Disney
08-24-2009, 15:35
I apologize if this is a repost. I really enjoyed this article and wanted to share it. The author makes some very good points, and has some great lines.
State may close park gates, but it won't keep me out
By Tom Stienstra
Logic gives you what you need. Passion gives you what you crave. In the end, it's passion that feeds your dreams or part of you dies.
When it comes to logic, it makes financial sense to keep all state parks open. Last year, state parks had 79.6 user visits that generated $2.6 billion in spending during those trips. For every dollar the state put into parks, it generated $2.35 in tax revenue.
Yet in his last-minute line-item budget cuts, Gov. Schwarzenegger slashed general fund money to state parks. That cut is equal to only one quarter of 1 percent of the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit, yet could close 100 parks starting in September.
When it comes to passion, I'll tell you this: Nobody is going to keep me out of the state parks. A lot of people feel exactly the same. We share one thing in common. We have spots in parks where we know "The Power of Place," where we are free of all cares. These spots make us whole.
One of these places for me is in the interior of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at the brink of Silver Falls in Berry Creek Canyon. You can touch the water as it flows past and watch it sail over the cliff, then turn to your right and take in the lower cascade of Golden Falls, flowing like a giant golden water slide.
Big Basin Redwoods is one of the parks that probably will be on the list of park closures because loses money on offseason weekdays. But when the waterfalls flow in Berry Creek Canyon, I'm going. They can close Big Basin headquarters, gate the road and parking lots, put up no parking signs and have helicopter surveillance, but I'll go. I know the woods better than they do, and I defy them to catch me.
It's also my belief that the state's residents already own these parks, and we don't need somebody's OK to use what already belongs to us, within rules designed to prevent damage, of course.
Some time after Labor Day, the first closures will start. That is when the flow of user-fee money from day-use and camping always slows, especially on weekdays. The best estimates are 100 parks will get locked up this fall, possibly 25 in the Bay Area, and a lot more next year.
Parks avoiding closure will be those with OHV use and boat ramps, which are self-funding, and parks where local groups, and county or national park units step forward to help fund and run them.
The conflict will spark when the gates are locked and "park closed" signs go up, and people go anyway. You don't suddenly tell millions of people they can't go for a hike at their favorite parks.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/23/SPOJ19B4BS.DTL
State may close park gates, but it won't keep me out
By Tom Stienstra
Logic gives you what you need. Passion gives you what you crave. In the end, it's passion that feeds your dreams or part of you dies.
When it comes to logic, it makes financial sense to keep all state parks open. Last year, state parks had 79.6 user visits that generated $2.6 billion in spending during those trips. For every dollar the state put into parks, it generated $2.35 in tax revenue.
Yet in his last-minute line-item budget cuts, Gov. Schwarzenegger slashed general fund money to state parks. That cut is equal to only one quarter of 1 percent of the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit, yet could close 100 parks starting in September.
When it comes to passion, I'll tell you this: Nobody is going to keep me out of the state parks. A lot of people feel exactly the same. We share one thing in common. We have spots in parks where we know "The Power of Place," where we are free of all cares. These spots make us whole.
One of these places for me is in the interior of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at the brink of Silver Falls in Berry Creek Canyon. You can touch the water as it flows past and watch it sail over the cliff, then turn to your right and take in the lower cascade of Golden Falls, flowing like a giant golden water slide.
Big Basin Redwoods is one of the parks that probably will be on the list of park closures because loses money on offseason weekdays. But when the waterfalls flow in Berry Creek Canyon, I'm going. They can close Big Basin headquarters, gate the road and parking lots, put up no parking signs and have helicopter surveillance, but I'll go. I know the woods better than they do, and I defy them to catch me.
It's also my belief that the state's residents already own these parks, and we don't need somebody's OK to use what already belongs to us, within rules designed to prevent damage, of course.
Some time after Labor Day, the first closures will start. That is when the flow of user-fee money from day-use and camping always slows, especially on weekdays. The best estimates are 100 parks will get locked up this fall, possibly 25 in the Bay Area, and a lot more next year.
Parks avoiding closure will be those with OHV use and boat ramps, which are self-funding, and parks where local groups, and county or national park units step forward to help fund and run them.
The conflict will spark when the gates are locked and "park closed" signs go up, and people go anyway. You don't suddenly tell millions of people they can't go for a hike at their favorite parks.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/23/SPOJ19B4BS.DTL