Connect with your parks –Through community engagement, youth programs, advocacy and more
PHOTO BY GINA CLYNE COURTESY OF CLOCKSHOP
"Spring is the time of plans and projects"
While the shift between seasons can sometimes feel subtle in California, for many of us who get to call the state home, we know the signs of spring’s arrival. In many of our state parks, the returning green leaves, blooming wildflowers and singing birds make it clear why spring represents a time of growth and transition.
Some of our parks are facing a bigger period of transition than usual. At the end of last year, Acting District Superintendent Vince Anibale and Supervising Ranger Neill Fogarty were kind enough to show me around Trione-Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa. The visit left a big impression on me. It was sobering to see the effects of the October fires, and inspiring to see how – through the rebuilding efforts underway – staff, volunteers, visitors and community are helping the park transition back to being completely open and available (and, I’m proud that Trione-Annadel will host volunteers to repair a fire-damaged trail for our 20th annual Earth Day Restoration and Cleanup).
As Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, spring is also “the time of plans and projects.” As I near the end of my first year at California State Parks Foundation, I can certainly say we’re in a time of growth, transition, plans and projects. We’re growing support for a critical park and water bond, transitioning to the final phase of work at Yosemite Slough at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, awarding funds for a new series of grant projects, and starting our plans for another (fiscal) year of committing to improving access, equity and excellence in all our state parks.
I hope you’ll spend some time enjoying the abundance our state parks have to offer this spring, and see how your support helps them thrive. I happen to know Trione-Annadel is expecting a beautiful wildflower season.
Rachel Norton, Executive Director
ABOUT CSPF
California State Parks Foundation is a membersupported nonprofit dedicated to protecting and improving our state parks and expanding access to their natural beauty, rich culture and history, and recreational and educational opportunities for all Californians, now and in the future.
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RACHEL WITH VINCE AND NEILL AT TRIONE-ANNADEL STATE PARK
Light at the end of the slough
Thanks to significant grants from the State Coastal Conservancy and the California Natural Resources Agency, we’ve reached our funding goals to restore and rehabilitate Yosemite Slough at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area.
Fifteen years ago, CSPF partnered with the Department of Parks and Recreation on the Yosemite Slough Wetland Restoration Project at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco. Critical work was initiated to revitalize the native wetlands that were subject to illegal dumping and toxic contamination before becoming California’s first urban state park in 1977. Later this year, we will begin construction on the final part of this work.
Sitting just south of San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point community, the park is surrounded by some of the lowest income neighborhoods in a city whose area median income is rapidly increasing. Local residents envisioned a “state park for the people,” and we’ve held that value at the core of this restoration project.
In 2012 we completed the first portion of the project, $12.2 million of environmental cleanup work emphasizing reducing pollution and increasing local biodiversity. To interpret the land in a way that focuses on the people using it and to design successful educational programs, we entered a year-long, communitydriven planning process with an advisory committee of environmental educators, park professionals, public health officials and local leaders – generously funded by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.
Bolstered by the broad community support the advisory committee fostered for this project, in October we finally closed the funding gap needed to complete the restoration project with a $454,602 grant from the State Coastal Conservancy and a $894,705 Urban Greening grant from the California Natural Resources Agency. With these funds and those from other generous individual, corporate and foundation donors, we plan to begin construction this fall on a new, 1,100square-foot educational and interpretive center that will invite neighborhood residents and other visitors to learn about the history and ecology of this beautiful area when it opens to the public in 2019.
Contribute to the restoration and rehabilitation at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area by volunteering with Park Champions and Literacy for Environmental Justice. Visit calparks.org/parkchampions for upcoming dates. •
CREATING ONGOING CHANGE WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS
For a half decade, we’ve also partnered with Literacy for Environmental Justice, a local organization that promotes ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development while engaging the diverse residents of southeast San Francisco as users and stewards of Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. Through our Park Champions volunteer program, we host monthly volunteer workdays with Literacy for Environmental Justice to restore the native ecology within Candlestick Point State Recreation Area by planting native plants, preparing areas for planting and removing invasive species. Together, we’re restoring wildlife habitats, helping park staff care for the park, and making it a better, more usable space for the community.
Celebrating 20 years of our annual Earth Day Restoration and Cleanup
VOLUNTEER FOR PROJECTS THAT MAKE STATE PARKS MORE ACCESSIBLE AND ENJOYABLE, SUCH AS:
• Replacing trees lost during the drought at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park
• Painting an ocean-themed mural at San Elijo State Beach
• Updating campgrounds with new ADA-compliant campfire rings at Castle Rock State Park
• Installing a permanent public bike fix-it station and signs at Huntington State Beach
• Promoting stewardship and sustainability of our shoreline parks at a community engagement event at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park
• Rebuilding a severely damaged access road at Jack London State Historic Park
• Repair nature trail and paint and update signage with new information at Millerton Lake State Recreation Area
For 20 years, volunteers across the state have joined California State Parks Foundation to demonstrate their support for environmental protection on Earth Day by preserving and improving state parks.
In 1998, the California State Parks Foundation started the Earth Day Restoration and Cleanup to connect a day of action and service in our state parks to the global Earth Day movement’s message that a healthy, sustainable environment must be protected. Since then, 83,785 participants have volunteered more than 334,301 hours worth nearly $6.6 million in park maintenance and improvements through this program.
This year, thanks in part to $250,000 from presenting sponsor Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), we’ve awarded grants to 40 parks across the state for special volunteer projects on Saturday, April 21. On this day, thousands of volunteers will help protect, preserve and restore a healthy and sustainable environment by constructing new native plant gardens, repairing nature trails, upgrading buildings, improving park infrastructure and more.
To commemorate this special 20th anniversary, PG&E, which has sponsored our Earth Day Restoration and Cleanup since 2001, has included a $50,000 supplemental grant for projects in nine parks that will focus on brush removal and habitat management to make parks better able to cope with fires, drought and other environmental impacts in the short term, and will bolster strategies to help make parks more resilient in dealing with the effects of climate change in the long term.
Commemorate our 20th anniversary with a gift of your own (which will be matched by PG&E!), or by volunteering. Volunteer registration is open through April 16. Find out which parks near you are participating and more ways you can help protect our state parks this Earth Day at calparks.org/earthday. •
Presenting Sponsor
Make your voice heard at the ballot and
in Sacramento
This June, California voters will have the opportunity to make a critical investment to our state’s park and water resources by voting “yes” on Proposition 68.
Proposition 68 – the result of last year’s legislative victory passing Senate Bill 5 (de León) – offers voters the first natural resources bond passed by the California Legislature in 15 years. This bond, the largest investment in natural resources and underserved communities in California history, would earmark $218 million specifically for state parks, including funds that will address deferred park maintenance, provide necessary funding for natural resources protection and restoration, and allow for repairs and improvements that will help facilitate better visitor experiences now and in the future.
An investment for our parks and for the state, this bond will benefit our communities now and in the future through increased access to public spaces and recreational opportunities, clean water supplies, drought protection, climate change preparedness, preserved wildlife habitats, cultural and historical preservation and more.
The support of California voters is critical to passing this bond. CSPF is working with other public-interest groups, conservation nonprofits, and community organizations to encourage local engagement and to ensure voters approve Proposition 68.
It’s time to invest in California’s natural and historic infrastructure. Excellent parks invite people to engage and provide input on how their public resources are funded, protected and managed. Excellent parks offer a high-quality user experience that’s fun, safe, educational, culturally relevant and accessible to visitors with diverse needs and backgrounds. Excellent parks are adequately funded.
A vote for Proposition 68 is a vote for our parks.
Learn how you can help get out the vote for this much-needed investment in our state parks at calparks.org/parkbond. For more updates on this legislative session, visit calparks.org/advocacy. •
BY THE NUMBERS
If passed by voters, Proposition 68 will provide:
• $218 million for state parks and public access, including $10 million for enterprise projects and $5 million for local agencies that operate a unit of the state park system
• $5 million for a state park operated by a nonprofit, $30 million for low-cost state park coastal accommodations and $25 million for natural resources projects within state parks
• $725 million for parks in park-poor neighborhoods
• $285 million to cities, counties, and local park and open space districts to make local parks safer and improve facilities
LOS ANGELES STATE HISTORIC PARK
SALT POINT STATE PARK
CALIFORNIA STATE CAPITOL MUSEUM
“The outcome of both Field Days were tremendously successful and made it very clear that free family-oriented activities that take place outdoors in open space are in very high demand in Los Angeles. CSPF funds made this program possible, we are extremely grateful for the support.”
JULIA MELTZER, CLOCKSHOP FOUNDER
Connecting parks, arts and communities
Through our grants program, we helped families connect art and the outdoors in their community.
Along the Los Angeles River is an under-used, 18-acre postindustrial lot that is home to the Bowtie Project, a partnership between the Department of Parks and Recreation and Clockshop, a multidisciplinary arts organization creating new conversations about art, politics and urban space.
One way they’re creating these conversations in state parks is through the Bowtie Field Day program – free and open days for the community to visit and engage with the public park property, funded by a grant from CSPF.
At two field days last year, more than 500 members of the community visited the Bowtie to learn from park rangers and Clockshop artists. The programming, designed for both youth and adults, included demos about native plants and catch-and-release fishing, workshops to tie knots and press plants, and collage and sculpture art projects. Interpretive specialists led nature walks and a closing campfire program featuring s’mores, singing and science-education.
The Bowtie Field Days demonstrate how people can be engaged in new ways in their local state parks, and their communities – Clockshop is particularly invested in helping the community realize its agency in shaping the future of the city. This program also illustrated a need for accessible, affordable programming that involves family members of all ages.
The close team work between Clockshop and state parks’ Los Angeles office was critical to the success of these community days. By building this partnership they have learned how to very efficiently and effectively offer educational and enjoyable park experiences to as many Los Angelenos as possible.
Learn more about how our grants program connects the next generation of stewards to the outdoors and state parks, rehabilitates historic buildings, improves parks for visitors like you, and more at calparks.org/grants. •
PHOTO BY GINA
Spend spring and summer in state parks
Spring and summer are no doubt popular times to get outside in California. We asked some of our supporters to share their favorite photos and ways to spend these sunny seasons in state parks.
I love Salt Point State Park because the views are unbeatable and you can't go wrong with sandstone climbing on the coast. I like Castle Rock State Park because it's accessible to the Bay Area and there are hundreds of problems (climbing routes) to try for bouldering and ropes. I also like Castle Crag State Park because it's such a beautiful granite outcropping.”
PAULINA DAO, SAN FRANCISCO
Getting up early, loading the kayaks, packing a thermos of coffee & bagels, then heading to the Rat Farm. Destination: Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park.”
STEVE AND SHARON STEIN, HAWTHORNE
During the spring, I love ‘glamping’ in the yurts at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park! It’s so much fun to explore the park’s beautiful hiking trails as well as the rich history of the nearby Bale Grist Mill.”
SAMANTHA JOSEPH, OAKLAND
I love Los Angeles State Historic Park in the spring! It’s a peaceful park for something so close to the city. Allows me to have the best of both worlds, I get to walk around Chinatown and look at the shops and I get to go to a park and sit and relax.”
BRENDA CHI, LOS ANGELES
Winter and early spring at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park are great times to hike and photograph. This January, a day after rainfall, three male Peninsular bighorn sheep were grazing along the Borrego Palm Canyon trail and didn’t mind as we watched and photographed them. Farther up canyon, California fan palms grow in areas of high groundwater and towered above us.”
BOB ALLEN, MISSION VIEJO
Let us know your favorite parks for spring and summer by tweeting to us at @calparks!
33 New Montgomery Street, Suite 520 San Francisco, CA 94105
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THANK YOU!
Our power comes from thousands of people like you who have joined together to protect the natural and cultural beauty of our parks, and enjoy membership benefits too! calparks.org/membership
VOLUNTEER
Volunteers are critical to the work we do for state parks. Together, we can accomplish so much to make our parks safe and enjoyable for visitors and their natural inhabitants. calparks.org/volunteer
SPEAK UP
Your voice matters! For ways to use your voice to help state parks, visit calparks.org/speakup.
SHARE YOUR STATE PARK PHOTOS
Join the My California State Parks Flickr Group to share your photos, see images from other members, share tips and advice, and enter to win our monthly contest. Learn more at calparks.org/gallery.
MAKE A LASTING IMPACT
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CALIFORNIA PARKLANDS
Spring 2018, Volume 35, Number 1 (ISSN: 0892-0095) is published by the California State Parks Foundation ©2018 CSPF. All rights reserved. Editor: Bettina Sferrino
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION
33 New Montgomery Street Suite 520 San Francisco, CA 94105 (800)963-7275 members@calparks.org calparks.org
