Summer 2010
POST Backs "YES for State Parks" Campaign
Judy Kramer and Don Savant
- This past fall, POST joined a statewide effort to create a 2010 ballot measure protecting the future of our state parks. Twice in the past two years, the parks have been threatened with total closure. Now, because of drastic budget cuts, operating hours for nearly 60 of the 278 parks will be significantly reduced, curtailing public access. The parks are also falling severely behind in much-needed maintenance and repairs, with the accumulated costs at $1 billion and growing.
- The new ballot measure, known as the California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund
Act of 2010, avoids more closures
and reductions by ensuring a stable, reliable and adequate source of funding for state parks. Funds would come from an $18 annual State Parks Access Pass surcharge on most California vehicles, entitling them to free, year-round admission to all California State Parks.
- POST is one of a handful of conservation groups who provided early support for this effort. In mid-
April, organizers submitted signatures to the state for the measure to qualify for the November ballot. As we went to press, it was anticipated the measure
would have the 477,000 valid names needed to qualify for the ballot.
- “California State Parks capture the history of our state as well as its essential beauty, and losing any of them would be like losing part of the soul of California,” says POST Board Chair Mark Wan.
Little Basin Update . . .
