Community | June 18, 2011 | 6 comments

State Parks are getting the Ax

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/us/07parks.html

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As the summer season gets under way, budget-strapped state parks across the country are pursuing creative and sometimes controversial solutions simply to stay open. Many are imposing steep new fees, leaning ever more heavily on volunteers and, in one ominous effort to raise money, even pushing to drill for oil and gas beneath hiking trails and picnic pavilions.

The vast majority of states have cut park financing, often significantly, since the economic downturn took full hold in 2008, and some were cutting long before that. Some parks are closing altogether; Gov. Jerry Brown of California in recent days announced plans to permanently close 70 of the state’s 278 parks this fall. Even where parks remain open, the compromises they make to do so are often uncomfortable.

“There have been lines that have been crossed that were unthinkable a couple of years ago,” said Richard Dolesh, chief of public policy for the National Recreation and Park Association.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   US News,   Environment
  2. tags:
    Green,  Oil,  Oil Drilling,  State Parks
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6 comments // State Parks are getting the Ax

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