Ryan ChartrandGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the 2008-09 state budget, which proposed to lessen the state deficit by taking 10 percent of funds away from several state departments, including 48 of California’s 250 state parks, beaches and historic spots.
By closing or suspending access to these 48 parks or lessening the number of lifeguards on duty at state beaches, $13.3 million will be saved in 2008-09, according to the budget proposal. According to the World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org), closing these parks would cover 0.1 percent of the current state deficit.
Some of the Central Coast beaches and parks vulnerable to closures are San Simeon State Park, Montaña de Oro State Park, Morro Strand State Beach and William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach.
WSWS also said “one of the parks slated for closing, Henry Coe State Park, is the state’s second-largest at over 86,000 acres, and is distinct among other parks in that nearly all of its plant and animal life is indigenous to California.”
“I think (the proposed park closures) are a good way to prepare people for an increase in taxes,” said Holly Fry, a park aid for Montaña de Oro and Morro Bay and a Cal Poly agriculture education student. “I don’t think they’re really going to close anything. I’d be very surprised if they did.”
Since the proposal, there is no one to answer calls at the Montaña de Oro headquarters, so all calls are transferred to Morro Bay, Fry said. She said that if the proposed budget cuts do happen, it will not be fair to park workers. She could also lose her job, which is helping her get through college.
Because no one is stationed at Montana de Oro to answer calls, the campsite at the park is now on a first-come, first-served basis as reservations are impossible to make.
Noah Smukler, the chair of the San Luis Bay Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, said it is impossible to restrict access to the beach completely. Tidal zones can’t be closed because parks are technically owned by the public.
“To even try to close the beaches completely would be really expensive,” he said.
Smukler speculates that if the budget cuts are enacted, parks will be forced to close campgrounds, bathrooms and areas to vehicular access. He said that the details of the budget proposal are still being developed and hopefully they won’t be adopted.
“It’s going to take some negotiation and some public outcry and some deliberation on how they really are going to balance the budget (to halt the closures)” he said.
Smukler said the state parks that may be closed are very important to the local tourism-based economy.
“Public access to historically accessed beaches and parks is really important. It’s an affordable recreation opportunity and outdoor experience opportunity. There’s not really a replacement for these experiences,” he said.
Since the parks “are basically the essence of why people love to live in this area and travel to this area,” the Surfrider Foundation has written a formal opposition to the budget proposal, Smukler said.
“People can contact their representatives and make sure that they let people know how important these parks are to them,” Smukler said. Those interested can sign up online at the San Luis Bay Chapter’s Surfrider Web site to receive periodic updates from the chapter about the issue. The foundation is also currently drafting a letter to forward to representatives.
“We can create a healthy and balanced budget that doesn’t reduce or eliminate these services and basic things that we depend on for a good quality of life,” he said.
In his seventh year teaching introductory and advanced-level geology classes, Cal Poly geology professor Antonio Garcia said that if these state beaches were to be closed, a large portion of his instructing would be lost.
Garcia accompanies students in his advanced courses to San Simeon as a concluding part of his advanced class, and he takes advanced classes to Montaña de Oro in small groups to observe the areas in detail because, from a geologist’s point of view, he said the land is a classroom resource.
“Closing any state park is always bad. It’s better to have more access than less,” Garcia said. “It would take something away from the students. It’s their state, it’s a state school and they should be able to learn from it.”
Garcia said that closing the parks, especially now that global warming and social consciousness about the earth is such a big issue, would be terrible.
“Right now, it’s more important to become in tuned with the earth and how it works,” he said, rather than shutting down parks and beaches to reduce a deficit.