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.

Watch it First: California’s State Historic Parks – Doorways to the Past

We are pleased to introduce a brand new video from our Magnificent 70 series today! This gorgeous video (produced by Doug McConnell and his team at ConvergenceMedia Productions) shows how one can tell the entire history of California through its 47 state historic parks.

Watch the beautiful video about California’s historic parks:

If you haven’t had the opportunity to look at The Magnificent 70 website yet, now is the time!

The Magnificent 70 is a site we created this summer as a celebration of 70 California state parks slated to close July 2012, and to serve as a reminder of what will be lost if they are shuttered. It is like a living photo book with gorgeous photos and original stories written by author Kerry Tremain about each of the 70 parks on the closure list.

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?

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!