Write Governor Brown today urging park funds to be used as intended

Join SYRCL in a letter writing campaign to Governor Brown.

August 31 marks the end of the California legislative session, therefore, time is of the essence to send a strong message to Governor Brown that we ask him to use the “found” state parks funds as intended and keep Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park open.

Our community remains committed to Malakoff; we will continue to seek long term solutions to keep the park open beyond June 2013 such as reducing operating costs to help the park become more self-sufficient.  In the meantime, urge our state government to do the right thing today.

Three simple ways to join SYRCL’s letter writing campaign:

1. Stop by the SYRCL office and pick up a postcard to send to the governor.

Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

        2.  Copy the text below into a personal letter and mail to Governor Brown.

        3.  Send an email to Governor Brown, Resource Secretary Laird, Senator LaMalfa and Assemblyman Logue through the California State Park Foundation’s website.

California State Park Foundation (CSPF) and SYRCL, along with 61 other organizations, sent a letter (see below) on August 14 urging the legislature to appropriate the recently identified fund in the Department of Parks and Recreation to the park and recreation purposes they were intended.  According to the CSPF, “it is imperative that budgetary ‘bait and switch’ tactics not be used with these newly identified funds.”

Your voice is needed to send a message loud and clear that parks are important to our community!

********************

(Sample letter)

Dear Governor Brown and Secretary Laird,

Please keep Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park open.

I was dismayed to learn that while we have been struggling to save our local parks from closure, State Parks officials were hiding $54 million. Given this development, I hope we can count on you to keep the “found” parks money with the parks system now.

Here in Nevada County, we remain committed to keeping Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park open. We want to work with State Parks staff to find a long-term solution that will help this park stay open, reduce operating costs and become more self-sufficient.

Please direct State Parks staff to:

1. Keep Malakoff Diggins open at least 3 days per week
2. Provide a multi-year proposal and budget for the long-term operation of the park
3. Direct staff to diligently pursue the installation of a solar power system to replace the polluting use of diesel generators – and save an estimated $60,000-80,000 per year in fuel costs!

Closing state parks is bad for our children, bad for the resources our parks are supposed to protect, and bad for businesses.

Tell Governor Brown your personal reasons why the parks should be kept open

Sincerely,

Your signature

Address

********************