Trione-Annadel State Park threatened by its own popularity

Toraj Soltani hammered on the pedals of his mountain bike as he powered up a steep fire road in Trione-Annadel State Park. He and two buddies had hooked up after work on a Friday evening in May to ride the forested open space before nightfall, a lung-busting journey that would take them from Santa Rosa to Kenwood and back.

Soltani, 51, a lifelong Santa Rosa resident, grew up exploring the trails in Annadel. It was to be a housing development, but Sonoma County financier and philanthropist Henry Trione stepped in with more than $1 million of his own money in 1969 to complete a $5 million purchase that handed the property over to the state. When Annadel was slated to close in 2012 amid state parks’ fiscal crisis, Trione ponied up $100,000 to help keep it open under county administration.

Last week, the California State Park and Recreation Commission honored Trione’s legacy by voting to change the park’s name to Trione-Annadel State Park.

The park remains an urban gem, beloved by trail runners, mountain bikers and equestrians. Soltani, the owner of Mac’s Deli in downtown Santa Rosa and a well-known local cyclist, paused briefly on his ride to share his memories of hiking at Annadel with his mother. Several years ago, Soltani and his wife bought a home near Annadel so the family could have easy access to the park.

“It’s so woven into our lifestyle,” he said. “We hold it very dear.”

But Annadel also serves as a prime example of the pressures and failures besetting the state parks system. It suffers from its own popularity, attracting an estimated 120,000 visitors annually. On weekends, it is not unusual to see horse riders, cyclists and others on foot squeezing onto the same paths. Many of those trails are in dire need of maintenance, with erosion from wear and tear and weather taking a clear toll over the years. At the same time, a widening number of trails are unsanctioned, carved out mostly by renegade bikers exploring terrain that established paths skirt. Homeless encampments also have sprouted in some areas of the park.

Volunteer patrols fan out on horseback and bikes on weekends to monitor use, but the sight of a ranger is exceptionally rare. Soltani, who typically rides in Annadel several times a week, said he hardly ever sees a ranger in the park. Two are assigned to Annadel, with only one on duty at a time to handle administrative and interpretation roles while also patrolling the 5,000-acre area.

“I think it’s like that around the department, where each person is probably doing the job of three or four people,” said Neill Fogarty, the supervising park ranger for Annadel.

Around 2008 there were 12 rangers assigned to the sector encompassing Annadel and four other parks in central and southern Sonoma County and Napa, Fogarty said. Now there are six, with only three specifically assigned to patrol duties. Rangers are no longer staffed at Jack London or Sugarloaf state parks because of the operating agreements with nonprofits, which rely on volunteers or local police to handle public safety emergencies.

Fogarty said protecting the park’s sensitive landscape while meeting the public’s demand to play at Annadel is a difficult balancing act.

“A lot of people want to get out and have fun and use it today, and in some cases, there’s not a lot of thought about what Annadel will be 100 years from now, and whether it will be crisscrossed with illegal trails,” he said.

The park faces chronic budget challenges, stemming in part from the state’s inability to capture revenue from park users. Most visitors park outside the official Channel Drive entrance and walk or bike in to avoid paying the $7 day-use fee. Others set out from neighborhood entrances or from adjacent Spring Lake Regional Park, overseen by the county.

Visitors to Annadel are supposed to pay using a self-pay station commonly known as an iron ranger. Fogarty said an automated machine that will allow visitors to pay using credit or debit cards is on order.

“I joke with people who come in that soon we’re going to enter the 1980s and give people more options to pay. For now, it’s cash and check,” Fogarty said.

On the Friday night Soltani and his friends were out for a ride, the informal gravel lots on Channel Drive were nearly filled with vehicles. In the sanctioned lot, past the self-pay station, a single car was parked. It belonged to Will and Amanda Rien, a young Texas couple who’ve made Annadel a frequent hiking destination since moving to Santa Rosa a little more than a year ago.

Will Rien, a contract online retail worker, said the fee to use Annadel is not an insignificant amount to pay given the couple’s modest income. He said they do so out of a sense of moral obligation, and because it’s cheaper than a gym membership.

“I paid state taxes this year for the first time in my life. We don’t have those in Texas,” he said. “It makes me feel better to pay knowing that some of that money is going to state parks.”

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.