MADERA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — Governor Newsom toured Sycamore Island in Madera County on Wednesday, which is part of one of California’s next state parks.<\/p>\n
“We’re celebrating a sense of belonging,” Governor Newsom said.<\/p>\n
This Earth Day, the state park system is set to add Dust Bowl Camp in Kern County and Feather River Park in Yuba County, along with the Parkway on the Madera-Fresno County line.<\/p>\n
“We were, frankly, dealing with the existing space and deferred maintenance, and this constant dialectic that fact that we shouldn’t be focused on expansion,” Newsom said. “‘We gotta, actually, clean up what we’ve got,’ and we were stuck on that for decades and decades and decades.”<\/p>\n
It is the biggest park expansion in years.<\/p>\n
“Governor, there have been financial cuts to the park system over the years, proposed cuts, as well. How do you fund this expansion?” Action News asked.<\/p>\n
“This is funded through existing resources and then the ongoing efforts to continue to get more philanthropic support,” Newsom said.<\/p>\n
The Natural Resources secretary later explained that the new parks will not cost the state anything up front.<\/p>\n
“They’re held by entities that are willing to transfer [them] to state parks,” Sec. Wade Crowfoot said. “Over time, obviously, the staffing, etc., will figure into the broad statewide budget.”<\/p>\n
Leaders at the San Joaquin River Conservancy are eager to transfer the land and say they will start the process on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“It could be a state park within the next two years,” Conservancy CEO Kari Daniska told Action News.<\/p>\n
Governor Newsom hopes the new state park can be an outlet for Valley families.<\/p>\n
“It’s about taking a deep breath, and it’s about just letting so much of this go,” he said.<\/p>\n
Officials will soon host public meetings to determine what features the new parks could have.<\/p>\n
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