State Park officials recently unveiled the “Parks Forward” initiative that will assess California’s underfunded state parks system and eventually provide ways to make state parks economically viable again.
The Parks Forward initiative will search for innovative ideas to enhance the state’s management of parks, as well as look into new organization, structure and management styles for the parks.
California Secretary of Natural Resource John Laird and California State Parks Director retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Anthony L. Jackson unveiled the initiative June 3 as part of an effort to bolster California’s 280 state parks.
In 2012, a quarter of the state parks were threatened with closure. To prevent a similar situation, a privately funded volunteer panel of citizens, wildlife advocates and experts from the business, economic and management communities be commissioned to find ways to make California’s natural gems economically stabile and maximize park revenue. The panel will provide recommendations to the legislature and state park officials sometime in 2014, Steven Maviglio, Parks Forward spokesperson, said.
Maviglio added that Parks Forward is currently searching for panel members and will announce the panel members in the coming months.
In addition to input from the advisory panel, Parks Forward is also accepting input from the public and parks and recreation staff.
Following a scandal in 2012 involving an “underreported” cache $54 million – approximately $20 million of which belonged to the general purpose State Parks and Recreation Fund, which is intended to support the general operation of state parks – Governor Jerry Brown signed two major legislative measures that mandate a number of funding and oversight improvements to California State parks.
In addition to making state parks successful for future generations, Maviglio said that everything is on the table and will be considered.
“We are looking at everything. We want efficiency and a visionary plan that will make the parks successful for the next 100 years,” he said.
According to a department press release, the Parks Forward Commission fulfills the mandate set by the California State Parks Stewardship Act of 2012, AB 1589, and AB 1478. These pieces of legislation call for the formation of an advisory panel that will conduct an assessment of the state parks and will recommend changes or additions to the state legislature and governor.
