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Health & Fitness

California State Parks: A Little Bit of Perspective

As we consider the proposition of closing a large portion of our state park system, it would be wise to look back at the work of those who created our first state parks.

The California State Parks system is unique in the nation, both for its sheer acreage but also because it encompasses a wide breadth and deep profundity of the state’s history, culture, and natural beauty. The 278 state parks are a comprehensive collection of monuments dedicated to redwood groves, coastal wonderlands, desert oases, wildlife, wildflowers, wild people and wild places. The mission of state parks and the role they play in portraying the story of California is one of preserving lands of incredible beauty, protecting wildlife from a rapidly encroaching civilization, and recognizing the achievements of our diverse population.

As the debate continues over the , it's helpful to consider the history behind our state parks.

The origin of the concept of state parks in California goes back to 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that created Yosemite Park. Federal land in the Sierra Nevada was given to the state of California “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort and recreation.” This precursor to Yosemite National Park consisted of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of sequoias, which were becoming popular destinations for early travelers.

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One of the first commissioners appointed to manage the new state park was famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who wrote in his Preliminary Report that “It is the will of the nation as embodied in the act of Congress that this scenery shall never be private property, but that like certain defensive points upon our coast it shall be solely for public purposes.” Olmsted regarded the protection of this wild land as “... the main duty of government, if it is not the sole duty of government, to provide means of protection for all its citizens in the pursuit of happiness against the obstacles, otherwise insurmountable, which the selfishness of individuals or combinations of individuals is liable to interpose to that pursuit.”

The creation of Yosemite Park marked the first time in American history that the federal government had set aside land for the express purpose of preservation and public use, albeit to be managed by a state government. This was followed a few years later by the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the nation’s first national park. The splendorous reputation of Yosemite spread rapidly throughout the world, and even in the days before automobiles and paved highways, the valley began to suffer from the effects of overexposure and heavy visitation.

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John Muir worked as a shepherd in the mountains above Yosemite Valley in 1869, and wrote about his encounters with some early tourists in My First Summer in the Sierra: “The tourists we saw were in parties of from three or four to fifteen or twenty, mounted on mules or small mustang ponies. A strange show they made, winding single file through the solemn woods in gaudy attire, scaring the wild creatures, and one might fancy that even the great pines would be disturbed and groan aghast.”

Yosemite Park was managed by the state of California for several decades, until the pressure of increased visitation and the trampling of this scenic wonderland led to a campaign to revert the park to federal management. Yosemite National Park was then established in 1890. This was not to be the end of state parks in California however; truly it was only the beginning. The idea of preserving land for public use and enjoyment was taking hold throughout California, as increased population and development led to the desecration of wilderness and permanent privatization of lands that once were open to all.

While the fight to save Yosemite was taking place in the Sierra Nevada, preservationists were waging new battles in the redwood forests of California. The fledgling California state park system grew out of a desire to preserve some of the rapidly dwindling groves of redwoods that once covered millions of acres along the north and central coasts of California. Starting in the 1880s, influential Californians such as Ralph Sidney Smith, the editor of the Redwood City Times and Gazette, and photographer Andrew P. Hill, began to advocate for the preservation of the majestic groves of redwoods which were the very symbol of California.

In 1900, Hill founded the Sempervirens Club, which became the first land conservation organization in California. The club worked to buy pristine redwood groves in the Santa Cruz Mountains and transfer them to the state of California in order to preserve them forever. It was instrumental in the establishment of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in 1902, the first state park in the current system. The original park was 3800 acres of old growth redwood groves, and has since been expanded to more than 18,000 acres of forests, waterfalls, and lush canyons.

The creation of Big Basin Redwoods State Park was not without controversy. Many people objected to the idea of spending state money on land that was intended for some purpose other than commercial exploitation. After a heated debate over the appropriate price per acre, a compromise was reached and the legislature passed a bill that would authorize state funds for the purchase of the first tract of redwoods at a cost of $100 per acre. The bill was signed by Governor Henry T. Gage on March 16, 1901. In addition to the purchase of the land in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the bill also established the California Redwood Park Commission, which was charged with identifying additional tracts of redwood forests throughout the state that were suitable for preservation.

The Sempervirens Club strove to recruit new members and promote the concept of preservation of natural wonders. Their story would be told most eloquently a decade later by Arthur A. Taylor, one of the original members of the California Redwood Park Commission. In 1912, Taylor wrote California Redwood Park, a compilation of stories, poems, political history, and firsthand accounts of the Sempervirens Club’s exploratory expedition into the forest. In the forward to the book, he describes the redwood groves of the Big Basin as “... an aggregation of arboreal wonders. It is moreover a cathedral, a university, a sanatorium, a source of solace to the soul, an inspiration to the intellect, a tonic to the body.”

The Sempervirens Club, which evolved into the Sempervirens Fund, has become an influential force in raising money and supporting California state parks. Their initial foray into the redwoods has become legendary, the creation story of the California state park system. After several days of exploring the vast redwood groves of the Big Basin, the group camped at Slippery Rock, a broad sloping slab of granite just above Sempervirens Falls. A memorial plaque is posted at the spot today, noting the accomplishment of this group of dedicated pioneers.

In 1927, the State Legislature passed a State Park Bond Act, which provided for the issuance of $6 million in state bonds to be used to acquire lands that had been identified as appropriate for preservation as state parks. The bond act was later ratified by a vote of the people, in which 74 percent of voters approved the purchase of land for parks. The State Park Bond Act also established a State Parks Commission, which was “authorized and directed to make a survey to determine what lands are suitable and desirable for the ultimate development of a comprehensive, well-balanced state park system, and to define the relation of such a system to other means of conserving and utilizing the scenic and recreational resources of the state; to make a report embodying the results of the survey; to make recommendations regarding the means by which such a park system can be acquired.”

The State Parks Commission was headed by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the son of the famed landscape architect and early state park commissioner. Olmsted continued in the footsteps of his father and became a pivotal figure in the early history of California state parks. As part of the survey, he prepared a Report of State Park Survey of California, which he presented to Governor C. C. Young in 1929. In the introduction to the report, Fred G. Stevenot, the Director of the Department of Natural Resources, stated the challenges faced by Olmsted:

"A state-wide park survey of California presents problems of a magnitude and complexity which probably do not exist to the same degree in any other state. The great size of California, its longitudinal extent with a coast line of almost a thousand miles in length, its magnificent beaches, its extensive mountain ranges, variety of climate, the fact that, for these reasons, it contains some of the finest specimens of trees and forested areas to be found anywhere in the world, multiplies the problems of survey."

Now, more than 100 years after the first state park was established, a new and evolving view of the role of government has become apparent, one that calls into question the very existence of protected areas such as state parks. For those of us who support state parks and the idea of setting aside public lands in order to protect and preserve them, this new view of limited government is disturbing. It is hard to imagine that natural beauty is no longer valued.

At a time when rampant development and overpopulation are contributing to diminishing the amount of wild lands around the world, it seems that these areas should be valued all the more. Perhaps we need to be reminded, to have our historical memories jarred, of the efforts that were carried out by those who struggled to create the California State Park system.

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