Saturday, March 22, 2008

State park closure hearing in San Jose, April 15

posted by Barry Parr on Mar 22, 2008 at 05:35 pm in Environment • Click to email this story

USGS via Wikipedia

Henry Coe State Park

Next month, the State Park and Recreation Commission will be holding a hearing in San Jose to take public testimony about the park closures and lifeguard staffing reductions.

In San Mateo County, Portola Redwoods State Park is also threatened with closure. This park includes stands of virgin redwoods and its trails provide essential links with other parts of the open space system in our area. Check Bay Area Hiker for a hike you may want to take while you stil l can. There’s a great story about the potential closure of this park by Julia Scott on the Palo Alto Daily News site:

“There are so few opportunities to camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Unless you go all the way down to Castle Rock State Park, or Big Basin Redwoods State Park or Butano State Park (the only other campground in the county). It’s much more accessible to folks on the Peninsula side,” said Bill Young, who leads hikes through Portola Redwoods and other local parks for the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club

Among the 48 parks targeted for closure, the largest is Henry Coe State Park, which is mostly in Santa Clara County. At 87,000 acres it is the largest State Park in Northern California and the second-largest in the State.

The public hearing will be on Tuesday, April 15 at 6pm at the Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose. You will have a chance to speak and also to submit written comments.

Comments

Comment by Barry Parr on Mar 22 at 5:42pm • All my comments •

Perhaps if we could build a freeway through them, the governor would be willing to keep these parks open.

Comment by Carl May on Mar 22 at 6:15pm • All my comments •

Perceptive, Barry. Maybe others will start to realize the shadowy but long-standing desire by some politicians to commercialize the natural resources in the state parks--much more than they are already commercialized. This has been an underlying thread for at least the last three Republican governors--Deukmejian, Wilson, and Schwarzenegger. Probably Davis on the Democratic side as well, but I didn’t follow the connections as much during his term.

People would probably be surprised to learn the backgrounds of some of the individuals who are appointed to the state parks commission over time. The one I remember best was a guy one year before me in Burlingame High School who became a commercial forester and made much of his income working on EIRs for developers. When I expressed surprise at the appointment to one of my politically astute acquaintances with long experience in state and Sonoma
County government, he said “think redwoods.”

Carl May

Comment by Wolfgang Scholtz on Mar 25 at 10:52pm • All my comments •

http://www.calparks.org/act-now/page.jsp?itemID=34166486

Here is a web site that might help our readers to see what else is proposed for closure. Has some good links

Recent Comments

Barry Parr: Ray, you’re welcome to disagree, but please be civil. Posted 05/17 at 10:08am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Kevin J. Lansing: Following up on Anneliese’s post. It is critical for those opposed to AB 1991 to… Posted 05/17 at 9:47am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Francis Drouillard: I would encourage Kevin, Ray and Steven to learn more about the Coastal Act and… Posted 05/17 at 9:16am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Anneliese Agren: Understood Ken. It’s important to give definition to the difference of genuine debate here, versus… Posted 05/17 at 5:35am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Ken Johnson: Anneliese, Maybe you are right - I always thought of him as a turnip. But… Posted 05/17 at 1:51am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Ray Olson: Carl.. I’m just reading more pretentious discourse from someone that may not be living in… Posted 05/16 at 10:36pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Carl May: Ray, Let’s pretend you are as confused about the basics of ecological matters as your… Posted 05/16 at 10:16pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Anneliese Agren: Ray Olson is a troll. Posted 05/16 at 8:40pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Ray Olson: Oh Carl, it only took you a day for to write your VERY verbose, pompous,… Posted 05/16 at 8:33pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee

Carl May: It doesn’t hold true in all cases, but damage to natural features and values in… Posted 05/16 at 7:11pm in Opinion: Money is need for for Midcoast parks -- could Parks For The Future help?

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