Parks put on hold

Sacramento State senior Michelle George has mastered a skill not many other students likely have: churning butter.

As the vocational education major sits in the shade of a tree in Sutter's Fort in a Gold-Rush-era burgundy dress, she explains her craft to two wide-eyed fifth-graders.

Her job as an interpreter – a sort of window into the past – at Sutter’s Fort could soon disappear if the proposed budget cuts are approved. The park is one of 48 state parks and beaches that could close as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 2008-2009 budget, which would shave 10 percent from the Department of State Parks and Recreation.

But George doesn't seem worried.

“They always put (Sutter's Fort) on the list, but I don't think they’ll ever close it,” she said as she slowly rotated the churn. “They can't close it. This is Sutter town. ... That's Sutter hospital. ... You know what I'm saying?”

Others have taken a much less casual attitude to the proposed cuts of more than $13 million and about 130 jobs.

“If we start closing down these invaluable places, where will our children go to learn these lessons?” hiker and author Amy Racina asked the crowd April 7 at the Save Our State Parks rally on the West Steps of the State Capitol.

In 2003, Racina fell 60 feet while hiking alone in the Sierra Nevada and broke both of her legs. She was stranded for four days, and doctors said she would never hike again.

Nine months later, she was hiking again. She credits her recovery to the determination and persistence she learned from her life-long experiences with hiking.

She figures she has spent 18 days of the last two months in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve near Guerneville – one of the parks on the proposed list of closures.



Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who also spoke at he rally, said his family took vacations to state parks when he was a child because they couldn't afford more expensive destinations.

“Parks are the lifeblood of the state,” Maldonado told the crowd. He is the only Republican legislator who spoke out against the governor's proposed budget at the rally.

Aaron McLear, spokesman for the governor, said Schwarzenegger is open to other proposals.

“He's been imploring the legislators to come out with their own ideas, and that simply hasn't happened,” McLear said in a phone interview. “He says that at every stop he makes.”

McLear said the parks department is not being unfairly targeted, because every department in the state is being asked to cut 10 percent under the proposed budget.

“We're not protecting a certain group over another – (the cuts are) consistent with everybody,” he said.

Maldonado said the legislature should “put everything on the table and prioritize what's important to California.”

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has suggested alternatives that don’t include any park closures.

It has recommended offsetting the budget cuts by raising park entry fees instead, explaining the fees are still at about the same levels as a decade ago.

“However, if fees per visitor are adjusted for inflation over this time, the department would collect about $25 million more per year,” the office said in its recommendation.

Roy Stearns, a spokesman for the parks department, said it doesn't want to raise fees and “price people out.”

“For a lot of people in the state, (state parks are) their main and only vacation,” he said.

Stearns said the parks on the proposed list of closures are some of the least-visited parks that produce the lowest revenue. The department also had to be sure the parks on the list actually could be closed.

“We're not talking about parks the size of a city block you can just fence off,” he said in a phone interview. “It just isn't feasible to close a 20,000-acre park.”

The idea behind the closure of nearly a quarter of all state parks in California is that it would allow for enough money left over in the budget to pay for the maintenance and observance by peace officers of the closed parks that be would be re-classified under “caretaker” status.

But some worry if the parks are closed, they might deteriorate or be vandalized.

“If they close the fort it won’t be maintained,” said an employee in the Sutter’s Fort trade store who asked he not be named because of possible repercussions from his employer. “If I can insert a little sarcasm here, I can guarantee that homeless people won’t climb the walls and start squatting here.”

The employees within the walls of the fort are dressed in period garb and employed by the Sacramento Historical Sites Association, an association that functions in collaboration with California state parks.


If Sutter’s Fort closes, the Historical Sites Association will have no reason to exist, according to the trade store employee.

The park’s closure would not only affect the people who work there or have for more than 20 years, but also school children and local businesses, said Mona Larian, who has managed the adjacent Blimpie sandwich shop on K and 27th Streets, for 13 years.

“(The governor has) really cut a lot off the education,” Larian said.

And while the closure of Sutter’s Fort and other parks in California could mean a loss of educational experience to the thousands of grade school students who visit them each month, it could also have an impact of local businesses that surround the parks.

“We have all the contracts (to provide lunches to visiting students). We deliver over 10,000 lunches over there in a three-month period,” Larian said. “(The closure of Sutter’s Fort) would really hurt our business. We would have to downsize.”

Larian predicts she could see a 20 to 25 percent decline in business if Sutter’s Fort closes.

Larian is not alone. The area surrounding the Sutter’s Fort Park contains several businesses that might suffer without the incoming students and tourists – who come from as far away as Switzerland to see the fort, George said.

The employees of Sutter's Fort will have to wait at least until the May revision of the state's budget to see if they will keep their jobs, but the employees who have been at the fort for a few years are likely all too familiar with budget cuts.

In 1991, the state parks system faced its first major reduction under the Phoenix Program, which cut more than 500 jobs and cut the number of districts in half. Now some of California's park districts contain more parks than entire states, Stearns said.

“The Angeles district has 15 parks, which is bigger than some other state park agencies altogether,” Stearns said.

The state parks system is also behind on its maintenance – since the late 1980s, funding has lagged behind the need for maintenance by $117 million every year, according to a Parks Department press release. The current backlog of maintenance projects is at $1.2 billion.

“Since the late 1980s, the State Parks maintenance agency has been underfunded,” Stearns said. “In some places the quality has suffered.”



editor's note: the videos posted here do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Team El Dorado County