Natural Resources Plan a Must

As California’s population continues to grow, the state falls ever further behind in protecting its natural resources and wild lands. Parks and recreation are not just frills to be addressed when there is money left over from other government services. Surveys show that corporate executives, when studying locations for major business facilities, consider recreational and natural resources part of the quality of life, right up there with open freeways and good schools. Government outlays to preserve and enhance these resources result in a real payback too. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that wildlife watching alone accounted for more than $3.5 billion in economic activity in California in 1996.

No other state is blessed with such a rich variety of resources, from the misty redwoods of the north coast to the Southern California beaches and the state’s mountain spine and deserts. But Sacramento has not passed a parks and recreation bond issue since 1988, and the funds from the last measure are gone. The cost of acquiring land keeps going up, and the state park maintenance backlog continues to grow--the expense of dealing with it is now put at $600 million. A focused strategy is needed to develop the park and recreation facilities that will be demanded by a population expected to reach 51 million by 2030.

Funds will be required to preserve open space, coastal access, wildlife habitat and watersheds, to restore fish and wildlife populations and riparian areas such as the Los Angeles River and to establish urban parks. Four bills before the Legislature, ranging in size from $500 million to $1.5 billion, would place bond issues on the 2000 ballot. Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis has called for a resources plan as part of a general infrastructure study under Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

It’s important that these resources be seen as an integral part of the state’s infrastructure and quality of life and that they be raised in stature from expensive amenity to necessity. Funds should be allocated by a plan that sets priorities and needs rather than--as often has been the case in the past--by a scattershot distribution to satisfy various geographic and political constituencies.

The old days of “park-barrel” spending, as it’s called in the Legislature, should end. California’s natural beauty is serious business.