The California State Parks Foundation is warning about the need to pay for efforts to make state parks more climate resilient.
The group wants the state to regularly invest in parks for future generations.
California boasts 280 state parks. That includes large swaths of old-growth forests, mountain landscapes, deserts and coastal reserves and beaches that account for almost a quarter of the state’s shoreline.
One of the more popular destinations, with 2 to 3 million visitors a year, is Torrey Pines State reserve. It is one of only two locations where the Torrey Pine tree grows naturally. The other is on an island near Santa Barbara.
But that iconic tree already suffers from climate change.
“What we’re looking at is one of the former very dense groves of Torrey Pine trees, probably the densest in the reserve,” said Darren Smith, a senior environmental scientist with California Department of Parks.
Smith pointed to a dead tangle of wood — fallen trees — on the northern bluff of the park.
He said the dead Torrey Pine trees were ravaged by a bark beetle infestation, after the conifers were weakened by years of drought and hot temperatures.
They used to completely shade the hillside and nearby walking path.
Losing that stand of trees was painful for Smith.
“My identity as a San Diegan is tied into being able to see, visit places like this, close to my home. Close to the coast,” Smith said.
A new report from the California State Parks Foundation finds the warming climate is fueling the intensity of wildfires, drought and storms, and that is putting pressure on some of the state’s most precious natural resources.
“They, I think, represent what we love about California,” said Rachel Norton, the executive director of the California State Parks Foundation. “From redwoods to beaches to deserts to mountains. And as such, they’re just really important places.”
The report calls for a steady stream of state funding to build climate resilient state parks. It warns that 75% of the state’s beaches could disappear by the end of the century.
The study calls for spending $50 million a year to implement a sea level rise strategy, spending additional money on land acquisition. hiring climate resiliency staff, to stop relying on outside engineers for park projects, funding wildfire resilience and making parks climate resilience centers.
Resources are the key, according to the parks foundation.
“Even if it’s to the tune of $10, $15, $20 million a year, which yes, to you and I, is a lot of money, but not to the state of California that has a $93 billion budget. It’s not a lot of money,” Norton said.
Norton is hopeful some of that funding will come for an environmental bond measure being negotiated in Sacramento with an eye on putting it on the November statewide ballot.
