State park supporters took to the streets on November 1st to unite against the closure of 70 state parks and raise awareness of the negative impacts park closures will have on California. Participants gathered in the early morning to march together from the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park (one of the 70 state parks planned for closure) to the Capitol where they gathered for a rally to emphasized the negative impacts that park closures will have- not only on park users, but on the economy as well.

Several business leaders addressed the crowd, including: John Severini, president/CEO of CalTravel, Christina Strawbridge, chair of the Benicia Economic Council and Kevin Murphy, general manager of Sports Leisure Vacations. Christopher Grant Ward of Folk4Parks also spoke to share his experiences over the last 3 years as he has driven 5000 miles across California to visit almost 200 CA State Parks.

After the rally, participants delivered 125 of our oversized “Closing Parks is Bad for California” postcards filled with signatures and messages from tens of thousands of park supporters from throughout California, as well as approximately 35,000 citizen petitions urging the Governor to protect state parks and keep them open.

Following the delivery to the Governor’s office, rally participants attended the joint legislative hearing by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife and the Assembly Committee for Accountability & Administrative Review. The hearing room was filled to capacity by park supporters wanting to learn more about the impacts and status of proposed state park closures. For 4.5 hours the hearing touched on a variety of topics, including an in-depth questioning of the Department of Parks and Recreation on how they determined which parks would be included in the closure list. Additional areas discussed included economic impacts of park closures, local and regional perspectives and the hidden costs of state park closures.