Panel to study future of Big Trees, 279 other state parks

By Dana M. Nichols, Record Staff Writer

June 04, 2013

SAN ANDREAS – State Parks officials Monday said they recognize the system of 280 parks is in deep trouble and they are launching a commission that for the next year will study what to do about it.

For decades, California’s state parks have been receiving a shrinking portion of the budget, putting off maintenance and raising fees for admission and camping. Last year was particularly difficult, as parks officials cobbled together agreements with private groups to prevent 70 parks from closing and faced a scandal over $54 million in funds that top parks officials had hidden from the governor and the Legislature.

“We would like to get to the point where we are funding maintenance,” California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said.

Laird announced the formation of the new commission during a joint teleconference with Anthony Jackson, a retired Marine Corps major general now serving as parks director. Laird appointed Jackson six months ago in the wake of the funds scandal.

Laird said the new commission would “really examine how parks operate, how they are structured, how they are funded.”

It appears the commission’s study will to some extent duplicate the work of the Little Hoover Commission, a state watchdog agency that in March published a report based on a year of research into the operation of California’s parks and park systems in other states.

The Little Hoover Commission made six recommendations, including that the state should let someone else run those parks that are not of statewide value, that a more decentralized management style will be necessary to allow parks to generate more revenue and that the park system will need to hire people with skills it does not currently have.

In some cases, parks such as Calaveras Big Trees near Arnold are already relying on private, nonprofit groups.

A visitor center under construction at Big Trees was in part paid for by the Calaveras Big Trees Association, which chipped in $500,000 of the $2.7 million cost.

But Sanders Lamont, a spokesman for the association, said there are limits to how much volunteers and nonprofit fundraisers can do.

“A 6,000-acre park is not going to be sustained by the public,” Lamont said.

Big Trees is home to giant sequoias, some of the largest and oldest trees in the world. It has been an international tourist attraction for more than 150 years.

The Little Hoover Commission concluded that such treasures are a public trust and that charging a sufficiently expensive admission price to support the park conflicts with the idea that all Californians should have access to the park.

The Hoover Commission’s recommendation is that whichever parks are to remain in state hands should receive enough state funding to preserve both the assets and public access.

The latest commission and its new study are funded by “several million dollars” in donations from private foundations such as the James Irvine Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, Laird said.

Laird announced Monday that Lance Conn will be one of the nine to 12 people who will ultimately serve on the body.

“I love California’s parks, and I love solving tough problems,” Conn said during the news conference. He is a venture capitalist and former investor for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Conn said he and other commissioners will continue to serve as advocates to see that their recommendations are carried out once the report is filed next year.

Before then, the commission will hold meetings throughout the state and invite input from residents.

State officials are referring to the latest project as Parks Forward and have created a website for the effort at parksforward.com.

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/calaverasblog.