Earth Day Restoration at California State Parks and the Crystal Cove Alliance
With the failure of Proposition 21, California’s remarkable state park system remains faced with similar threats of closure faced in previous years, but with $22 million in proposed cuts to state parks in Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, park closures have gone from a worst case scenario to a certainty. The only question, at this point, is which parks will be closed and which organizations, conservancies, and local governments may be able step up and help. The Crystal Cove Alliance establishes a template for how it can be done.
Statement On the Defeat of Proposition 21
The best way to get people excited about the natural history and legacy of California State Parks is by getting friends, family, and neighbors into the Great Outdoors to experience parks and connect with them. Whether in a Redwood grove at Prairie Creek, hiking the bluffs at Montaña de Oro, or savoring the view from Font’s Point at Anza-Borrego, it doesn’t take much for the average person, when confronted with the beauty and wonder California State Parks, to find their “batteries recharged” and their sense of peace and balance restored.
Prop. 21 Gives California State Parks Hope
Treehuggers International supports the California Parks Access Pass, which will generate $500 million a year exclusively for California State Parks, and remove parks funding from the political roller coaster of the general fund.
New Surfrider Film Illustrates Cross Purposes of Water Agencies
Surfrider’s Belinda Smith, the Executive Producer of the animated film “The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water,” details how the mission of water agencies often runs counter to age-old lessons about the water cycle, plus Surfrider’s Stefanie Sekich discusses the current state of California’s dreaded oil-for-parks initiative.
Treehuggers International Heading to Sacramento for Parks Advocacy Day
Treehuggers International is heading to Sacramento on March 8th to put in a little face time with California state legislators to not only encourage lawmakers to keep California State Parks open, but to reject a proposal to eliminate public funding for parks with funding from controversial offshore oil drilling projects which may never be approved.
California State Parks Held Hostage By Big Oil
The latest dilemma facing the integrity of California State Parks can be found in Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which includes a scheme to fund all 279 state parks from oil revenues collected from a long-delayed, controversial offshore drilling plan in the Santa Barbara Channel.
80 Percent of California State Parks to Close
California’s State Parks are the envy of the nation, but they are facing grim times as Governor Schwarzenegger intends to close, padlock, and mothball 80% of state parks by the end of the summer.
Retired Ranger Steve Long Reflects On the Lessons of Trestles
Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:43 — 29.0MB)
Heading Home: The Bush Commerce Department granted Trestles an 11th hour reprieve.
In the end, when it came, it was a whimper.
December’s U.S. Commerce Department decision essentially ended the TCA’s bid to build a toll road at San Onofre State Beach and Trestles, and served as a reprieve for one of Southern California’s most popular coastal destinations. For the Southern California surfing and environmental community, which fought so hard to keep the TCA’s designs on the park at bay, the decision was a reinforcement of the watershed California Coastal Commission decision in February 2008.
While greeted with relief, the federal decision was something of an anti-climactic postscript, marking the end of a hard, ultimately rewarding year fighting to keep Southern California’s greatest surfing destination, cleanest and most intact watershed, and miles of wild coastal backcountry free of a toll road which only developers believed was necessary and only the truly committed believed could really be beaten back.
Part of the anti-climactic nature of the ruling came from the fact no one ever believed Carlos Gutierrez, President Bush’s Commerce Secretary, would seriously validate the Coastal Commission’s findings by denying the TCA a construction permit. As a result, many surfers and activists had already made their peace with the park and their efforts to save it, and had steeled themselves for the worst.
When the announcement came, at Trestles, there were no shouts of joy or the back-slapping satisfaction of a hard-fought battle won: the waves crashed, the gulls cried, San Mateo Creek flowed, and surfers went about their sport as they have for decades.
One man who was there from the beginning of the park itself, and eventually, the toll road designs which fell upon San Onofre’s backcountry, is retired California State Parks ranger, surfer, and Senior Advisor to the San Onofre Foundation, Steve Long, who spent almost his entire outdoor career with the Orange Coast District of California State Parks.
Having spent 34 years watching over Trestles and the San Onofre backcountry in the service of the citizens of California, Steve Long is now leading the way in shaping the future of the park and what will happen after the state’s lease with the Navy Department runs out in 2021.
Retired from state duty, Steve offers an insider’s perspective and a fascinating glimpse into his time on the job and the battles behind the long-proposed toll road at San Onofre, which he justifiably calls “a world treasure.”
One of the cleanest watersheds in Southern California, San Mateo Creek at Trestles.
More about this post at:
- San Onofre Foundation
- Trestles Is Losing Its Race With Time (Los Angeles Times; 9/6/09)
- Could Public Lose Access to San Onofre State Beach? (Orange County Register; 8/6/09)
- San Clemente Ponders What’s Next After Toll Road Ruling (Orange County Register; 12/19/08)
- Federal Agency Sides With Coastal Commission (San Diego Union-Tribune; 12/18/08)
- Where Danger Comes In Waves (Los Angeles Times; 12/13/08), Steve and Greg Long at Mavericks
- Looking Back At Trestles With A Long-Time Lifeguard and State Park Protector (Surfline; 8/13/08)
- Longtime S.C. Lifeguard Steve Long Retires (San Clemente Times; 5/1/08)
- A Vision for San Onofre (Orange County Register; 4/16/08)
- Surf Was Up and So Were the Crowds (Orange County Register; 10/13/05)
- Lifeguards Watching for More Sharks Near Beach (San Diego Union-Tribune; 8/31/08)
- San Onofre State Beach, California State Parks official website
