Picacho to Remain Open!

We have just received great news from the Department of  Parks and Recreation (DPR).  

Picacho State Recreation Area will not be closed on July 1st.  

In the past week more information has been coming out of Sacramento as the DPR has been working with nonprofits throughout the system to save as many parks as possible.  At this point the DPR is saying they will keep Picacho open for another year, with a long-term strategy of seeking funding from additional sources.  A donor agreement is in the draft stages between Friends4Picacho and the DPR. We are being asked to submit the money that has been pledged so far; however, the details are just beginning to be worked out.  An official announcement will be released when the donor agreement is signed.

All of you who have taken a personal stake in Picacho SRA: getting the word out, offering your services, and making a financial pledge should give yourself a big pat on the back. Be proud of what we have collectively accomplished.  Of course we will be continuing to gather funds and promote the park, now that we have a more positive outlook.  Many people have already come forth to offer their help and ideas.

Last night we had a very good turnout for "The First 70" film. If you haven't seen it you should check the Cal State Parks Foundation website to find out where it will be shown near you. 

We were also the first to see the brand new video developed for Picacho by Dan Prychun. Dan has dedicated a lot of time and energy to the project, and it really shows. It is really an awesome video!!!!   We will have it on YouTube very soon for everyone to see.  Much thanks goes out to Dan for stepping up to help promote Picacho.

We were also treated to a great presentation by Todd Wirths, the author of Picacho and The Cargo Muchachos.  He took us on a tour of Picacho Road from a historical and geological perspective.  It was very interesting, and I will take a renewed look at the mining operations and rock formations on the next drive into the park.  This is some of the information contained in his book, which I highly recommend. It is available on Amazon.

Robin Greene, former Supervising Ranger for Picacho, now the San Diego Coast North Sector Superintendent, and CRSPIA board members Dave Hernandez and Dave McClure were also available to answer questions about the parks and Picacho.

 

I just want to say Thanks to all of you for your continued support of Picacho.  Stay tuned. We will be releasing more information as it becomes available. 

Join us - June 23rd in El Cajon

     You're invited 

                   Saturday JUNE 23^RD   at 7:30pm                 

         Friends4Picacho Raising Awareness Fundraiser

                                               at  

                                  Gillespie Field Café

                                  2015 N. Marshall Ave

                                  El Cajon, CA 92020

                                     (Santee area)

                                Gillespie Field Airport

        Please join us on June 23rd and experience a viewing of :    

The First 70 is a documentary that highlights the wonders and issues surrounding the 70 state parks slated to close on July 1. In The First 70, we follow filmmakers Lauren Valentino, Jarratt Moody and Cory Brown of Heath Hen Films as they travel across the state in a really cool bus, to visit all 70 state parks and capture the parks’ endless beauty in images and interviews with those who love and care for them.

Big Red hike 1/1/12

The film investigates the various issues surrounding the closures, as well as how Californians have banded together to enact change and develop solutions. California State Park Foundation is proud to be an Executive Producer on this film. This is only the second viewing of this film in the San Diego area. 

We will also be showing a beautiful 4-minute video on Picacho SRA developed by Dan Prychun, a member of F4P.  

Meet author, Todd Wirths, who will present and sign copies of his book, the newly published 'Picacho and The Cargo Muchachos'.

  If you, or your business would like to make a donation of food, drink, or raffle items to the fundraiser please contact Shelli at ShelliD@Friends4Picacho.org

 If you haven't made a pledge, please join our efforts.  Every dollar is important to reach our goal.  We have just two more week to get it done.  

  If you have made a pledge, Thank You!! You can see your name on our 'Supporters' page @ 

  http://www.friends4picacho.org/supporters.html

 It's amazing to see how many people are reaching out to join in our efforts.

Friends4Picacho is currently 177 members strong and growing!

Let us challenge ourselves to spread the word to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and others, the list can be endless!

It's working - let us keep the positive energy pushing forward -  Lets Save Our Beautiful Picacho!

More Ink - This Time Yuma!

News article ran in the Yuma Sun today.  We hope to get some Yuma people more involved.

Spread the word.

Go to  http://www.yumasun.com/news/picacho-79588-park-open.html

UT gives Picacho much needed publicity!

See article from UT San Diego. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jun/08/picacho-state-park-colorado-river-jeopardy/

Crunch Time to keep Picacho Open

Last week F4P members, Lorie Long and John Parsons met with California State Parks Acting District Superintendent, Gail Sevrens and Acting District Superintendent, Paul Reisman to discuss a donor agreement for Picacho SRA. 

State Parks and  the Bureau of Land Management are still in negotiations over a cost-sharing agreement for the park.

However, If BLM is able to contribute money towards Picacho there is still a gap in funding. State Parks has asked us to raise $60,586.00 to cover this gap.

We need your help to keep Picacho open.

Our new non-profit status allows us to support Picacho in a donor agreement with State Parks. We will be taking pledges on our website at http://www.friends4picacho.org/pledge-your-support.html. 

Tell your friends and family. Every dollar helps.  Donors must pledge given amounts in U.S. dollars.

 We will not collect on the pledges until the donor agreement with the State Parks is signed.  

Let's Save Our Beautiful Picacho SRA!  Download a flyer from our website http://www.friends4picacho.org/flyers.html and post at your place of business, organization, or in your neighborhood.  

Be creative. Sometimes a simple e-mail is all that is needed to gain some support. If each of us takes that extra step to spread the word, we can raise the funds.  

Our fundraising committee is also pursuing some opportunities for grant money available this month. Several members are also approaching businesses and organizations to ask for donations. The response has been positive, with many offering to put out flyers, or post information to their members, on our behalf.   We are also doing some press releases to inform the public of our efforts.

    

You have all expressed how important it is to keep Picacho open through your e-mails and contact with park staff.

If we can get past this major hurdle of keeping the park open this year, we would focus on supporting efforts to lower costs and increase revenue for next year.  Many of you have suggested ways of doing this.  Friends4Picacho would provide a needed level of support to make that happen. For example, one of the largest expenses for the park is the diesel fuel to run the generators. We have several people and organizations already looking at ways to fund a solar system.  Other suggestions are providing kayaks for rent, as well as cabins of some sort.  

Our main focus right now is to keep the park open, whatever it takes, and then progress from that point. We have one month to raise $60,586.00.  In just four months we have accomplished a lot. Starting with a small group of people meeting in February, to becoming a non-profit organization with a growing membership. With all of us helping, we should be able to get through this next step.  

Also, if anyone has any resources for funding that we could help pursue, please let us know.

Voice of Reason in San Jose

Reed Holderman: Saving California parks shouldn't be this hard

By Reed Holderman

San Jose Mercury News

Seventy California state parks are set to close July 1 in an effort to reduce the state's nearly $10 billion deficit, unless somebody -- anybody -- steps up to save them. Fortunately, several nonprofit groups have done this for some parks for fear that temporary closures could become permanent.

California's parks contain our history, our culture and natural beauty found nowhere else on the planet. As the executive director of Sempervirens Fund, the organization that helped create the first state park at Big Basin and establish the state park system, I feel it is my duty to voice my concern for the future of our parks.

But first I would like to consider how we got to this place. Sadly, it started with decades of disinvestment and cuts to state parks, resulting in $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance costs. Our parks are falling apart, despite the incredible work of state parks' staff to keep everything together with little financial support.

In 2010, the conservation community launched Proposition 21 in an effort to permanently fund state parks. That measure was defeated. When voters were asked why they voted against Proposition 21, many replied that they support parks, but don't trust that Sacramento would use the money for them.

Gov. Jerry Brown is threatening to close parks as a way to save money, even though this plan will, at best, shave off less than one-half of 1 percent of our deficit and, at worst, actually cost the state money in the long run.

During the Great Depression, when things were much worse, elected officials could have chosen to go down the "cut everything" path like we are doing now. Instead, they did just the opposite. Rather than closing parks, they opened California's largest at Anza Borrego and christened Grand Canyon National Park. They built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam. When Rexford Tugwell, a New Deal architect, was asked what he was trying to accomplish, he said: Put people to work and give them hope. We could use a little of both right now.

But it is not the 1930s, and our current strategy appears to be to cut to our way out of the problem. We are closing places that provide us with refuge and inspiration and connect us to something larger than ourselves. This is why Sempervirens Fund and others have taken the unprecedented step of jumping into the breach to save as many parks from closing as we can until the state can return to stewarding these places we all care so passionately about.

When I say stepping into the breach, I mean putting money on the table to keep parks from closing -- money that comes from people like you and me. This is not something we had planned on doing, but we have no choice. Closing parks helps no one and does very little to improve the state's bottom line. It only reinforces the notion that we are in an inevitable cycle of doom that we have no control over and can't get out of, neither of which is true.

Only by demanding that our parks must stay open and doing something about it will we secure their future. Until then, we fight to save one park at a time.

Reed Holderman is the executive director of Sempervirens Fund, a nonprofit conservation group that helped establish the first state park, Big Basin, and continues to help build and protect the parks and redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. He wrote this for this newspaper.

Return hike from Little Picacho Peak 2009

LA Times Editorial - A penny-foolish parks plan

Quote:  LA Times March 17, 2012 - Editorial Staff

"Our objection to closing the parks isn't that it would be penny wise and pound foolish.  With a budget situation this serious, the state will no doubt have to make such moves to reap short-term savings. The problem with closing the parks is the high likelihood that it would be penny foolish as well."

The editor goes on to focus on the many areas in question as to actually saving money; parks can become havens for illegal activities, the state's liability for citizens injured on the property - even if they were trespassing, and the state is held responsible by the federal government for any harm caused to endangered species on land they own (California's lack of funding to protect these plants and animals can't be used as an excuse).

Bravo to the staff at the LA Times! Let's hope Sacramento is listening.

Visit our Website!

 http://www.friends4picacho.org/    

Lorie Long has done a wonderful job of putting together a website.  

Please visit it and give us feedback.

Spread the word, get involved, save Picacho as a State Recreation Area!

Sand bar on a calm river day, 12/31/11.

Take Action

http://www.calparks.org/takeaction/pad/2012/speak-out.html


Here's an easy way to support Picacho:
Go to above link  - California State Parks Foundation and submit your picture of Picacho with a written letter to our officals.

It will be presented to them on Park Advocacy Day March 20th, 2012.   

Charles Woertz riding Railroad Canyon in 2011

Meeting at Cosmos

Thursday, March 1st at 7pm, staff from Picacho will be at Cosmos in La Mesa to meet with Friends4Picacho.  This will be our second meeting and hopefully a good chance to learn where Picacho stands in the "Park Closure" plan (if there is one).  Please come if you're interested in helping save our desert/river playground and nature wonderland.

Kayaking the Finger Lakes

New Legislation Introduced

Assemblyman Jared Huffman introduced legislation Monday designed to offer strategies aimed at preventing state parks from being closed. 

Assembly Bill 1589, the California State Parks Stewardship Act of 2012, contains several proposals that address short- and long-term needs for parks to keep them from shuttering. 

Among the provisions of the new bill:

• Formation of an advisory council compact that guarantees an ongoing level of state funding for operations and maintenance of state parks

• Creation of a State Park Enterprise Fund to develop fee collection equipment and technologies to increase park visitation and revenues.

• Creation of a state park environmental license plate with fees going toward support of state parks.

• An option for taxpayers to purchase an annual state park access pass when they file their state tax returns.

• A requirement that the state Department of Parks and Recreation be more transparent on how it evaluates and selects specific parks for closure. There would be a cap of 25 state park units that could be closed from 2012 to 2016 without legislative approval.

"We have an opportunity with this legislation to not only prevent park closures, but to begin to reinvigorate our neglected California State Parks system," said Huffman, D-San Rafael. "This bill is about charting a more sustainable approach to managing and financing our treasured state parks."

Of California's 278 state parks, 70 are slated to be closed this summer to help the state save $22 million. China Camp near San Rafael and Olompali near Novato are two Marin state parks set for closure; two others, Samuel P. Taylor and Tomales Bay, had been targeted but will be spared due to a funding arrangement worked out with federal land management agencies.

"Keeping state parks open is vital to our local and state economies," said Caryl Hart, director of Sonoma County Regional Parks. "While our communities are working hard at the local level to partner with the state to help keep the parks open, it is also imperative that the state identify new revenue opportunities and strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of our state parks."

The bill will be considered by the Assembly at a policy committee hearing

later this session.

Let Sacramento know!

Please write a letter to these elected officials to let them know of your displeasure of the possible closing of Picacho State Recreation Area.  A written letter sent by US Mail is best - the sooner the better. Time is ticking away and June will be here before you know it.  Also share this information with as many people as you can.

Picacho lies within these districts, which include Imperial County and parts of San Diego

District 40

Senator Juan Vargas

1224 State Street                             

Suite D

El Centro, Ca 92243

760.335.3442

or

333 H Street

Suite 2030

Chula Vista, Ca 91910

619.409.7690

51st District

Congressman Bob Filner

333 F Street

Suite A

Chula Vista, Ca  91910

619.422.5963

or

1101 Airport Rd

Suite D

Imperial, Ca 92251

760.355.8800

Hiking Red Rock Canyon

Friends 4 Picacho founding members meet!

Thursday,  February 2nd may have been Groundhog Day, but in La Mesa's Cosmos cafe it marked the first meeting of a dedicated group of people willing to put in time and effort to keep California's Picacho State Recreation area open.  The State has selected it along with 69 other state parks to close in June due to lack of funding.  More information will be coming, so please follow our blog to see how you can help keep this beautiful park open.

Eleven hearty hikers on Picacho's Big Red on New Years Day 2012