Nature’s beauty is breathtaking, inspiring, and thought provoking, whether it’s a rugged mountain range, a luscious valley, a roaring river, or the expansive ocean.There’s something so amazing about this awe inspiring quality that most words fail in the attempt to describe it.

“I feel like I should take a picture of this,” comments Bindu Sidhu (10), a student at Anderson High School, about the towing walls of granite that enclose the valley of Yosemite National Park. “But it would degrade the beauty of [the view].”

Parks such as Yosemite are funded by federal and state governments to preserve this amazing beauty and allow it to be shared with the community, with the preservation of the area’s beauty or historical value as top priority. However, in the midst of financial and economic crisis, all departments face budget cuts and reductions.Not as immediate of a problem for national parks, it is the state parks that are suffering right now.

Concern began to rise last May when California legislature’s budget cuts threatened closure for almost 220 parks. During this time, it was rumored that two parks on the parks department’s list for possible closure included McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial and Castle Crags state parks.

In the fall of last year, budget cuts were placed on several state parks all over California, from Huntington Beach in Orange County and the California State Capitol Museum, to closer parks, such as the Humboldt Redwoods and the Joss House in Weaverville. Examples of service reductions, supposedly in place from November of 2009 extending to June of 2010 (in some cases), include reduced seasons, cleaning, and school programs.

“My experience [in Yosemite] was amazing,” adds Isaiah Bolls (11) from Enterprise High School. “I would hate for kids to miss out on a trip like mine because of a lack of money.”