State Parks: Call Them Open Space and Keep Them Open

When we look at current California state parks usage we see everything from wild crowds to desolation, and that will most likely remain unchanged whether they are managed by nonprofits or by the state itself.  Nothing wrong with that.  

Let’s get away from thinking that a park is valuable only if it is frequented by people.  There is a difference between a park and a playground.  If you invest a pile of cash in swings and slides and tunnels and nobody shows up – that’s a flop.  If you set aside 200 acres of old growth and nobody shows up – that’s OK.  Wild lands and undeveloped quiet places serve the world in many ways.  The image of monastics praying for world peace pops into mind. I don’t need to go visit them. They do their work just fine without me.  As a matter of fact, they probably do much better without me.  Which is the way I feel sometimes when I wander in the woods.

Perhaps if we just changed a few names here and there, the funding dilemma would be eased.  Instead of the word park, with all its connotations of families barbecuing and playing football, use wilderness area.  

What happens if Castle Crags State Park up near Mt. Shasta becomes a wilderness area?   You turn off the water and take the bathrooms out?  Surely, something more would happen.  Would we save any money?  What would happen if we called Samuel P. Taylor a wilderness area, or call any of it more than a quarter mile from the main road a wilderness area?  Or what if we called it open space?  My guess is that open space is a lot less expensive to maintain than a state park.

Olompali is a wonderful place to think about what a name change would mean.  Olompali State Park is adjoined on the western side by Marin Open Space.  At the state park there are delicate historic structures and native sites and natural landscape.  On the Marin Open Space side is an old working cattle ranch, horse trails and natural landscape.  

There are other differences: Olompali has rangers on duty, restrooms, an entrance fee, a parking lot and informative signs and displays.  At the end of the funding debate, Olompali may wind up with a presence somewhere in between what it has now, and what the Marin Open Space next door looks like.  The historic structures will be rendered inaccessible, park interpretive services will all but cease, and rangers will be there simply as guards. Not good, but we can live with it.

Let’s remember, the important thing is that the state parks are not turned over to development.  Sale and development is most people’s barely submerged fear. Development ends a park’s life as a truly public space.  Call our state parks what you will. Just don’t call them private.