The script is simple: Give me oil drilling, or California’s state parks, home to sea lions, die! In non-Hollywood terms, the Governator’s proposed budget will fund California state parks solely through so-far-chimerical offshore oil drilling at Santa Barbara’s Tranquillon Ridge.  If the oil drilling project is not approved, then the parks get zero money.  “Extortion” may be a harsh word (does “ransom” sound any better?), but Assemblymember Pedro Nava’s analogy is equally forceful:

Nava said that linking parks and offshore oil was like “offering a rent reduction to a victim of domestic violence in exchange for forcing them to go back and live with the abuser.”

This summer’s vacation was what I thought would be a farewell tour of California state parks.  The plan was simple: drive up the coast, stop in as many state parks as I can find, photograph them, blog them, remember them for posterity once Schwarzenegger finished his then-pending scheme to close them all to save $140M.  My plans fell victim to, in this order, a sulky teenager (“what do you mean, we have to drive up to Big Sur and marvel at spectacular coastlines?”), a second trip to Pittsburgh shortly after the first vacation, a decision to blog about other stuff, and an 11th hour reprieve for most of the parks.  The teenager and I kayaked around Morro Bay, where we met some new friends

and explored the vast wonderland of Montana de Oro State Park along with a few smaller spots.  

State parks aren’t spotlighted as much as national parks.  As Ken Burns noted, would a Wyoming state park get the attention that Yellowstone National Park does?  That doesn’t mean that they should be abandoned, or traded for offshore oil drilling.  Californians have panned for gold at Columbia State Park, pretend-fired cannons at Sutter’s Fort State Park, meditated on the redwoods of Big Basin State Park, rock climbed Chatsworth State Park, and been enraptured by the Big Sur coastline.  (Except for my teen.)

Some — not all –state environmental groups cut a highly controversial deal with the Governator a few years ago to permit limited oil drilling at Tranquillon Ridge off the Santa Barbara coastline.  Since then, the  project has been voted down by both the State Lands Commission and the Legislature.  Arnold’s third try is a naked power play to pit environmentalists against each other: park lovers will demand the right to ruin the coastline in the name of funding their parks, or so he schemes.

Or will they?  This script needs heroes — you, me, and the federal government — to wrest the parks away from the villain.  Here’s several ways to ensure a happy ending.

1.  Sign California State Parks Foundation’s petition to state legislators asking them to find alternate sources of park funds.

2.  The California State Parks Foundation also is gathering signatures in hopes to put an initiative on the November 2010 ballot.  Every California license plate will be surcharged $18 annually, then get free admission to all state parks in exchange.  This will give the state parks an untouchable base fund.

3.  Just as the megalomaniacal villain with the menacing Austrian accent is about to destroy the innocent state park, the federal cavalry rides in to save the day.  I’ve previously advocated that the state legislature pass a resolution asking for certain state parks to become federal national monuments.  Call the Governator’s bluff: if California can’t maintain parks granted or funded by federal funds, then turn them over to the federal government.  Can you say Anza-Borrego National Monument?  Big Sur National Monument?  

4.  Visit your state park.  Take a hike.  Get outdoors.  Enjoy what you have.  As the song goes, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.

(x-posted from DailyKos)