What impact has the “budget rollercoaster” had on the state parks?

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California’s parks, once considered the best in the nation, are falling apart because of chronic underfunding. Less than 4 percent of the state budget is dedicated to parks and conservation. With so little money to maintain these vital assets, roofs and sewage systems in state parks leak. Bridges have collapsed, trails are washed out, picnic tables are rotting, campgrounds are shuttered and buildings and structures throughout the system are badly deteriorated.

With no reliable source of funding, the state parks have accumulated a backlog of more than $1 billion in maintenance and repairs. Thousands of scenic acres are closed to the public because funding cutbacks led to reductions in park rangers, and crime in the parks has more than doubled. Destruction of the parks themselves – ranging from broken windows to illegal tree cutting – has grown fourfold. Beachgoers are often unprotected because of decreases in lifeguards.

California’s valuable historic and cultural assets are in danger, and its wildlife and other natural resources are in jeopardy because of the state’s failure to invest in them. The parks are in such peril that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named California state parks one of the 11 most endangered sites in America.