New Bold Plan to Save Our State Parks

The Sierra Club has endorsed a proposed statewide ballot measure to save our State Parks and Wildlife Preserves from the terrible neglect they now suffer. Angeles Chapter members will be helping to gather signatures to place this measure on the ballot and we urgently need you to volunteer to help gather these signatures between now and April.

For many years, our State Parks and Wildlife Preserve Systems have suffered continuous budget cuts. Deferred maintenance has climbed to more than a billion dollars. This year even more drastic cuts have resulted in partial closures of State Parks and wildlife habitat preserves.

Problems in our State Parks due to inadequate funding are endless. Most serious are partial closures that ban the public from the parks created for its use. Next year's additional budget cuts will undoubtedly result in even more partial closures, and even permanent closures, which were barely staved off this year even with the efforts of Sierra Club members pushing on the legislature and the Governor only a few months ago.

Perhaps worse in the long term is inadequate maintenance, obvious when run-down restrooms, shabby campgrounds, overgrown trails, and a lack of ranger activities make a visit to a State Park a less than satisfying experience. Other problems threaten the ecological viability of our State Parks even more. Invasion by non-native plants pushes out threatened and endangered plant and animal species, already found in large numbers in our local units of the State Parks system. Inadequate patrols result in highly destructive and dangerous marijuana growing. Trails erode which damages water quality. The list goes on and on.

Unless a permanent funding source is established, our State Parks and Wildlife Preserves will be permanently degraded and less attractive to wildlife and the public. Reliable funding began to decline after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. The Sierra Club has joined a coalition with Nature Conservancy, Audubon, California State Parks Foundation, Save the Redwoods League and many other conservation groups to place a statewide initiative on the November, 2010 ballot. It is very short and simple. It would raise vehicle registration fees $18 a year, and for the first time in many years provide guaranteed funding for our State Park and Wildlife Preserve Systems. In exchange for this small fee increase, California vehicles would be allowed free Day Use entry to our State Parks and Wildlife Preserves. Since entry often costs $10 or more, and since many Californians visit a State Park or Beach more than once a year, this is a very fair exchange.

This measure will only appear on the ballot if hundreds of volunteers around the state gather signatures between now and April. The Angeles Chapter will be working with Sierra Club chapters around the state to gather the thousands of signatures necessary to get this initiative on the ballot and we need your help.

It's about time that California's state parks get secure and guaranteed funding. The time is now for Sierra Club members to rally to help get this initiative on the ballot so that we can ensure our state parks will be preserved and protected for future generations to enjoy……just as we have said Judy Anderson, Angeles Chapter conservation activist and former Conservation Committee Chair.