Letter of the Day: Paying for parks

Paying for parks

EDITOR: With the heroic efforts of local volunteers, Annadel State Park will remain open for one more year. But then what?

The root problem is that the vast majority of park users don't pay one dime toward maintenance of the park. There are at least 11 uncontrolled gates inviting users to enter without paying the required admittance fees. Ergo, Annadel gets short shrift from the state because the official records show that nobody is using the park. Practically every other park in the state requires that users pay a fee at the entrance.

The solution is to close off all the uncontrolled entry points and require users to pay their fair share upon entry into the park as users everywhere else do.

I recently visited Bodie State Historic Park, probably the most remote park in California, requiring travel on three miles of gravel road, yet everyone who visited that historic site paid the required entrance fee because there is only one manned gate.

GERALD DION

Santa Rosa