State budget cuts will leave our parks vulnerable to commercial interests eager to exploit our most fragile parks for profit. Under Governor Brown's budget proposals, State Parks will take a $4 million cut in June, and they'll be directed to begin the two year process of layoffs to achieve a further $22 million in cuts. Just 3 years ago, we faced closure of Topanga State Park over smaller cuts. No word from State Parks on this, but our park is already overwhelmed by overuse and misuse. Who will keep the hundreds of illegal campers, underage drinkers, and other scoff-laws out of Topanga State Park - a wilderness park 2.5 times the size of Santa Monica - when State Parks gets cut like this? What imaginary force of volunteer elves will keep the criminals in check?
Parks - your State Parks - are always threatened with road construction, housing projects, power lines, commercial development like casinos and strip malls, pollution and degradation. Now, under the guise of "fixing" our state budget, under a Democratic Governor, their management, their first line of defense will be crippled. Sure, it makes sense, a certain kind of sense, but how will the rest of us feel when the government-haters get their way and developers are called in to "rescue" Topanga State Park?
“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.”
- John Muir
