Schwarzenegger Plan Would Close 220 Calif. Parks

View of Redwoods in the rain. Redwood National Park, CA.

(Justin Bailie/Getty Images)

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing up to 220 state parks to help cut the state's $24.3 billion deficit, including popular attractions for millions of visitors each year, such as a park that is home to some of the tallest trees on Earth.

Schwarzenegger has recommended eliminating $70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010. Another $143.4 million would be saved in the following fiscal year by keeping the parks closed.

"This is a worst-case scenario," said Roy Sterns, a spokesman at the state parks department. "If we can do less than this, we will try. But under the present proposal, this is it."

Among the parks closed would be Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, Will Rogers' Southern California ranch, the Governor's Mansion in Sacramento and Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

The Legislature last year rejected the governor's proposal to close 48 state parks, but lawmakers from both parties said California's budget deficit is now so dire that it is likely some parks will close this year.

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"This is an unprecedented crisis, and things that were previously dead on arrival are a lot more viable in a crisis like this," said Jared Huffman, a Democrat from San Rafael who is chairman of the Assembly's parks and wildlife committee. "I think some cuts are coming to the parks, and they'll be cuts I won't like and the public won't like."

The state parks department said that a $70 million cut would leave it with enough money to run just 59 of California's 279 state parks.

The state's famed park system attracts nearly 80 million visitors a year. William Randolph Hearst's Castle on the Central Coast and a dozen other so-called money makers would remain open under the proposal released Thursday, as would many Southern California beaches that attract millions of visitors year round.

Other that could close include: Fort Ross State Historic Park, the southernmost Russian settlement in North America; Bodie State Historic Park, one of the best-preserved Old West ghost towns in the Western U.S.; and Big Basin Redwoods, the oldest state park.