Over 100 State Parks Facing Closure

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Writing for Treehugger today Jerry James Stone reports that in the US we have 6,624 state parks, which report over 700 million visitors a year. But sadly over 100 state parks are headed for closure. With state governments facing austerity measures, our public spaces are getting the ax.

Stone lists the parks facing closure by state. Here's the sad news that he writes about the state where I live:

As a direct result of budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, California is set to close 70 of its state parks--25% of the entire state park system! What does this mean? It means that 36 of California's 58 counties will see parks close. This is 40% of the state's entire State Historic Parks and includes the second largest park in the entire state park system (Henry Coe State Park).

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/642821/over_100_state_parks_facing_closure_--_is_your_favorite_park_on_the_list/

[Danno 1,228]

Let'em close for a while, even Parks need a break.

[SuperDuper! 230]

Your video is made up of a bunch of random tweeter haters of Palin. Where is the credibility?

ps, your new site name is too exciting. E.F.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Fossil-fuel industries push for a Great Outdoors Giveaway

Tens of millions of acres of public land would lose protection under the Wilderness and Roadless Release Act of 2011, now being considered in the U.S. House. These parcels, currently designated as wilderness study areas or roadless areas, would be stripped of their status and potentially opened up for drilling, fracking, and mining.

Republicans on the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week brought in a carefully choreographed parade of witnesses, including disabled veteran hunters, to create the illusion of diverse, patriotic support for the bill. In reality, the disabled hunters are merely a prop hiding the fossil-fueled real interests behind H.R. 1581.

Only Congress can designate land as federally protected wilderness, but federal agencies have inventoried their public lands to determine which are suitable for wilderness -- "wilderness study areas" -- so they can be preserved until such time as Congress may act. The Bureau of Land Management has identified about 12 million acres in 550 areas as wilderness study areas. Separately, the Forest Service has identified 15 million acres for study, although they have not been given interim protection, while the Clinton administration issued the Roadless Rule prohibiting new roads on nearly 60 million acres of Forest Service land. Since then, the Roadless Rule has been a political football: undone by the Bush administration, reinstated (more or less) as the Obama administration's "Wild Lands" policy, then funds for same blocked by the GOP-controlled 112th Congress.

Even in wilderness study/roadless areas, people can hike, fish, ride mountain bikes, hunt, and ride off-road vehicles. Let me repeat that for emphasis: People can hunt in wilderness study/roadless areas. People can ride off-road vehicles in wilderness study/roadless areas. They just can't drive a van onto a paved road into a roadless area, park it in a handicapped parking spot, and then hunt. And apparently that really bothers House Republicans.

A broad coalition of wilderness and wildlife groups opposes H.R. 1581, calling it the Great Outdoors Giveaway. The Obama administration strongly opposes the bill too.

http://www.grist.org/climate-energy

[dalegg 143]

Blame the bears.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Who wouldn't want to trade this...

...for that?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Turn 'em into homeless shelters.