Kern County state parks on cutting block
| Friday, May 29 2009 05:11 PM
Last Updated Friday, May 29 2009 05:11 PM
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For more on what parks are in danger -- and to weigh in on the issue -- go to the Quirks of the County blog at Bakersfield.com/blogs.
The wind-carved beauty of Red Rock Canyon in the deserts of Kern County.
Ocean breezes through cypress groves at San Simeon State Park on the Central Coast.
Serene black sand beaches in MacKerricher State Park in Northern California.
They're all on the state budget chopping block -- along with 116 other state parks that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing to save the faltering state budget.
His proposal is to cut $70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010. An additional $143.4 million would be saved in the following fiscal year by keeping the parks closed.
Here in Kern County all five of the county's state parks are on the same chopping block:
* Colonel Allensworth State Historical Park
* Fort Tejon State Historical Park
* Red Rock Canyon State Park
* Tule Elk State Nature Reserve
* Tomo-Kahni State Historical Park
And, to go with those names, come a host of other local favorites from Morro Bay State Park to Pismo State Beach.
The cuts are simply proposals. But Jerry Emory of the California State Parks Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the state parks system, said the proposals have substance.
"The Department of Parks and Recreation is taking it very seriously. We're taking it very, very seriously," he said. "Right now we're working to get our voice and other parks advocates heard in Sacramento."
Schwarzenegger's plan would shutter 220 of the state's 279 parks.
Kern County Parks Director Bob Lerude, who is facing similar budget cuts to his locally funded programs, said the loss of public space and the draw of tourists would harm local economies.
And there will be impacts on Californians' ability to slough off the day-to-day burdens of life.
"From a personal standpoint, parks are a way you can get away from all the...stuff," he said. Without state parks, "There's less places to go to reduce those stress levels."
His current favorite is Morro Bay.
"I love that place over there. It's very natural. Not a lot of development," he said.
Rich O'Neil, who helped develop the Kern River Parkway through Bakersfield, said people can see the echoes of the state's discussion in impacts to local parks.
"They can drive down Truxtun Avenue and look at all the dead trees along the Kern River Parkway," he said. "As a 34-year volunteer on the Kern River Parkway -- to see things we've been able to put together -- to see it fall apart because people aren't willing to count their blessings."
He blames the state's trouble and discussions about grabbing local funding to fix California's budget on the voting down of taxes just because they are taxes.
"We get a lot of benefit in this county from our tax money," he said.
Lerude said that some of the planned closures will have long-term impacts.
"I don't know how they're going to close Red Rock Canyon. I don't know how they're going to keep the off-road vehicles out of there," Lerude said. "There's no way you can keep those closed."
O'Neil said he loves Red Rock Canyon State Park, a quiet, clean spot in the middle of the desert.
"It will get dirtier and (there will be) lots of destruction," he said. "People will enter it and destroy the formations, the archeological sites."
And at some point, people have to accept that this is the state we've all voted for, O'Neil said.
"We all suffer. So let us suffer. We've called this on ourselves."
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
