COURSEY: Users can help keep parks open

<p>It's not easy to close a park.</p><p>That obvious statement became even more obvious this week when state parks officials announced they will “re-open” Sugarloaf Ridge State Park on a limited basis.</p><p>The reason, essentially, is that closing the 4,000-acre park turned out to be harder than anyone imagined. Even though the gates were locked in early December, people continued to go there.</p><p>Imagine that.</p><p>Unable to drive their cars into the park, visitors for the past couple of months have been parking on the shoulders of Adobe Canyon Road just outside the park gates. This creates congestion on the narrow road, raising safety issues. It also represents lost revenue, given that every one of those cars parked outside the gates would be charged $8 to park inside.</p><p>So the park will be re-opened for day use beginning Friday. Consider this a small victory in the effort to prevent the planned closure of 67 state parks by July 1.</p><p>But while the news about Sugarloaf is welcome, it raises a question I've wondered about for years about another local park.</p><p>Why do we encourage visitors to freeload at Annadel State Park?</p><p>Like Sugarloaf and other state parks, Annadel has revenue problems. Even so, its managers pass up hundreds or even thousands of dollars a day in parking fees by allowing free parking on Channel Drive just outside of the park. </p><p>I understand that the state Parks Department doesn't control this road. But has it ever asked city or county officials to create a pay-parking zone or a no-parking zone so the dozens and dozens of hikers and bikers who leave their cars there each day might contribute to the upkeep of the park they are using?</p><p>The same situation exists at Shiloh Ranch Regional Park near Windsor. It's a county park, and not threatened with closure, but still you have to wonder why visitors are tacitly encouraged to leave their cars for free on the shoulder of Faught Road instead of paying the fee to use the park's parking lot.</p><p>If nothing else, it might be worthwhile to stick a flier under the windshield wipers of all of those cars letting their owners know how easy it is to buy an annual pass for entry into state or county parks, and how the money generated by those passes can help keep their parks open.</p><p>Paying an entry fee sure beats finding a locked gate.</p><p><i>Chris Coursey's blog offers a community commentary and forum, from issues of the day to the ingredients of life in Sonoma County.</i></p>