California adds parks
- California announced plans for three new state parks and expansions, its biggest parks growth in decades. - The proposed sites are Feather River in Yuba County, San Joaquin River Parkway near Fresno, and Dust Bowl. - If approved, the additions would bring California's total to 283 parks, more than any other state. (ktla.com)(latimes.com)
California is moving to add three new state parks in the Central Valley, the biggest expansion of its park system in decades. (gov.ca.gov) Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the plan on Earth Day, April 22, in Fresno as part of a program called State Parks Forward. If the plan is approved, California’s total would rise to 283 state parks. (gov.ca.gov) The proposed parks are Feather River Park in Olivehurst in Yuba County, San Joaquin River Parkway in Fresno and Madera counties, and Dust Bowl Camp near Bakersfield in Kern County. State officials said the new sites are aimed at Central Valley communities with less access to parks. (gov.ca.gov) The park push also includes a goal of adding 30,000 acres to existing state parks by the end of the decade. The administration said that work is being sped up by Senate Bill 630 and Assembly Bill 679, two 2025 laws Newsom signed last year. (parks.ca.gov) Feather River Park would give Yuba County its first state park. Local coverage and state summaries describe the site as roughly 2,000 acres of floodplain and riverfront land in Olivehurst. (sacbee.com) (politicopro.com) San Joaquin River Parkway would convert 874 acres near Millerton Lake State Recreation Area into a state park unit. The land is already owned by the San Joaquin River Conservancy, a state agency created by the Legislature to assemble a 5,900-acre parkway along the river. (yourcentralvalley.com) (sjrc.ca.gov) Dust Bowl Camp would preserve a migrant labor camp from the 1930s outside Bakersfield. The site, also known as Weedpatch Camp or the Arvin Farm Labor Supply Center, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and helped inspire John Steinbeck’s *The Grapes of Wrath*. (nps.gov) (fox10phoenix.com) California added Dos Rios in 2024 as its first new state park in a decade, and Newsom tied this week’s announcement to that opening. He unveiled the new plan exactly two years after dedicating Dos Rios, another Central Valley park built around river habitat and public access. (parks.ca.gov 1) (parks.ca.gov 2) Two of the three proposed parks are already open in some form and all three are publicly owned, which could lower acquisition costs and shorten the timeline for transfer into the state system. State officials have not yet given opening dates for the new park designations. (politicopro.com) (fox10phoenix.com) The next step is turning the announcement into formal park units, land transfers, and expansions under State Parks Forward. If that happens, California will extend its park map deeper into the Central Valley, not just along the coast and Sierra. (gov.ca.gov)
