Re: State Parks on the chopping block
Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 12:38 pm
looks like it's more complicated now with the federal funding:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/28059277/detail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Synopsis:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/28059277/detail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Synopsis:
read the article for the whole story..SAN FRANCISCO -- The state's current plan to close 70 of California's 278 state parks to help bridge the state's budget gap has hit a snag.
Sixteen of the parks targeted for closure receive federal funding under the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which collects royalties from offshore drilling to buy parklands and wildlife refuges, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
But the fund requires state parks that have received the funds to remain open or, if closed, that a park of equal size is opened nearby.
Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., said the funding is a grant to the state, and operates like a contract.
"It is linked directly to the deed of these lands. It says the state makes a commitment to provide these places for public use in perpetuity. To not do that is essentially a breach of that contract," Jarvis said.