What Does It Mean To “Close” a State Park?
22 Aug
I wanted to start off this series of documentary shorts with a very simple question that no one seems to be able to answer: “What does it mean to ‘close’ a state park?” Is this feasibile? What does that even mean? After talking with alot of experts, it seems none of the parks can be closed in any meaningful way. If people want to, they can still get in, but now unsupervised with no park rangers, it will only encourage more vandalism, squatting, fires, and theft, while law-abiding citizens cannot experience these parks.
This isn’t “closure” it’s abandonment.
Here’s just a few of the threats parks face without park staff supervision and management:
1) Increased fire dangers
2) Homeless camps
3) Increased graffiti, vandalism and refuse
4) Destructive pot growing operations
5) Theft of park resources
6) Destruction of natural and historic features
7) Littering
8) Watershed pollution
9) Loss of bird sanctuaries and natural wildlife corridors
About the documentary:
Get more at http://folk4parks.org
By June 2012, 70 California State Parks are scheduled to close. The 2011 Folk4Parks Documentary tells this story through the eyes of individuals and organizations across CA who are fighting to keep these parks open. Folk4Parks.org is interested in understanding the issues around closures, the true costs and savings of closing 70 State Parks, and alternatives Californians can explore to make a different for our public lands.
