Sacramento County's regional parks system remains adrift. Malicious and violent behavior is going unchecked as the presence of county rangers in the parks diminishes.
The county's newly named interim chief ranger, Stan Lumsden, told The Bee's Sam Stanton that car break-ins, vandalism or dogs running off-leash are the "norm" throughout the regional parks system. The public should be outraged by this.
In the lower part of the American River Parkway, however, more serious crime is moving in.
One man reported being jumped by a group of teens in July who pushed him off his bike, put a gun to his head, pistol-whipped him, and kicked him in the upper torso and the head.
Current ranger levels provide little deterrent effect.
In 2008-2009, the county had 25 full-time park rangers. They were able to combine preventive law enforcement, resource management and interpretive duties.
Today, with eight rangers and the interim chief ranger (with two vacancies soon to be filled), the regional parks system is not regularly patrolled. Illegal camping has grown as the county eliminated two park rangers assigned to that problem.
Rangers do very little in the way of resource protection. And natural history talks? Don't even think about it.
Rangers increasingly are unable to attend to minor violations that diminish the park experience for visitors – dogs off-leash, tree cutting, litter, graffiti, defacing signage and interpretive panels, destruction of restrooms, fights and assaults, public drunkenness, car burglaries, illegal dumping (sofas, beds, refrigerators), motorized vehicles in restricted areas, unlicensed fishing, illegal hunting, marijuana gardens.
A Dec. 29 report of the Public Safety & Resource Protection Task Force, formed last year by the Grassroots Working Group, warned that this kind of activity is "increasing in severity" and "will lead to further problems if not controlled."
The task force report – written by Matt Powers, former deputy chief of operations in the Sacramento Police Department, Dave Lydick, former deputy director of the Sacramento County Regional Parks Department, John Havicon, park ranger supervisor, and Kathleen Utley, park ranger supervisor – states that a full-time staff of 18 rangers would provide "only a minimal level of public safety and little or no resource protection."
Current staffing is well below that. Nor is there much hope that the county will soon pursue the task force recommendation of restoring service to the 2008-2009 level of 25 full-time rangers.
County supervisors need to address the park public safety and resource protection issue before things spiral out of control. Since they shelved the recommendations of the year-long Grassroots Working Group, supervisors need to come up with their own proposal for ensuring "adequate, stable, long-term funding" for parks. Sacramento city needs to join in this effort, since the city has a stake and a role in ensuring the safety of the lower part of the parkway.
Residents of the region deserve better. They should demand that the county and city act as responsible stewards of the park system we've all inherited.
Read more online
The task force report is available at: www.sarariverwatch.org/
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