Our Endangered Legacy: Deteriorating State Parks

From the vast Anza Borrego desert in the south to the misty redwoods of Del Norte County in the far north, California has the most varied and spectacular state park system in the nation. There are 264 units covering 1.3 million acres and including virtually every major beach along the California coastline.

The system is magnificent. It is irreplaceable. And it is unnecessarily suffering severe financial stress and neglect. Unless the Legislature and the Wilson administration act soon, portions of the park system may become run down beyond repair, some units may face closure and the parks may become priced beyond the pocketbooks of millions of Californians.

The parks protect not only unique natural areas but also treasured cultural and historic sites. There is the 1848 gold discovery site at Coloma, the incredible Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the onetime Russian colony at Ft. Ross and a variety of museums. There are 3,000 miles of trails and some 18,000 campsites, lakes, rivers, wetlands and estuaries. More than 70 million people visit the parks each year.

But the state Department of Parks and Recreation has been squeezed financially ever since the fiscal crisis of the early 1980s. When times got better--as they are now--the lost funds were not restored. Today, state budget writers are embarked on a program to wean the department from the $53-billion general fund, the all-purpose account used to finance basic state services.

The idea is to make the department self-sufficient, having it rely on its own fees, on sources such as the environmental license plate fund and on agreements with businesses that run concessions in the parks. One recent and lucrative deal would allow construction of a private, pricey resort at Crystal Cove between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

The decision to divorce park support from the general fund was a bad one, says one Capitol insider, adding: “The parks represent the estate of the people of California.” Others stress that the parks are a public trust.

The system has a maintenance backlog of about $500 million. There has been no parks bond issue since 1988. It’s no longer possible to accommodate population growth and increasing visitor demand--or even to halt the accelerating drift into disrepair, evidenced by conditions such as overwhelmed sewage facilities and picnic tables with missing benches.

This is “an emergency and a crisis waiting to happen,” department director Donald W. Murphy told a legislative hearing this month. Murphy added: “We’re only 1/10th of 1% of the budget and you can’t fund us appropriately?”

It is to Murphy’s credit that the park system has been held together as well as it has been during his six-year tenure. Unfortunately, the former park ranger, the only director ever to rise from the ranks, is giving up the struggle Dec. 12 to go to the private sector.

Assembly Budget Committee Chairwoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) said she will seek ways to put the department on a firmer financial footing next year. And support is being generated for a $485-million parks bond issue sponsored by Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) for the 1998 state election ballot. Both efforts must be pursued, but success is unlikely without the active backing of Gov. Pete Wilson.

In his resignation letter to Wilson, parks chief Murphy warned that the parks “are in a dire state of repair.” The Legislature, the governor and all of us must be better stewards of this system, our legacy to future Californians.