Searching for ways to keep parks open

<p>SAUSALITO — Park supporters vowed Tuesday to raise money and organize volunteers to keep California’s state parks open, even offering to take on maintenance and oversight of some parts of the park system.</p><p>More than 150 people gathered at a public hearing to discuss strategies to avert the threatened closure of 100 California state parks as part of a cost-cutting move.</p><p>“In the city of Sonoma, the passion for state parks is very much alive,” said Sonoma Mayor Ken Brown, whose city is two square miles but has three state parks. “We are not going to allow one of our state parks to close.”</p><p>“Our state historical park has 15,000 years of continuous habitation,” said Gae Henry of the Anderson Marsh Interpretative Society in Marin County. “We have archaeological sites, Native American sites, historical ranch sites ... I don’t think you could even lock our doors.”</p><p>Brown and Henry joined three-dozen speakers at the hearing in Fort Baker in Sausalito to search for ways to prevent the state from shutting down more than a third of its state parks.</p><p>“We have to find some money and we have to find it quickly,” said Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman, whose district covers Marin and southern Sonoma County. “We need to fund this critically important resource of California.”</p><p>Huffman, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, held the public hearing even as word began coming out of Sacramento that Gov. Schwarzenegger was backing off on the closure plans.</p><p>Since the governor announced plans to cut $14.2 million from the $400 million parks budget a month ago, there has been a groundswell of support and a flurry of ideas on how to keep the state park system intact.</p><p>Two of the parks that are reportedly on the closure list, which has still not been released, are Annadel and the Petaluma Adobe.</p><p>Even though the list is not final, volunteer organizations are already rallying for Annadel, which is extremely popular with bicyclists, joggers, hikers and equestrians.</p><p>Bill Keene, with the Sonoma County Conservation and Open Space District, said he is meeting with Sonoma County financier Henry Trione this week to talk about Annadel, which Trione was instrumental in forming.</p><p>It could result in the Sonoma County group LandPaths taking over supervision and maintenance of Annadel’s trails, as it does at Willow Creek near Jenner.</p><p>“Closing that park is not an option,” said LandPaths executive director Craig Anderson.</p><p>Michael Harris, acting chief deputy director of parks, acknowledged Tuesday that the list is being studied by state attorneys to assess whether there are any liability issues, and whether the cost of the closures outweighs the savings.</p><p>“This is not something we have ever done before,” Harris said. “There is no checklist of liabilities.”</p><p>There are 278 California parks covering 1.5 million acres, drawing 75 million to 80 million visitors annually, with 2,200 permanent and 5,700 part-time employees.</p><p>In 2008, those visitors spent $97.6 billion in California, said Teresa Cooke of the California Travel Industry Association.</p><p>The 17 state parks along 60 miles of coast are the economic engine of the Mendocino coast, since the last lumber mill closed in 2005 and commercial fishing has been sharply curtailed, said Stan Anderson of the Mendocino County Parks Association.</p><p>“Westport Landing has a campground, and the village of Westport has 300 people,” Anderson said. “Guess where their income comes from?”</p><p>Randy Wildera, past president of the California League of Parks Associations, said there are 84 volunteer organizations covering all state parks, providing $10 million for education programs for 27,000 school children.</p><p>“We have to find a solution. I don’t think we have any other option,” Wildera said.</p><p>Elizabeth Goldstein of the California State Parks Foundation is proposing selling park sponsorships for $500,000 to $2 million each, which would be marked by a plaque of some sort in the visitors center. It could raise as much as $8 million a year.</p><p>That would be a stop-gap measure, however, with most feeling that a stable source of financing still needs to be found.</p><p>The parks foundation is proposing to put a voter initiative on the November 2010 ballot to levy a fee of $15 on vehicle registrations. The measure would raise $300 million a year for parks, similar to a legislative proposal that was made during budget negotiations.</p><p>“These parks are economic engines. They are not liabilities, and it is short-sighted to approach the parks budget as if it is a liability,” Huffman said.</p>