California Department of
Parks and Recreation
Text by Grey Hayes

Parks owns around sixteen percent of Santa Cruz County, but is unable to adequately plan for or manage the natural resources entrusted to them. A partial list of especially egregious problems includes:

• purposeful mis-mapping of endangered species in order to obtain permits for developing a parking lot at Gray Whale Ranch

• inviting uncontrolled access and damage to the sensitive wildlife of Gray Whale Ranch’s cave complex

• ignoring, for 20 years, the requirement to restore grasslands in Wilder Ranch State Park’s General Plan

• polluting clean water by neglecting trails that have eroded tons of soil into local streams

• grossly neglecting State environmental planning laws in order to perpetuate and increase inappropriate and damaging human use of sensitive wildlife habitats. The Gray Whale Ranch environmental documents have been some of the most cursory and flawed ever seen by professional reviewers; current plans for Castle Rock, Nisene Marks, and Big Basin appear to be heading in a similar direction.