National Park Service saves three California state parks

Like many U.S. states, California has been struggling with major budget shortfalls over the past few years, and as a result, a number of state services have been directly impacted. One of the more well publicized results of this lack of funds is the announcement that the state could close as many as 70 of its parks. Now, the National Park Service has stepped in to keep three of those parks from shutting down.

An agreement between the NPS and the California State Park system was reached last week and extends to three parks that share their borders with national parks. NPS officials were quick to point out that this made for a natural partnership, as the state and federal parks already work closely with one another, sharing resources, information, and occasionally staff.

The three parks that will receive assistance from the NPS include Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. In order to help make up for the budget shortfall, the National Park Service will institute a $2 entry fee to the John Muir National Monument starting January 1st. That fee is expected to bring in roughly $1 million in revenue.

While 67 more state parks still face closure, I’m glad to see that a solution was found for at least a few of them. California has some of the most spectacular parks, state and national, in the U.S., and it would be a shame if there was no public access to them.