Salton Sea among list of state parks Calif. officials propose closing

SACRAMENTO -- A quarter of all state parks would close because of budget cuts approved by the state Legislature - from redwood groves along the North Coast to historic mining sites in the Sierra foothills and the Salton Sea in Southern California - under plans announced Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown's administration.

The state would close 70 of its 278 state parks, said California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman. The park system will cut services this summer and begin shutting parks in September, with all 70 closings completed by July 2012, she said.

The parks system hopes to minimize layoffs, possibly shifting some of the roughly 200 workers who would be affected by the closings into vacant positions within the department, Coleman said. There are almost 2,300 full-time positions in the state parks and about 500 of them are open.

"We regret closing any park," she said in a prepared statement, "but with the proposed budget reductions over the next two years, we can no longer afford to operate all parks within the system."

The cuts are the result of a bill Brown signed into law in March that trims $11 million from the parks budget in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $22 million the next fiscal year. That trims the system's 2012-2013 budget from the state general fund to $99 million.

"This is a 40 percent reduction to the general fund parks budget since 2007-2008," said John Laird, California Secretary for Natural Resources.

Among the parks scheduled to close are the Governor's and Leland Stanford mansions in Sacramento, the Antelope Valley Indian Museum and the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. The closings span the state, from the Morro Strand and Moss Landing state beaches to the Salton Sea State Recreation Area and Palomar Mountain State Park, They include popular recreation spots near cities, such as China Camp State Park north of San Francisco, and isolated nature spots including Plumas-Eureka and South Yuba River state parks.

The department said it based the decision on a variety of factors, including the parks' statewide significance, protecting the most important natural and cultural resources, public access, whether they have private or nonprofit partnerships and any grant or deed restrictions. The parks that will remain open account for about 92 percent of the visits to the system, officials said.

The park system will do its best to honor reservations already made for campsites and other services this summer but might have to shift some patrons to other sites because service cuts may shut some camping areas, Coleman said.

Brown is scheduled to release his updated proposal to close the remaining $15.4 billion deficit on Monday. If it includes additional cuts to the parks system, the list may grow, Coleman said.

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