Modesto Bee Logo

Our View: Find a parks director worthy of California’s grandeur | Modesto Bee

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Buy Photos
    • Submit a Photo
    • Search Archives

    • News
    • Politics
    • Local News
    • Crime
    • Bee Investigator
    • Education
    • Turlock
    • Oakdale
    • California News
    • Nation & World
    • Scott Peterson Case
    • Local Sports
    • Sports
    • High School
    • High School Football
    • High School Athletes
    • College
    • Outdoors
    • Camps, clinics listings
    • Pro Sports
    • NFL
    • MLB
    • Giants
    • A's
    • 49ers
    • Raiders
    • NBA
    • Politics
    • The California Influencer Series
    • Business
    • Biz Beat
    • Agriculture
    • Employment News
    • Real Estate
    • Living
    • Celebrations
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Pets
    • Travel
    • Worship Directory
    • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV News
    • Contests
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Horoscopes
    • Modesto Bee Rewards
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Influencers Opinion
    • National Issues
    • State Issues
    • Submit a Letter
    • Mike Dunbar
    • Community Voices
    • Obituaries
    • View Obituaries
    • Place Obituary Ad

    • dealsaver
    • Classifieds
    • Place Classified Ad
    • Pets
    • Garage Sales
    • Real Estate
    • Apartment and Rentals
    • Jobs
    • RVs/Motorhomes
    • Merchandise
    • Service Directory
    • Place an Ad
    • Place Celebration
    • Place Obituary Ad
    • Place Classified Ad
    • Place Legal Ad
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • See Legal Notices
  • Mobile & Apps

Editorials

Our View: Find a parks director worthy of California’s grandeur

    ORDER REPRINT →

July 14, 2014 05:13 PM

Some of the most majestic, awe-inspiring and unique vistas nature has to offer have been enshrined as California state parks. Millions of people love them, visit them and want to protect them.

So why has Gov. Jerry Brown had such a difficult time finding the right Parks and Recreation director? There have been two acting directors and one who served only 18 months before abruptly departing. Parks have been essentially in receivership for two years, after budget cuts and revelations that departmental managers had squirreled away $20 million even as park officials threatened shutdowns due to budget cuts.

Our parks department deserves long-term leadership and 21st-century vision, focused on public enjoyment and preservation of the state’s natural resources, history and beauty.

Lisa Mangat was named the acting director of Parks and Recreation by Natural Resources Secretary John Laird earlier this month. She is a good choice, for now. Mangat comes from a finance background, and her first task will be to make certain the department’s financial house in order. The importance of this can’t be overstated.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Modesto Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

While Mangat has the skills to do that, we worry that Brown and Laird are only vaguely interested in our parks. The department has emphasized its public safety duties over any kind of recreational role. Rangers carry guns and are sworn peace officers. Natural resource management, interpretation and facilities have become secondary. There is a culture of risk aversion.

California deserves a parks director who will welcome younger, more diverse visitors, and inspire the next generation of stewards who might not yet have a relationship with the outdoors. We need bikers, hikers, boaters, photographers, campers, kayakers, recreational vehicle travelers and climbers to flock to our parks. We want to see people not just visiting, but enjoying themselves. Our parks need a modern thinker who can combine digital marketing savvy with the need to set aside all the digital toys and go native.

The state needs someone who grasps that parks compete with other attractions. They need to understand that it’s not just about managing lands and buildings, but bringing people to parks and, when needed, bringing our parks to people.

The director should end the obsolete policy that requires that park superintendents be law enforcement officers, eliminating people who have science or historical backgrounds. Even the National Park Service doesn’t have such a requirement. An independent commission, Parks Forward, was the latest to recommend opening leadership roles to far more diverse candidates.

Finally, we must revisit the issue of developing more parks for the Valley. Perhaps the surest indicator of the state’s disinterest in providing recreational opportunities for Valley residents is Henry W. Coe State Park, which has 87,000 acres of wilderness trails, wild vistas, fishing and camping. Although a quarter or more of this park is in Stanislaus County, you have to drive into Santa Clara County to enter. Our parks are smaller and have fewer amenities, and fewer recreational opportunities. The next director ought to help remedy that gap.

Our parks are amazing. How about a parks director who invites us all to come be amazed?

  Comments  

Videos

Watch highlights of Bella Vista’s win over Central Valley in CIF-SJS Div. II Championship

Watch as Modesto police serve search warrants in homicide investigation

View More Video

Trending Stories

Update: Lockdown lifted at Modesto schools as police serve search warrant

February 21, 2019 10:06 AM

Suspect in bar shooting said he acted in self-defense: ‘The whole thing was provoked’

February 21, 2019 05:10 PM

An unsettling sight: Someone strung dead coyotes along a fence near Oakdale

February 20, 2019 12:04 PM

See the 2 big names booked for new Modesto amphitheater as it readies full 2019 season

February 20, 2019 03:57 PM

Ceres SWAT team rolls to west Modesto, arrests suspect in October gun disturbance

February 20, 2019 07:52 PM

Read Next

Your data is worth billions. Can Newsom make tech giants pay us for it?

Editorials

Your data is worth billions. Can Newsom make tech giants pay us for it?

By The Modesto Bee Editorial Board

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 16, 2019 09:02 AM

Tech giants like Google and Facebook are making billions off the data we give them for free. Governor believes we deserve a piece of the action.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Modesto Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE EDITORIALS

We still believe high-speed rail will carry us into the future

Editorials

We still believe high-speed rail will carry us into the future

February 14, 2019 04:08 PM
Governor’s vision includes fish, farming

Editorials

Governor’s vision includes fish, farming

February 12, 2019 05:06 PM
On this stage, Trump not the only attraction

Editorials

On this stage, Trump not the only attraction

February 06, 2019 03:47 PM

Opinion

To solve California’s housing crisis, the state and cities must aim for the same goal

February 01, 2019 09:46 AM
We’ll have a Venti and budget bagel

Editorials

We’ll have a Venti and budget bagel

January 29, 2019 01:34 PM
We can do better by owning our own power

Editorials

We can do better by owning our own power

January 19, 2019 08:55 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Modesto Bee App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
Advertising
  • Advertising Information
  • Place Obituary or Celebration
  • Place Classified, Legal
  • Local Deals
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story