SOS!!!! Save our State Parks!

Midmo contributor and Sacto historian extraordinaire Ed Carroll forwarded me this info this morning. I really can’t imagine what California would be like without our amazing state parks. Please, pass this info on to anyone you know who values our historic places.

Cooper-Molera Adobe, a National Trust Historic Site, resides in one of the parks slated to be closed.
California State Parks remain in a precarious position, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holding fast to his plan to eliminate $70 million from the parks budget in 2009 and cut the entire parks budget in 2010. An effort to generate new revenue for the park system through the State Park Access Pass – a $15 vehicle registration fee entitling the payer to free state park access – did not receive the bipartisan support necessary to pass California’s constitutional requirements of a 2/3 vote by the Legislature to pass a budget or increase taxes. Budget negotiations are now in the hands of the “Big 5”: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, Senate President pro tempore Darrell Steinberg, and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and our partner, the California State Parks Foundation, continue to work through the Save Our State Parks campaign to restore funding for California State Parks and prevent the devastating impact park closures would have on historic resources and local tourism economies.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
TAKE ACTION TODAY: Contact the “Big 5” and urge them to seek a creative solution that will provide adequate revenue to keep our state parks open.

SPREAD THE WORD: Tell a friend in California about the threats to their state parks and urge them to join our fight to save the parks.

OTHER THINGS YOU CAN DO:
Take a This Place Matters photo at your favorite California State Park to upload to PreservationNation.

Learn more about the endangered California parks and the parks slated for closure.

If you know of an organization or group that should be part of the fight to keep California’s state parks open, encourage them to sign up to be part of the movement to Save Our State Parks!
Thank you for supporting us on this issue.

BACKGROUND ON THIS ISSUE:
Last year, in response to the Governor’s previous proposal to close 48 state parks, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the California state park system to our annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Together with the Save Our State Parks (SOS) Campaign and the support of tens of thousands of Californians, we successfully prevented the closure of the parks.
California’s state park system, the largest state park system in the U.S., encompasses a vast array of historic sites that chronicle the state’s rich and storied heritage. The system includes 51 designated State Historic Parks, and protects and interprets sites ranging from the Angel Island Immigration Station, just restored and reopened to the public, to the 101-year-old Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, recently saved from a proposed factory farm on its border, to the Cooper-Molera Adobe, a National Trust Historic Site located within the Monterey State Historic Park.
Preservationists know from experience that an unused building is a building at risk. Without ongoing maintenance, small leaks become major structural failures. Fewer eyes minding closed parks will lead to increased risk of theft, arson, and vandalism. Even at current funding levels, historic resources in California State Parks receive only about 30% of the annual funding they require; even just a year of closures will make an already bad situation much worse.