Newsom contrasts California state parks system with Trump policies in national parks
Students, teachers and tourists visit Fort Ross State Historic Park on the Sonoma County Coast on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Visitors looking to learn about California history on a budget will be given free admission to more than 30 state historical parks through the rest of this year, including Sutter’s Mill where the Gold Rush began in 1848, Fort Ross on the rugged Sonoma Coast, the Bodie ghost town near Mono Lake and San Juan Bautista State Historic Park in San Benito County.
The announcement Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom is intended to boost interest in California’s historical sites to commemorate America’s 250th birthday on July 4 and to highlight Juneteenth — the federal holiday every June 19 that was established in 2021 to mark the end of slavery. Under the new program, anyone can download a state parks “Historian Passport,” which normally costs $50 a year, for free, starting on Friday and continuing until July 6.
The passport can be used for free admission for up to four people to theThere are 380 state parks altogether, ranging from the towering redwoods at Big Basin in the Santa Cruz Mountains to the “Baywatch” beaches of Southern California and the scenic shorelines of Lake Tahoe. Nor does the offer include every historic site in California’s vast state parks system.
Some locations like Hearst Castle in San Luis Obispo County and Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, which are run largely through contracts with private concession companies, are not offering free admission.
“California doesn’t hide from hard truths and uncomfortable history – in fact, we embrace it and learn from it,” Newsom said. “While Trump ignores and tries to rewrite the past, California is marking these celebrations of freedom by inviting everyone to learn our country’s history – our real history – for free in our state parks.
”It ordered the removal of materials from national parks and museums that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. ” In the months after, Trump administration officials removed hundreds of references, images and exhibits at national parks that referenced civil rights, slavery, the mistreatment of Indian tribes and climate change.
Among them are signs explaining climate change at Glacier National Park in Montana, where rising temperatures are melting the park’s glaciers; exhibits at the Grand Canyon detailing abuses to Indian tribes as the West was settled; and an exhibit about the lives of slaves at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park. After environmental groups sued, however, a federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore the materials.
“History cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of our nation’s story,” U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Massachusetts wrote. Newsom also highlighted several other controversial Trump decisions Wednesday.
Those included his decision to replacing free admission to national parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth with free admission on Trump’s own birthday; layoffs to national parks workers under Elon Musk’s “DOGE” program cuts last year; and Trump’s decision to put his own face on national park passes, instead of scenes of wildlife and scenic national park landscapes, as a 2004 federal law required. Trump also created a new fee structure at national parks, charging people who aren’t U.S. residents $100 in addition to their entry fees when they visit many of America’s most famous national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Everglades and Sequoia Kings Canyon.
“Governor Newsom’s latest attempt to distract from California’s homelessness crisis in state parks and failing schools, where fewer than one in three students are proficient in reading, isn’t fooling anyone,” said Matthew Middleton, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Interior. “As America approaches our 250th anniversary, the Trump administration is committed to celebrating the full story of our nation, not erasing or rewriting it.
”“Free admission to a state park is nice,” said George Andrews, a spokesman for the Republican Assembly Caucus in the state Legislature.
“Making California affordable would be better. ”“Trump is just trashing our national park system at every level — from who is admitted to them, to cutting funding and staff to turning them into political platforms,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to remove Trump’s photo from the national park pass.
“It’s horrific. The national parks are the one thing that rises above politics. Everybody loves them. It’s where you go to get away from all the politics.
But Trump has tried to turn the ultimate unifying force into America into a divisive linchpin. It’s disgusting. ” Newsom has a mixed record on state parks. Although he has funded programs to allow people to check out free state parks passes at libraries, and he recently established three new state parks in the Central Valley, until 2024 when he established Dos Rios State Park near Modesto, California had not added any new state parks since 2009.
Environmental groups also have noted the state parks budget has been flat and billions of dollars in deferred maintenance has accrued.
“California has such a rich history,” said Rachel Norton, executive director of the California State Parks Foundation, a non-profit group that contributed $20,000 to help fund the free pass program. “There are so many chapters you don’t necessarily learn in school. Every Californian should know all the chapters of our history. There are so many great places that celebrate the contributions of so many folks.
”“This is an opportunity to tell the truth about history,” he said.
“State parks has done a good job. National parks are struggling. The budget cuts, the decree by Trump to only say positive things about American history. You aren’t telling the truth about history unless you tell all sides. ”
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