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Staff Report –
The great Golden State of California marked Earth Day on Wednesday by announcing a plan to open three new state parks and expand several others, a move officials say represents the largest growth of the state parks system in decades.
The proposed parks are Feather River in Yuba County, San Joaquin River Parkway near Fresno and Dust Bowl Camp in Bakersfield.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced the plan Wednesday along the banks of the San Joaquin River. If approved, the additions would bring California’s total number of state parks to 283, the most of any state.
The new Feather River park would be the first in Yuba County, covering nearly 2,000 acres and equipped for rafting and swimming, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Near Fresno, the planned 874-acre San Joaquin River Parkway park would incorporate part of the San Joaquin River Conservancy’s 22-mile parkway in Fresno and Madera counties.
In Kern County, the proposed Dust Bowl Camp State Historic Park would preserve the Sunset Migratory Labor Camp, which state officials say inspired John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath.”
State officials also announced expansions at three existing parks in Mendocino, Nevada and San Mateo counties.
Unlike national parks such as Yosemite, which are managed by the federal government, California’s state parks are overseen by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
The system includes well-known destinations such as Malibu Creek State Park, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
California has added only one new state park in the past decade: Dos Rios State Park, near Modesto, according to reporting from the L.A. Times.