Help Save Trestles

San Onofre State Beach is being threatened again, and we need your help!

On Wednesday, June 19 the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board is expected to make a decision regarding the Transportation Corridor Agencies’ (TCA) permit to build the first “segment” of the SR-241 toll road extension. We can’t let that happen.

Can you attend the meeting in San Diego at 1:00 p.m. to demonstrate opposition to the toll road? Your presence and public comment can make a big difference.

WHAT: Water Quality Control Board Meeting regarding TCA’s permit for first 5 miles of road.
WHEN: Wednesday, June 19 @ 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Water Quality Control Board Meeting Room: 9174 Sky Park Court, San Diego, CA 92123

Since 2011 — three years after the California Coastal Commission and the Bush Administration shot down the proposed extension of SR-241 through San Onofre State Beach — the TCA has been proposing to build the remainder of the road in “segments” – five miles at a time.  “Segmenting” is illegal under state and federal law.  Not only does TCA’s plan circumvent important laws, this approach makes absolutely no planning sense as it will create a “cul-de-sac of traffic” for San Juan Capistrano, and would end at a road that is not even built yet.  More recently, the TCA held a “special meeting” to approve plans for the “Tesoro Extension,” the first five miles of the 241 Toll Road extension, without any public workshops or sufficient public notice.

Help stop this plan in its tracks by attending the meeting on June 19.

The Save San Onofre Coalition has resurrected the California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit that challenged the original 16-mile proposal in 2006, bringing the fight to Save Trestles back into the courtroom.

Please join this group and fellow park lovers in San Diego on June 19 and take a stand for San Onofre State Beach.

Thanks for supporting state parks!

Love State Parks? Say So!

There’s no better way to show your political support for something than to sit in the office of your local representative and tell them about it.

Seems a little intimidating perhaps? On the contrary. That’s why we coordinate our annual Park Advocacy Day. We schedule appointments for you, help you develop talking points, and put you in small groups with whom you can visit your representatives. But we need people like YOU to join us to make this day successful.

Picture yourself as a park advocate

That said, registration is now open for our 11^th Annual Park Advocacy Day and we hope you will participate.

CSPF’s 11^th Annual Park Advocacy Day
Sacramento, CA
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

During Park Advocacy Day, over 100 park supporters will gather together in Sacramento to spend the day meeting with policymakers and advocating in support of state parks. These meetings have a lasting impact on legislators and staff as they make decisions on legislation and budget issues.

And the day is customized to YOU. You’ll have the opportunity to speak up for YOUR state parks with your very own representatives.  What’s not to like about that?

But you have to register soon to join in, as there are limited spots and registration closes Feb. 8.

If you have questions about Park Advocacy Day, please contact us at advocacy@calparks.org or call 916-442-2119.

Urge lawmakers to support Assembly Bill 1478

Advocacy in action.

Over the last two weeks, thousands of state park supporters have sent messages to their legislators urging them to allocate the recently-identified and unspent state park funds back into the state park system.

As a result of the strong outpouring of support from park supporters, lawmakers have introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 1478 which will appropriate $20.5 million in State Park and Recreation Fund funding to keep parks open.

In addition to allocating this funding, AB 1478 also includes several other important provisions.

• Prohibits the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) from closing or proposing the closure of a state park in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 fiscal years.
• Strengthens the State Park and Recreation Commission to improve their ability and capacity to provide oversight and a more meaningful connection between the public, park stakeholders, and the parks department.
• Provides a one-time appropriation to ensure that all ongoing internal and external investigations into the DPR are fully funded.

We need your help to urge lawmakers to pass AB 1478. With only a couple days left in this legislative session, lawmakers will be making final decisions on this bill by Friday. We urge you to use our online system to send a message to your legislators and the governor specifically urging them to support AB 1478.

It only takes a minute!

Show us Why You’re Defending State Parks

As you saw last week, we launched our new Defend What’s Yours PSAs and awareness campaign. We’ve had great response from all of you, so thank you for getting involved and sharing these videos with everyone you know!

See the other PSAs here.

Because you have all had some really great things to say about parks and defending what’s yours, we thought it would be fun if YOU make the next video. So here’s what we have in mind:

• Make a video about why you love state parks, or about why you want to defend state parks from closure.
• It doesn’t have to be shot in a state park. Use your web cam if you want! It doesn’t matter, we just want to hear what you have to say because you are passionate about state parks and your voice matters.
• Make the video as short at 10 seconds or as long as you want.
• Don’t worry about being artsy fartsy. It can be raw and sincere and still be totally awesome. Use the Defend What’s Yours image below in your video if you want to brand it to the campaign.
• Upload your video to YouTube and tag us in your description or post it on our Facebook page so we know you made it. (Or if you don’t want to upload it just contact us and we can upload it for you.)  We will share it with our friends and members so we can hear your individual voices.

We hope the Defend What’s Yours campaign has inspired you and that you will “show” us why you are defending state parks!

Defend What’s Yours—Your State Parks

Today we are announcing the launch of a new public awareness campaign called Defend What’s Yours. This is the message we are bringing to the public (in more or less words):

‘California state parks belong to you, but not for long. Six months from now 25 percent of your parks will be closed unless you step up to defend them.’

It’s a strong message, but we believe public awareness is necessary in this moment to empower citizen action and mobilize grassroots support to save the nation’s biggest and best state park system.

As part of the big launch today, we unveiled a new series of television public service announcements (PSAs) that will air statewide starting this week. Take a look at one here:

See the other PSAs on our YouTube channel.

It’s time to say enough is enough. Enjoy the videos, and please join us in this fight to defend state parks. Do you want to be a defender?

The Season of Giving

’Tis the season! Chanukah starts Tuesday and Christmas and New Year’s are just around the corner. Lights are twinkling, trees are decorated, candles are glowing. Have you caught the holiday bug yet? We at CSPF have, especially with all the generosity we have seen swirling around this year.

First, some amazing folks across the state have been working tirelessly and collaboratively to give state parks back to their fellow Californians.

• The Coe Park Preservation Fund stepped up this week to fund Henry Coe State Park from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015.
• The Bodie Foundation will keep Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve open to the public for at least a year.
• The National Parks Service (NPS) teamed up with State Parks to keep Tomales Bay, Samuel P. Taylor and Del Norte Coast Redwoods state parks open through 2012.
• A crucial $250,000 federal grant was awarded and should allow McGrath State Beach Park to remain open.
• Plenty more groups are working hard to save additional state parks, and we can’t wait to hear of new announcements of saved parks!

As if that isn’t enough, hundreds of generous people are flocking to the Kickstarter site of our friends at Heath Hen Films to help them fund their upcoming documentary, The First 70. You’ve heard us talk about them before, and we are still rooting for them as they finish up this important film. In fact, with the giving spirit all around us, CSPF today contributed to Heath Hen’s Kickstarter site, and we encourage you all to do the same! They have 16 days left to fundraise, and we want to see them succeed.

The spirit of giving is quite contagious as it turns out. Hope you catch it. Happy Holidays!

Bonus: What’s a gift without an overly elaborate wrapping job?

Be heard! March and Rally to Save State Parks

I got a fever! And the only prescription ... is more park activists!

Have you been vocalizing your disapproval of park closures lately, or has your battle cry been petering out? Don’t worry, we have a cure for that, and it’s not more cowbell … it’s more people!

CSPF and our Save Our State Parks Campaign partners will be hosting a march and rally on Tuesday, November 1 in Sacramento to show our support for state parks. We will protest the closure of 70 state parks and raise awareness of the negative impacts park closures will have on California, and we want you to join us! 

On your marks, get set, march

The march will start at 8 a.m. in front of Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park in downtown Sacramento. We will walk about a half mile to

the Capitol where we will assemble for a short rally protesting park closures. After the rally we will deliver 200 oversized postcards and thousands of petitions to the governor’s office.

We chose November 1 because that is the day a joint legislative hearing is scheduled to be held at the Capitol by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and the Assembly Committee for Accountability and Administrative Review. The hearing will discuss the impacts and status of proposed state park closures. We anticipate there will be some time allocated for public comment, so we encourage all rally participants to join us in attending the hearing at 9 a.m.

Finish Line

It’s going to be a productive day to make our voices heard in Sacramento. We would love for you to join us to send a message to policymakers that the people of California have not given up efforts to Save Our State Parks.

You can register online today. Need more information? Please call our Sacramento office at 916-442-2119 or email advocacy@calparks.org

Citizens, unite for park legislation!

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

Let’s take a page or two out of the books of Alexis and Margaret and make sure we are getting involved in the legislative process that is happening before our eyes, Californian citizens.

Gov. Brown is starting to review the nearly 600 bills (!) on his desk. Now is the time to let him know you want to see his signature on Assembly Bill 42. Sign this CSPF-sponsored petition to ask for his support. Here’s an excerpt from the petition:

Dear Governor Jerry Brown,
As a strong supporter of California’s state parks, I’m writing to urge you to sign Assembly Bill 42 by Assemblymember Huffman. AB 42 is an important tool that allows the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to enter into operating agreements with nonprofits to operate state parks. […]

In addition to the online petition, if you are in the Sacramento area, please come sign a petition in real life at CSPF’s (Park)ing Day site! We will have a parking space park on the corner of 16th and J in Sacramento from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. this Friday. Take a couple minutes to sign our oversized park closure petition postcards and enjoy our little PARK(ing) space.

Hope to see you there, citizens.

Assembly Bill 42 Clears Legislature

We’re making progress, park supporters! Earlier today, the State Assembly passed Assembly Bill 42 (Huffman), the bill sponsored by CSPF to help keep California’s state parks open.  Similar to the successful vote last week out of the State Senate, the bill passed off the Assembly Floor this morning on a strong bipartisan vote, and now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown for a signature.

AB 42 provides authority to California State Parks to enter into operating agreements with qualified nonprofit organizations to operate part or all of a state park unit.  The bill ensures transparency in the operations of a state park by a nonprofit by requiring that:

• All revenues generated in the park stay in that park and be directed toward that park’s needs
• The nonprofit submit an annual report detailing its operating activities in the past year and hold a public meeting
• No General Fund subsidy can be given to the nonprofit to operate the state park
• The remainder of any concessions contract’s term be preserved by the nonprofit, and
• Scientific and other specialized functions be conducted only by qualified individuals and subject to state oversight.

Gov. Brown has until October 6 to take action on Assembly Bill 42.  Be sure to send a message to the governor to let him know you want his vote on AB 42! 

A park supporter signs a petition for AB 42

Cast a Vote, Save a Park

Here is an easy way to help save one state park: McGrath State Beach. It is one of the 70 state parks slated for closure — in fact, this park is expected to close September 6! This is tragic, but let’s see if together we can change the tides.

Right now McGrath State Beach is in the running to receive a $100K prize from Coca-Cola in the” America’s Favorite Park” contest. It’s currently in sixth place (not bad, but we can do better). Show your support for McGrath by casting your vote today; nay, right now. You have unlimited votes so while you’re there you can vote for your other favorites state parks, too.

Cast your vote: http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard

Help your favorite state park win up to $100,000!