Popular recreation area finds future in doubt

North of Sacramento lies Placer County, home to one of the state's most popular recreation areas--the Auburn State Recreation Area. An area once infested with gold miners, when the gold rush calmed down, the next big rush was for electric power. In the mid-1960's, Uncle Sam's Bureau of Reclamation claimed some 35,000 acres along the North and Middle Forks of the American River.

The dam never got going, but the land was still in the hands of the government--and recreationists have found it to be a veritable natural playground, with an estimated 900,000 coming to play there each year. Since 1977, California State Parks has managed the recreational aspects of the land--but a big problem now looms: The Bureau of Reclamation, which shunts money to California says they can't afford to slice off over a million dollars a year, so they announced that they'd only fund the process until September.

A hue and cry rose up from the recreational masses. The Reclamationists backpedaled--a little. For the finance year ending this September, the Bureau has handed over $1.4 million; they say they can pay $1.1 million for one more year of operation, but say they won't do any planning with the state on park management, saying it isn't prudent in light of the lack of available funding--and too, the Bureau would simply like to get out of the business.

The whole matter leaves lovers of the Auburn SRA in a quandary. If the feds bow out, and the state park system is already in a financial shambles, who is left to manage the resource, and care for recreational needs? Some point to the the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as a potential caretaker. But BLM officials say they're hard pressed enough already, caring for their already allocated holdings, and taking on the Auburn project is more than they can hack.

State Park's officials have already raised user rates in an attempt to keep the SRA a going concern; nevertheless, the increased income has fallen short of the needs. Now the dreaded words, "seasonal closures," are more and more batted around. Just who will step up to the plate remains a bureaucratic mystery.

photo: California State Parks