From today’s New York Times, a story on the sad condition of state parks – drastically cut budgets, growing dependence on entrance fees and “marketing,” shrinking staff, maintenance backlogs, and more.
On proposed shale gas drilling in Ohio parks:
“I don’t want to see the parks become refineries or anything like that,” said Paul Wolf, president of Friends for the Preservation of Ohio State Parks. “But it’s a tough decision to make. If parks deteriorate, what good is keeping drilling out of the parks?”
And from the immediate past president of the National Association of Recreation Resource Planners:
But, Mr. Just said, a basic pact between parks and the public — the idea that parks will be easily accessible and affordable, and safeguarded by the state — is at risk. He recalled a new board member of the association asking, “In what way are they state parks anymore?”
What would those 19th and early 20th century visionaries think of our stewardship efforts? And guess what we did during the only prior economic crisis of the magnitude of the current one (i.e., during the Great Depression). We built parks – many hundreds of them – with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Shame on the Feds for allowing the states to gut the parks now.
Praxis in Landscape Architecture 
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