{"id":1640,"date":"2010-02-22T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/22\/a-new-perspective-on-how-to-keep-state-parks-open\/"},"modified":"2010-02-22T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T16:45:00","slug":"a-new-perspective-on-how-to-keep-state-parks-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/22\/a-new-perspective-on-how-to-keep-state-parks-open\/","title":{"rendered":"A new perspective on how to keep state parks open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, New York State officials listed the parks most likely to close.<\/p>\n

The North Country–and specifically the Thousand Islands–take a big hit. (Details here<\/a>.) Governor David Paterson says these closures will help save the state $30 million dollars as it tries to close a more-than $8 billion dollar budget deficit.<\/p>\n

California faces a $20 billion deficit and may also close around 100 state parks.<\/p>\n

Now, California parks and rec experts are joining members of the Harvard School of Business to draft a new funding plan for state parks.<\/p>\n

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle<\/i>, this group is focusing on:<\/p>\n

– Money: specifically how to create and maintain a sustainable stream of funding to state parks. <\/p>\n

– Whatever works: identify existing programs that work anywhere and use these same strategies. <\/p>\n

– Outreach: state park employees’ attitudes and examples can transform the public’s experience, especially for urban users who might feel disconnected from the parks and the outdoors.<\/p>\n

And this group has already produced some interesting findings and ideas:<\/p>\n

– Closed doesn’t mean closed: close the gate on access roads, but allow walk ins.<\/p>\n

– Most park use is from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, close the facility during the week.<\/p>\n

– California raised its camping fee to $35 per night. At that rate, say team members, the campsite must have a competent host that really keeps campgrounds clean and enforces quiet time at night.<\/p>\n

– Reach out to people in urban areas that feel disconnected from the outdoors and offer educational field trips.<\/p>\n

Read the Chronicle<\/i>‘s story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And for those of you who use and value New York State Parks, share your ideas for keeping them open by clicking “comments” below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, New York State officials listed the parks most likely to close. The North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}