By Ben Adler / Capital Public Radio
California’s state parks system has faced a rough few years: Deep cuts during the recession, and a financial scandal that rocked the department. Now, a state commission is just days away from releasing a report that demands the department modernize itself – and Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget proposes only enough money to buy the parks system a year to turn itself around. Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler reports from Sacramento.
Barely a cannon’s shot from the state Capitol is Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park. For years, it has hosted elementary school students from throughout California. On this day, students from Sacramento’s David Lubin Elementary School are visiting. They’re taking part in the Environmental Living Program. They – and some of their parents – spend 24 hours at the fort, in costumes from 1846, learning about life as pioneers. Third-grader Joseph Cochran has noticed a few differences…
Cochran: “With the pioneers, they didn’t have electronics like we do today – like Playstation, PS2s. And they didn’t like have football teams or something. And they didn’t have fancy clothes like jeans, basketball shoes.”
Sutter’s Fort never closed during the recession, but it – and all 270 state parks – have faced their share of cuts. Here’s Capital Public Radio’s Marianne Russ in October 2009:
Russ: “They’re the kind of changes that park goers will notice: Some will be open only a few days a week. There will be fewer open restrooms, trash cans and open campgrounds. There will also be fewer school tours of historic parks.”
The low point for the state parks system came in summer 2012. The department’s director resigned after reports that the parks department had secretly hoarded $20 million, at a time when Governor Jerry Brown’s administration had slated 70 parks for closure. Brown’s Secretary of Natural Resources, John Laird, took up damage control.