreational developments. Important as
they are, they have traditionally been considered as the responsibility
of local communities, and are not a part of or related to the
State Park System, which supplements on a statewide basis the
local recreational provisions.
7. The State Park areas should be equitably distributed so as
to assure proper balance in their use by the citizens of all parts
of the State, but not necessarily located in specific communities
of the basis of population or area. The statewide value of the
present State Park System is shown by the fact that a majority
of the visitors to many remote parks come from the populous centers
of the State. One of the primary purposes of the State Parks is
to afford city dwellers the benefits of life in the open country,
therefore, county lines cannot be taken as the basis of distribution
of parks, but rather the determining factor should be the availability
of the types of lands that can most satisfactorily afford the
sorts of outdoor recreation that are characteristic of State Parks.
8. In determining the value to the different parts of the State
of areas proposed for State Park purposes, not only should reasonable
accessibility to the entire population be taken into account,
but also the relative cost to the State in terms of the types
of recreation characteristic of State Parks.
The above and other established principles have been followed by successive State Park Commissions to the best of their ability in building up the State Park System, and according to the experience and understanding of the State Park Commission have been generally supported by the Legislature and the people of the State. They are the basis of action by the State Parks Commission in carrying out the responsibility placed upon it by the Legislature.
(signed)
Newton B. Drury, Chief
Division of Beaches and Parks