Arizona State Park camping fees

toedtoes wrote:
CA State Parks does not protect the water table - it's not part of their function. They also do not protect the ecosystem of California as a whole. Their function is to protect the natural and cultural resources that fall under their jurisdiction.

Unfortunately, the full California ecosystem is not protected nor supported by anything other than politicians.

CA State Parks DOES keep the fees that are paid for camping and day use. They are not enough to support the parks. Heck, even the failed "license fees" wouldn't have been enough to fully support the parks without general funding - but if it had passed, the politicians would have taken away the general funding AND the voters would have failed any future bond issue that would provide funding for CA State Parks. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with those, but before claiming X will solve all of CA State Parks' funding, it is best to verify that BEFORE telling public it will do so.

It is the responsibility of everyone in the state (in fact in the country) to protect its natural resources ... NO one area of funding or protection will do that, each component does its part (or should) and when one component falls down on that responsibility, another either picks up the slack and stretches itself thinner, or that resource begins deteriorating.

There is no "going back" -- we all need to accept our individual responsibilities as citizens and as campers to reach out and assist in this effort. It's more the responsibility of the campers to keep the parks up and running properly, and to keep revenue from the parks in the parks system to do it.

It is the responsibility for the states and feds to protect all wilderness and watershed areas or we lose it (that means everyone in the country, not one component of one area). We cannot put the responsibility of the entire Sierra ecosystem on the backs of the campground revenues ...