* Not tracked
Data from the 2007/2008 California State Park System Statistical Report.

All the parks listed above will close. Only the seven beachs and small parks or recreation areas in Angeles district that are managed under cooperating arrangements with county and other agencies will remain open. Since those revenues and costs don't pass through the general fund, they aren't affected in this budget crisis.

You may wonder why there aren't visitation numbers for every park. Numbers take expensive man-hours to compile and have limited utility, so State Parks doesn't spend the money. Or maybe you wonder what it costs to keep your favorite park open. Some years ago management and maintenance were consolidated so that no one employee is assigned to just one park. Since getting those interesting but useless numbers would be expensive, State Parks doesn't spend that money either.

What's At Stake In Our Parks

Angeles District's 60 square miles of parkland and 150 miles of trails will be closed to hikers, bikes, equestrians, to everybody. Without fencing, without staff, without maintenance. Empty, unsupervised, and attractive to marijuana growers, off-road-vehicle riders, late­night partiers, vandals, fire­bugs, poachers, and vagrants. The potential for damage to the parks is obvious. The safety problems for the neighbors are obvious. But the potential legal liability is shocking. Residents of Corral and Latigo Canyons whose homes were damaged two years ago during the 4,500 acre Corral Canyon Fire have sued the state for $450 million dollars because it "failed to hire enough park rangers or cut the brush around the cave area." A single fire might cost the state more than operating the entire park system for 5 years!

Think having armed members of international drug cartels in our parks sounds farfetched? It's already happened! In September 2005, a $28 million marijuana farm was found by federal authorities in Malibu Creek State Park and removed by sheriff's deputies. It's a serious enough problem that State Parks, the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, National Forest Service and 110 other agencies participate in a statewide multi-agency task force to stop it. Won't keeping law-abiding citizens out of the parks make all of this worse?

What will happen in the absense of a sensible plan to
finance park operations now, or to re-open them in the future?

The spillover into our communities from chaotic park closures will be disastrous, and unsupervised large wilderness parks will drag down property values. This, combined with population growth and development pressure, will lead to their sale. This is not speculation - during last year's budget battle, legislation was introduced to begin the process of selling closed state parks.

It would cost the state about $6 million to keep these Angeles district parks open next year, about $100 million for all the parks statewide. We live here. We love these parks, we use these parks, we'll pay taxes to support these parks. Why do we let an ideologically motivated minority keep us from having the state services Californian's want?

Get Out of The Way, Let Us Have The Parks We Want

We don't want to hear about waste and fraud. California State Parks operates on a shoestring. Get out in a park and see what we mean! If there really was waste and fraud they'd cut that and keep our parks open!

We're tired of hearing from people who think they could do better. Don't be a backseat driver, get a degree and apply for the job. It pays less, is less fun, requires more sacrifices and is more complicated than you think. See what's going on for yourself!

We don't want to hear about how much California State Parks employees make or what great perks they have. We know some rangers and we see how they live. Give us a break!

And we're really bored with the talk about fee increases. When parking went up by $2 last year, so many people started parking outside Topanga State Park, the park is going to lose money on the increase. And anyway, look at how little revenue Topanga State Park produces. Give it up!

Finally, we don't want to hear how there's no money. Even in these difficult times, California is a rich state. We can afford the parks we want. But a dedicated minority has been campaigning for decades to achieve the current collapse in Sacramento because they don't like public roads, public schools, public libraries, public universities, public hospitals, public utilities, or public parks - things most of us use all the time. It's our indifference, and an unusual and anti-democratic requirement for a 2/3 vote for tax increases, that has allowed a selfish minority to create the current crisis in the legislature. Let's show them we won't put up with it any more!