Does this happen to you often? You are walking down a trail or along a strand of beach and someone coming from the opposite direction looks to you and says hello? Or, “How are you folks doing?” Or, “What a wonderful day.” Or even, “Isn’t it beautiful?” What is it about being in a State Park or on a State Beach that makes total strangers want to exchange greetings, perhaps share a sentiment with? It certainly does not happen when you are out shopping or walking into an office building to work or to conduct business. Our lives are increasingly populated with strangers, people who for all we know we have nothing in common. But when you are in a beautiful place, that state park or state beach, you can’t help but want to smile at those you pass and exchange greetings. Yes, state parks and state beaches are among the last places in our lives where we can encounter total strangers and yet feel something in common, something to share.
The strangers we meet along those paths likely have something in common with us, something we seldom think about. Like you, they pay taxes and some small portion of those taxes (say $2 to $4 per year) help support the state parks and state beaches that every Californian treasures and has the right to enjoy. It is not a privilege for the few, or for those who can pay the most, or for anyone else’s profit. They are there for you to enjoy. So, why is it that in this time of economic uncertainty, anyone questions why a miniscule portion of the state budget goes to maintaining and keeping open state parks and beaches?
Volunteer Service
So, while we consider what a great benefit state parks and beaches are to us and everyone who visits them, also recognize the essential services provided by volunteers. Last year alone, some 40,000 volunteers stepped forward to provide state parks and beaches with their labor, expertise, and yes, money to keep state parks open and available to all. A volunteer is often the person who takes your entrance fee, gives you a map and informational guide, and answers your questions. A volunteer is often the person at the visitor’s center who can tell you about the park, its history, what makes it special, what activities are available. A volunteer might be that person you encounter on the trail who, with shovel in hand, is toiling to keep the trail open and safe, removing invasive foliage, or helping monitor a protected area on which a threatened species is trying to survive. By one estimate made by the Department of Parks and Recreation, over 1,000,000 hours of volunteer service each year goes to keeping parks open and safe. The department values such service at $21 per hour, though, of course, volunteers are not paid. If the volunteers were not in place to augment the full-time on-site parks staff, currently hovering below 1500, what would be the outcome? You see where this is headed.
Of course, when we talk about the 40,000 volunteers, we are focusing on the efforts of individual volunteers who are actually on-site. Off-site volunteer work is not often visible to visitors to state parks. The off-site volunteer is busy with fund raising, grant writing, advocacy work, and the many challenges that arise in keeping a volunteer organization functioning. That said, the 1,000,000 hours of volunteer work that is recognized by State Parks is but part of the total effort.
Jack London State Historical Park is an excellent example of volunteer effort. On May 13, 2011, the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) included the park on the list of 70 parks to be closed by July 1, 2012. The DPR’s reasoning was that if the park was closed the DPR would save $162,689. It was, after all, a low visitor destination. The DPR counted visitors at just over 46,000 per year, in spite of evidence that the true number of visitors is more like 62,000. From the beginning of the parks crisis, it was assumed that the park would be closed. After all, the park lacks high revenue amenities, namely campgrounds. No for-profit concessionaire was likely to take on the park. By the spring of 2012, hours of operation were cut, the Jack London farm house was closed, and thousands of artifacts were being packed up for storage. Throughout the spring, DPR held to its view that the park would be closed. From all appearances, the DPR had made its mind up.
Rather than see such an iconic and historic treasure close, the volunteers of the Valley of the Moon Historical Society stepped forward, asking only “What can I do to help?” Thirty-four years of volunteer effort by the association meant that it was well-positioned to take on the challenge. As Executive Director Tjiska Van Wyk put it, these are “people who want to give back to their community,” to insure that these parks are “accessible to everyone.” Many volunteers are retired persons. Others, in spite of raising families and working, also stepped forward to help. At Jack London State Historical Park, there are now 8 staff members and perhaps as many as 65 volunteers dedicated to keeping the park open. From Thursday through Monday, every week, they are at their posts. Their operations agreement is for five years. As the state parks website makes plain, “No State Services or Staff Available. It is a courageous stance in the face of the popular wisdom that California’s fiscal crisis is not about to be solved.
Being a volunteer can mean many things. For the Valley of the Moon Historical Association, which has as its charge 3 state parks (Annadel, Sugarloaf, and Jack London), it means bicycle and horseback patrols to insure safety, creating signage, maintaining trails, operating entrance kiosks and visitor centers, undertaking repairs, and much more. It also includes countless hours dedicated to applying for grants for capital improvements and maintenance, planning and presenting special events, and continued efforts to advocate for state parks.
Given that it takes a lot of money to operate a park, and not all of it can be generated from visitor fees, volunteer groups have had to become very creative. This summer, the Valley of the Moon Historical Association has taken on the presentation of 14 special performances to raise money. On August 16th, the first of four Broadway and Hollywood Under the Stars was presented. It was an evening of wine, picnicking, and songs from such hits as Oklahoma and Les Miserables.
Closer to home, in the fall of 2011, the Hendy Woods Community was formed to save Hendy Woods State Park from closure. Many remember the first public gathering as an Occupy Hendy Woods event. On a cold, November morning, a good 130 people showed up in support of the park. Assemblyman Jared Huffman also came to talk about the legislative initiatives on which he and others were working. In the weeks and months that followed, volunteers stepped forward to offer help, donations were collected, and an organization took shape. By January, Hendy Woods Community was ready to submit its proposal to act as a “joint operator” in concert with parks staff. They were informed that it would require them to show a history of organizational capability, a financial ability, and proven ability that they could indeed operate a park. Of course, if you happened to have an long-established record of volunteer services, as say Valley of the Moon, your chances were fair to good. But Hendy Woods is a fledgling organization and it will take time to show staying power. To complicate matters, the DPR in February presented some high hurdles to overcome. Throughout the spring, the volunteers did whatever they could to create the conditions upon which the DPR would enter into agreement.
In spite of all obstacles, Hendy Woods Community has succeeded in joining into agreement with DPR to “jointly operate” the park for one year. It remains a challenge. After all, Anderson Valley is a thinly populated community with limited economic resources. Nevertheless, through events such as the BBQ in April at Navarro Vineyards, and the highly successful special evening with Kris Krisoffersen and Bill Bottrell entertaining under the performance tent on the Mendocino Headlands, things are looking up. Hendy Woods Community also had the expert counsel and sizeable donation from Save the Redwoods League to augment their efforts and fund raising capacities. As one of the youngest of the 80 or so “recognized” organizations that have stepped forward to save parks through their volunteer efforts and donations, Hendy Woods is off to a good start.
Legislative & Executive Initiatives
Some good news comes from Assemblyman Jared Huffman. First, he agrees that simply raising fees is not the answer. Also, the portion of the “hidden funds” that was found in the general funds account will be used to stabilize this year’s parks funding. The Governor has already indicated that he will agree to that. Next year, however, a new appropriations bill will be required to insure a stable level of general funds support for state parks. Details are still being worked out. As to establishing more oversight of DPR operations, according to Assemblyman Huffman, “It has been suggested by some that perhaps the State Parks Commission could be constituted to play more of a watchdog role. Others have suggested restructuring of the department itself. Clearly, new protocols are needed…” Whatever happens, the assemblyman agrees that citizens and park users should be represented. As noted, the other part of the “hidden funds”, $30.5 million, are restricted funds available only for the off-highway vehicle fund purposes.
It is all but certain that Assembly Bill 1589 will pass sometime before Labor Day. The main components of the bill deal with shifting existing funds around to cover park operations, installing new technology to improve entrance fee collections (the iron ranger concept) and other revenue enhancing mechanisms. As noted above, new legislation will be required that commits the state to long-term general fund support for parks.
As to Senate Bill 974, sponsored by Senator Noreen Evans, it is the bill that most directly calls for more transparency and accountability on the part of the Department of Parks and Recreation. As is also true of Assemblyman Huffman’s initiatives, the Senator recognizes that the vision for parks needs clarification, with the public weighing in on parks.
It is arguable that one cannot expect legislation alone, no matter how well crafted, to correct the abuses and misdirection that have plagued the DPR for years. As is true with any large and complex organization, bureaucracy if you like, a cultural norm is established, one that defines and shapes why and for whom the department operates. For too long, the practices at the highest levels within DPR have shown little regard for what the real “stakeholders” of California expect. Ask any Californian what they want from their parks. They will tell you they want universal access, reasonable fees for using the parks, and no talk of handing over the most “revenue rich” units to private for-profit companies. After all, it took 110 years to build up the 270 parks and beaches through tax support, generous land and monetary donations and, as we began this article, the generations of volunteers who have contributed so much to make state parks the crown jewels of the State of California that they indeed are.
The efforts and taxes of millions of citizens have made California State Parks what they are, a priceless and irreplaceable gift to be handed down from one generation to the next. There is no good argument for privatizing any portion of the commons. If Californians at the height of the Great Depression could tough it through hard times without closing or disposing of a single state park, are we not equal to the task? The next time anyone says, “Well, these are hard times and we have to cut somewhere,” remind them that the direct tax burden to the average taxpayer comes out to from $2 to $4 per year. Elected officials appear determined to spend upwards of $10 billion per year on state prisons. Plans are in motion to spend up to $50 billion for a peripheral canal. Plans are also being finalized to spend at least $12 billion dollars on a bullet train. As voters, we need to remind them that it is the small things, like sustaining our parks budget, that also deserve support. After all, a park or beach may be one of the last places where even a politician will hear a stranger walking by say “Isn’t it a wonderful day,” or “How are you folks doing?” Yes, one of the benefits of our parks and beaches is that it brings us all just a little bit closer to each other, even in times of stress and uncertainty.
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