f your spring break plans include hiking in the Big Sur area, it’s time to activate plan B. California state parks in the area received a double whammy in the past eight months that have kept popular coastal sites closed. More than 130,000 acres around Big Sur were scorched by the Soberanes fire that burned from July to October last year. Heavy rains in February brought flooding and slides to the burn area, compounding the damage. Some parks are closed indefinitely because of the fire, flooding or both.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Amid a national conversation on what to do with the nation’s public lands, agencies in the Tahoe Basin are making changes to better manage state and federally owned land.
The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday approved a $30-million proposal to renovate the last of 46 oceanfront cottages at historic Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County.
After a three-year renovation — about two years longer than originally slated — the 34-acre Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown finally has an opening date.
Levine’s bill, AB 725, has cleared one key committee, but still must go before the Assembly Appropriations Committee before the entire Assembly can vote on it.
Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia and Yosemite national parks all set attendance records in 2016 — as did the park system nationwide, recording more than 330 million visits during its centennial year. A new tally shows 330.97 million recreational visits to national parks last year, a 7.72% increase from the year before. The Find Your Park marketing campaign, designed around the 100th anniversary of the NPS’ creation, built on a five-year upswing in visitation nationwide, said Jeffrey Olson, a National Park Service spokesman.
California’s spectacular state parks system — which ranges from statuesque redwoods to vast deserts and sweeping beaches — has hit some rough patches over the past five years with threatened parks closures, budget problems and even a famous drive-through giant sequoia tree falling down this winter in heavy storms. But parks lovers are trying to inject some new visibility and money into the venerable system of 280 parks with a proposed commemorative license plate. For the state Department of Motor Vehicles to begin producing the plate, which features an image of a redwood forest, it needs 7,500 pre-paid orders by May 18.
Starting this August, Californians will make their state parks camping and tour reservations through a new, faster, easier to use reservation system that features more open access to data.
The breeding season of the western snowy plover started this month, prompting state park officials to increase patrol efforts to protect the bird.
A day after a 9-year-old boy died at Monastery State Beach, the public safety superintendent for California State Parks in the area said the best solution to keeping the site nicknamed “Mortuary Beach” by locals safe would be to staff more lifeguards.
The state wants to fix a crumbling road that leads into San Onofre State Park, but the Surfrider Foundation opposes the plan because surfers fear the upgrade could change the area’s famed waves and lead to long-term erosion.