F4 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022
known archaeological sites. Cali-
fornia’s Yosemite Valley and Mari-
posa Grove became the first state
park when it was established in
1864.
The 98-year-old New York state
park system is home to standouts
such as Niagara Falls, the United
States’ oldest state park, and
Letchworth, the Grand Canyon of
the East.
“Nearly all of the state’s most
sublime landscapes and cultural
resources are under state or local
jurisdictions,” said Erik Kulleseid,
commissioner of the New York
State Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation. So, the
state parks you’re seeing are the
very best of what New York has to
offer.”Funding challenges
Just as each state park system
varies, so do their funding
sources. But research by Walls has
shown that, since the 1990s, gen-
eral fund revenue for state parks
has declined overall. Today, fund-
ing comes mostly from user fees
and dedicated state sources such
as lottery revenue and taxes. The
federal Land and Water Conser-
vation Fund now provides about
$330 million annually to states,
some of which may go to state
parks. And state-directed pan-
demic recovery dollars under the
Biden administration’s American
Rescue Plan have buoyed somesystems; Michigan is using $250
million of its relief to modernize
its 103 state parks and create a
new one — an investment it esti-
mates will yield $1 billion in eco-
nomic benefits.
Legislative support also helps
other state systems. A $50 million
package is funding crucial state
park upgrades in Oregon. Over
the past decade, New York has
invested more than $1.5 billion in
its state parks and is planning
another $200 million for each of
the next five years — an age-ap-
propriate gift for the system’s
100th birthday in 2024. And Cali-
fornia’s $1 billion Outdoors for All
budget package includes more
than $500 million to increase
state park access by centering
investments in underserved com-
munities.
“Overall, state parks are under-
resourced compared to their op-
erating costs,” Walls said. Decades
of funding shortages have caused
ballooning repair needs and have
further complicated challenges
such as increased visitation, cli-
mate change and an overdue reck-
oning with access and equity.
“We’re still advocating for state
parks and for their funding to
remain as sustainable and pre-
dictable as possible, which allows
us to plan for the future and be
strategic about our dollars,” said
Franklin, who is also secretary-
treasurer for the National Associ-ation of State Park Directors.Record-breaking visitation
At the same time that parks are
dealing with reduced funding,
however, they’re also dealing with
increased visitation. People made
more than 786 million visits to
state parks from July 1, 2019, to
June 30, 2020, according to the
National Association of State Park
Directors. (In comparison, the
National Park System’s 423 units
received 297.1 million visits in
2021.)
Notwithstanding pandemic-re-
lated closures that dampened vis-
itation across the country, New
York, Texas and Oregon all report-
ed record-smashing 2021 visita-
tion. That’s part of a national
trend of increasing visitation,
which can cause overcrowding,
safety issues, and wear and tear.
“Some facilities have been
loved to death,” said Franklin,
citing the system’s backlog of up-
grades, maintenance and repairs
of decades-old infrastructure.
“Visitation reflects value,”
Walls said. “And it’s a sign that we
need to put more money into the
systems, which don’t have enough
money to manage parks as they
are, much less build adaptation
plans for the future.”The next 100 years
Those plans are crucial as state
parks face climate change disrup-BY ERIN E. WILLIAMSGlaciers in Alaska. Dinosaur
fossils in Montana. Slot canyons
in Nevada. Hoodoo rock forma-
tions in Utah. Redwoods in Cali-
fornia. Bison in South Dakota.
Native American burial mounds
in Wisconsin. Military forts in
Delaware. Memorials celebrating
civil rights heroes in New York.
Across the country, 9,095 state
parks span 19 million acres and
boast an abundance of natural
and cultural riches that can rival
those in the national park system,
according to 2019-2020 data from
the National Association of State
Park Directors. They also high-
light local history and are often
more accessible. “One of the best
benefits that state parks provide
in Texas or any other state is that
they’re a nice, affordable outdoor
getaway,” said Rodney Franklin,
state parks director for the Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department.
The Texas state parks system will
celebrate its centennial next year.
“Instead of flying to Arizona to
visit the Grand Canyon, I can go
somewhere nearby,” said Marga-
ret Walls, an economist and sen-
ior fellow at Resources for the
Future, a Washington-based inde-
pendent nonprofit research or-
ganization focused on environ-
mental and natural resource is-
sues. “And that option is so impor-
tant for us all to have.”
Each state park system is dif-
ferent — some are more devel-
oped than others, and infrastruc-
ture can include rudimentary
campgrounds or concert venues
— but together they serve a
unique public lands purpose. And
many systems are at a milestone:
a centennial celebration, give or
take a few years. These anniversa-
ries are highlighting how pivotal a
time this is for state parks, which
are grappling with challenges
that include decades of under-
funding, surging visitation num-
bers, pandemic closures, exclu-
sionary histories and climate-
change-fueled catastrophes that
will affect their survival even be-
yond the next century.
Close to home
When I met Chris Havel, associ-
ate director for the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department, at
Tumalo State Park near Bend in
March, he was on his way to a
birthday party. Oregon’s state
park system, which includes 254
properties over 122,847 acres,
turns 100 this year.
“While some people will travel
hours to get to their favorite park,
for most people, it’s a half-hour
away,” Havel said. Tumalo State
Park is no exception: It’s a short
bike ride from my Bend home.
Such easy access has allowed
some parks to build devoted visi-
tor bases that support the parks
by participating in conservation
and funding programs.
Belle Isle — a 987-acre island in
Detroit and part of Michigan’s
103-year-old state park system —
is only a half-hour from Swathi
Ravi and her family, who visit
about once a month. “Belle Isle is
a beautiful place, and it’s special
for so many people,” she said.
During the summer, her family
picnics under the trees on the
beach, and her 2-year-old daugh-
ter splashes in the water.
To celebrate her daughter’s
first birthday, in 2020, Ravi’s fam-
ily began volunteering to plant
native saplings in Belle Isle
through the Happy Little Trees
program. After two birthdays and
nearly 100 trees, Ravi is commit-
ted to the tradition. “It’s so joyful
and fulfilling,” she said. “We have
so much satisfaction that we’re
doing something for the environ-
ment, and we want the trees to
live even beyond our children’s
lifetimes.”
A variety of offerings
“Many state parks occupy a
special niche between typically
more developed municipal parks
and a backcountry experience,”
said Havel, who estimated that
about 85 percent of Oregon’s state
parks play that role.
The parks in California’s 95-
year-old system make up the larg-
est and most diverse recreational,
natural and cultural heritage
holdings of any state agency, in-
cluding 279 parks scattered over
1.65 million acres of protected
land, 15,000 campsites, 5,200
miles of trails, 3,195 historic
buildings and more than 11,000
A pivotal
period
for state
parks
Century-old systems
face funding shortfalls,climate crises and more
tions. And while park directors
have typically planned 15 to 20
years ahead, some, like those in
California, are thinking centuries
ahead in terms of ecological
changes. Each system mentioned
in this story is reducing green-
house gas emissions, building re-
silience and mitigating effects of
climate-change-related storms,
fires and floods.
In the past two years, wildfires
burned more than 125,000 acres
across 34 California state parks —
including Big Basin, its oldest
state park and home to some
1,800-year-old redwoods.
Although Oregon’s devastating
wildfires have not yet burned
much state park property, some
temporarily closed to protect staff
and visitors from smoke. The
state’s smaller parks are relatively
easy to groom for wildfire pre-
paredness but are threatened be-
cause of adjacent public lands.
“We can’t just wait for forested
lands to burn. We must be antici-
patory,” Havel said.
Climate change also means dif-
ficult choices for coastline parks:
Do you adapt or retreat? New York
State Parks is stabilizing and re-
plenishing some of its 322 miles of
shoreline. California State Parks
has adopted an integrative adap-
tation strategy for rising sea levels
across its 128 coastal parks. Texas
state parks are building struc-
tures with resilient materials in
areas with some natural protec-
tion from hurricane-force winds
and away from flood plains. And
Oregon is using some of that $50
million fund to relocate the coast-
al Cape Lookout State Park camp-
ground sections to higher ground.
“Especially in coastal areas,
parks provide ecosystem services
well beyond their recreational
services,” Walls said. They in-
crease water quality, buffer flood-
ing and protect against sea level
surge. “They’re also impacted by
damage, so they need to be man-
aged so they can provide resil-
ience.”
Rising temperatures also mean
longer visitation seasons, which
exacerbates overuse and decreas-
es offseason recovery time for
fragile natural areas.Improving access
The Oregon system’s centenni-
al is not just a celebration; it’s also
an opportunity to reflect on the
state’s often painful history re-
garding race, including its treat-
ment of Native Americans, Havel
said. To navigate an inclusive path
forward, the state is working with
tribal and other partners to open
doors for new users.
Nationwide, states are working
to equitably space parks and to
lower entry barriers. They are
seeking out and engaging with
people who have historically been
denied recreational opportuni-
ties, including those with disabili-
ties, people in poorer communi-
ties, those without transportation
and people whose experiences
have been dismissed or over-
looked.
“We want to make sure that
parks reflect everyone and that
we’re telling stories that are rel-
evant to all New Yorkers,”
Kulleseid said.
Greater inclusivity can only
benefit the parks. “Our legacy,”
Franklin said, “is growing the next
generations of outdoor enthusi-
asts and conservationists, who
will grow to love parks and sup-
port them 50 and 100 years from
now.”Williams is a writer based in Oregon.
Her website is erinewilliams.com.DON EMMERT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESNIC COURY/ASSOCIATED P RESSISTOCKFROM TOP: Niagara
Falls, the country’s
oldest state park, is part
of the New York state
park system; burned
trees from the 2020
CZU Lightning Complex
fires are seen last April
in Big Basin Redwoods
State Park in Boulder
Creek, Calif.; Franklin
D. Roosevelt Four
Freedoms State Park in
New York is free to the
public. “Many state
parks occupy a special
niche between typically
more developed
municipal parks and
a backcountry
experience,” said Chris
Havel, associate director
for the Oregon Parks
and Recreation
Department.