California State Parks has announced that they will be closing about a quarter of state parks due to budget cuts. Service reductions are scheduled to begin in September with full closures coming next July.

“We regret closing any park,” Ruth Coleman, director of California State Parks said in a statement, “but with the proposed budget reductions over the next two years, we can no longer afford to operate all parks within the system.”

California Governor Jerry Brown had asked the department in March to cut $11 million from the 2011/12 fiscal year and another $22 million from the 2012/13 fiscal year.

He also wanted officials to come up with a list of parks to close. State Parks officials said they had three primary goals for developing the closure list: protecting the most significant natural and cultural resources, maintaining public access and revenue generation to the greatest extent possible and protecting closed parks so that they remain attractive and usable for potential partners.

Among the list are several popular destinations in the Bay Area, including Candlestick Point, Henry W. Coe and Tomales Bay State Park.

Click here for an entire list of the state parks that are closing.

Photo Credit: Scott Burley, via Wikimedia Commons

• Tag: budget cuts, Closures, deficit, State Parks