With another year battened down and new one ready to roar, I’ve been wondering about the state of our state park system. Parks have always been beacons in the community, enticing many visitors to Napa County—until last year when the scene turned scandalous. But this isn’t an E! “True Hollywood Story”—it’s our state park system, which should be a boon to local businesses, granting tourists easy and affordable overnight access to Napa Valley. Here’s how things unraveled.
General fund support for state parks has been slashed over the last decade from 90 percent to less than 30. The situation became dire last May when former director of California State Parks, Ruth Coleman, announced that 70 of the state’s 270 state parks would close due to budget constraints. If that wasn’t bad enough, things turned tumultuous in July when nearly $54 million in “hidden assets” were discovered ($20.5 million from the Parks and Recreation Fund, with the balance to the Off Highway Vehicle Trust Fund). No wonder there were budgetary concerns, with all that socked away dough. Coleman resigned and her wingman, acting Chief Deputy Director Michael Harris, was promptly canned. Janelle Beland, an undersecretary at the Natural Resources Agency, launched into action as acting parks director.
All of these antics were nothing short of a blow to an already wounded state park system, especially given how many locals rallied to keep local gems like Bothe and Bale Grist Mill afloat. So where’s the glimmer of hope amid this raging storm? Some would argue it came in September when Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 1478, which appropriated the $20.5 million of unreported money to the State Parks and Recreation Fund in hopes of mitigating park closures for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 fiscal years. “It does this by providing $10 million of the $20.5 million in one-time funding to keep parks open by matching contributions made by our partners,” Beland noted in correspondence that went out to past donors in October 2012. The other $10 million is designated for park maintenance, which in many cases is as dire as the park debacle itself. Fittingly, though disturbingly, the last $500,000 is on reserve to fund audits and investigations that are still underway in association with said scandal.
Beland also noted, “This money merely bridges a gap, helping us get through the next two years while we redouble our efforts to achieve greater fiscal stability. It does not replace all the funding that has been reduced from our budget over the past several years.”
Let’s bring this back to Napa County, where regardless of the progress (if you can call it that), the move might not be good enough for some. Bob Dwyer, former director of the Napa Valley Vintners (in the late ’80s), now a retiree who volunteers regularly at state parks from the Salton Sea to Bothe State Park, says, “People donated a lot of money to help save the state parks, many of whom were understandably upset with the turn of events. The bill may help to mitigate some of the damage.” But from Dwyer’s perspective, there’s more work to be done.
“We need to be thinking about the importance of access to nature for our young people, given this high-tech, high-stakes world we live in. Access to the natural world should not become less important, it should become more,” says Dwyer. “There’s less human contact. Right now people pull up to a bunch of signs and a fee station, there’s nobody to talk to about trails or camping or what’s available in the park.” Some label the bill a bandage—a short-term fix for a long-term problem. “It will be a struggle to keep a strong volunteer base in our parks and to keep donations from the private sector pouring in, when the government is becoming less and less able to fund our parks.” Let’s hope this year bodes a better track record for our state park system.
Dismal roadways
By now you know I’ve been quick to rant about the piss poor state of our up-valley roadways. It would appear I’m not the only one with gripes that yearn to be heard. In response to complaints the Highway 29 Improvement Project, launched “Access St. Helena” (www.accesssthelena.org ) to keep travelers updated on the progress of our roadways. It’s a nice touch, but all I really want to know is: When will all this road construction be completed? It feels like never, given we spent the entire high season steeped in traffic. Let’s hope by the time this column goes to print, Access St. Helena will no longer be necessary.
The word on wine
Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom in Napa Valley. In the world according to wine, the outlook is promising, when talks turn to the 2012 vintage, one of the most positively buzzed about topics of the year. In the Napa Valley Register ’s annual harvest report, Lee Hudson of Hudson Vineyards dubbed 2012, “The vintage of the century!” Paul Smith of Vermeil Wines waxed on about the weather, “Close to perfect as any old-timer can recall.”
Big biz
In unrelated wine biz, the Napa Valley Vintners continue the fight for preservation of our namesake on wine bottles abroad. In October, after nearly a decade of lobbying, the organization got what it was bargaining for when the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine declared a “geographic indication status” for Napa Valley. The decision is one measure to ensure our name only be used on wines that are actually from the valley, as opposed to arbitrary slap-ons for goods that have no connection to the region. The measure is timely given the growth prediction listed on the China Wine Information website that declares: “The estimated value of China’s wine market is expected to exceed $15 billion in 2013.” With a whopping wine base like that, it’s good that the battle lines have already been drawn.
