Parks California 2022 Annual Report

Welcome to a year spent taking root...

A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO AND CHAIR

As we embark on our fourth year, we are proud to present a look at the progress we are making each day to live our values and advance our mission Not only does our 2022 Annual Report capture the incredible work we accomplished together, it gives us an opportunity to invite you along in our shared journey one that envisions a thriving network of parks and public lands where everyone is able to create lasting relationships to these essential places that rely on us for protection Thanks to our partners at California State Parks and the robust ecosystem of non-profit organizations, donors and individuals dedicated to serving the people and communities connected to these treasured parks, the seeds we planted are taking root.

Parks California exists because we believe parks are for people, and people are for parks. At our heart, we see this interconnection between communities and nature as the future of state parks. Our team is forging intrinsic bonds between parks and people in order to foster lifelong stewardship, establish meaningful solutions to climate change, and build equitable park access and experiences for all.

California is home to the largest and most diverse state park system in the world, and we are honored to help a generation of caretakers who are preserving its extraordinary biological and wildlife diversity, and protecting its unique cultural resources, artifacts, and histories. As we help more people enjoy the wonders of nature and establish personal ties to these lands, we uncover new voices and lived truths that only strengthen the importance of parks.

We can’t do this work alone Future-proofing California’s parks for 40 million residents and millions of annual visitors is dependent on establishing trusted partnerships. Over the past three years, we have seen a significant expansion of requests to collaborate from California State Parks and community organizations statewide. Notably, as we make progress, we are finding more opportunity to scale.

To guide our priorities over the next three years, we are pleased to share our latest board-approved strategic plan It articulates the next phase of our role as implementation partner of California State Parks’ most pressing needs, our joint priorities It affirms who we are And it outlines how we will advance the groundwork laid by Parks Forward to not only keep parks open, but to help them thrive by adding expertise, capacity, and resources to the state park system

The impact we are making is only possible because of you We are profoundly grateful to the teams who made these achievements a reality, to our funders and sustainers who share our vision, and to everyone who visited a park this year You are the reason the seeds we planted are taking root

Kindley Walsh Lawlor Steve Lockhart

President and CEO, Parks California Board Chair, Parks California

As California State Parks’ statutory non-profit partner, to help strengthen parks and inspire all people to experience these extraordinary places.

we have a clear mission

ThediverseandculturallyintricatelandscapesofCaliforniaarewhat makethisplacetrulyunique Fromthetoweringforeststothesundrencheddeserts,andfromtherollinghillstotheruggedcoastlines, eachlandscapeisamosaicofbiodiversityandculturalheritage.Itis ourresponsibilitytocareforthesetreasuresforfuturegenerations, ensuringthattheyremainaccessibleandthrivingforall.

InpartnershipwithStateParksandcommunitypartners,we're bringinginnovativeopportunitiesandthoughtleadershiptobearin providingsustainablefunding,partnership,andimpact-at-scalefor California'streasuredandstoriedlandscapes. We'll continuetorootoureffortsinstrengthening stateparksforallpeopleintothefuture.

$950k

$1.2m raised for California parks granted to nonprofit partners

30+ community organization partners

Accomplishments

In2022,ourthirdyearofoperations,wefocusedonrooting our mission on behalf of the people and places that we serve Welistenedtoandcollaboratedwithpartnersacross California to be conduits of communication, access and partnershipwithparks.AstheCaliforniaStateParks'official non-profit partner, with established joint priorities, we worked with community organizations and partners to develop solutions that welcome and provide relevant experiencestoallstateparkvisitors.Wealsoworkedclosely with California’s State Parks’ Natural Resources Division to identify where partnership and innovation can advance parks capacity to scale up stewardship in addressing a changingclimate

“ParksCaliforniaisuniquelypositionedtoworkcloselyin innovativewayswiththeCaliforniaDepartmentofParksand Recreation.Theprogramdevelopmentandrelationalsupport providedthroughthisspecialpublic-privatepartnershipiscritical totheevolutionintheprotectionofculturalandnaturalresources, andtherecreationalprogramsthatsupportahealthyCalifornia. Together,withParksCalifornia,we’reelevatingtherichstoriesof California'slandscapesanditspeoples,andworkingtomakevital connectionsbetweenecosystems,communitiesandparks.We'reso excitedtoseehowtheorganizationhastakenrootinthepastthree years,andareexcitedtostrengthenourrelationshipasthey continuetogrow.“

ArmandoQuintero

Director for the California Department of Parks and Recreation

Rooted in Landscape Stewardship & ClimateResiliency

Thelargestandmostdiversestateparksystemintheworld, California’sparkshave1.6millionacres,340milesofcoastline,970 milesoflakeandriverfrontage,and5,200milesoftrails.Stateparks includemanycriticalecosystemsthatprovideglobalsignificance farbeyondtheparkboundaries.Thousandsofspeciesrelyon thehealthofCalifornia’suniqueparklandscapesandhabitats In2022,wefocusedonthegreatestimpactsonparks: climatechangeandincreasedvisitation,andbrought togethercommunitiesandpartnerstoaccelerate andscalelandscapestewardshiptobuild towardclimateresiliency.

1.6m acres of park land

5,200 miles of trails

970 miles of lakes & river frontage

We'reworkingto addressthe challengesof increasedvisitation &climatechangeat anacceleratedpace andscale.

InnovativeTools&Trainings

We work to incubate innovative tools, systems, and approaches that enable California State Parks to steward parks offering unique nimbleness to advance new partnerships, help to prototype new ideas, and develop proof-of-conceptsforparkstointegrate

For example, in 2022 we launched a pilot project developing VisitorUseManagementToolstoequippark managers with new approaches to providing high-quality and accessible visitor experiences while protecting sensitiveresources.

Additionally, we collaboratively created Data-Driven Decision-Making Tools to get 21st century data managementapproachesintothehandsofstateparkstaff to more efficiently monitor, evaluate, and prioritize projects

340 miles of coastline

At Crystal Cove State Park, our career pathways participants were instrumental in implementing wildlife monitoring innovations, such as: utilizing game camera technologythatallowsparkscientiststobetterunderstand wildlifepopulationsandbehavior-andhowtobestcarefor them.

Landscape-ScalePartnerships

Challengesfacinglandscapesandecosystemsarenotboundbypark,municipalorstate lines, and we ’ re turning towards landscape-level stewardship so that ecosystems and communities can thrive across borders. Landscape stewardship brings together the necessarycapacity,resources,expertiseandvoicestoenhanceparklandscapes.

StewardingCalifornia’sBiodiversity ScalingSystemsforCollectiveResponse

Parks California has added capacity for state parks engagement in a landscape-scale initiative at Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County called OneTam. In 2022, we provided a grant to install, maintain, and analyze data from camera traps on state parks land so that a complete picture of landscape health across boundaries can be measured

AlsowithOneTam,wehelpedtotakeoninvasivespecies oneofthelargestthreatsto California's biodiversity. In 2022, we partnered with Golden Gate National Parks ConservancyandCaliforniaStateParkstoscaleanearlydetectionrapidresponse(EDRR) invasivespeciessurveyandtreatmentprogramtoover400practitionersacrossthestate throughatrainingprogram.

CenteringEquityinLandscapeStewardship

In 2022, we joined a network of practitioners and thought weavers from California Landscape Stewardship Network to share approaches in undertaking the complex work of centering justice, equity, and cultural responsiveness in the context of landscape stewardship That work is captured in the Mycelium Map, developed to exemplify a path towards “healing severed connections for justice & equity in landscape stewardship."

ClimateResilienceStrategies

CaringforRedwoodForests

By partnering with the Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks, we added significant capacity to develop a Forest Management Strategy that will provide a roadmap for how to manage the state park forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains in quick response to the 2020 CZU Lightning fire and continuetostewardsomeoftheworld's last remaining old growth redwoods stands.

340 miles of coastline

WithParksCalifornia’shelp,StateParksis evaluating which park resources, values, andassetsaremostvulnerabletoclimate change impacts and identifying the resources necessary to address them. Through our Climate Fellowship, we are working with state parks to build tools, templates,andintegratedsciencetohelp make the most climate-informed decisions to address today and tomorrow’s threats of sea level rise, catastrophic wildfire, flooding, and extremeheat.

Parks California's first Climate Fellow

"This fellowship helped me to think deeply about climate policy and program implementation."

Ryan Swanson

Rooted in Equity & Access

Everyone deserves to experience nature and to feel a connection to place.

In 2022, Parks California deepened our roots by strengthening our commitment to ensuring access to parks, expanding opportunities in rural and urban parks, and working to facilitate people-to-park connections that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible

Physical, mental & emotional health as well as the health of our communities all improve drastically when we can access and interact with natural ecosystems and can feel a sense of belonging within our environment.

We believe that a connection to nature is fundamental to our wellbeing.

Connecting People to Parks

To help close nature-equity gaps, we ’ re working to connect people to nature and connect communities to parks by identifying and addressing barriers that have kept many from experiencing firsthand our treasured natural and cultural resources

Route To Parks

Through our Route to Parks program we are supporting a growing community of organizations focused on bringing people without easy access to nature and to parks with a thoughtful approach to helping them build a life-long connection. mpleted the third year of grants totalling nearly $1M distributed communities statewide, with 40 organizations making up this unity of impact. In an evaluation, nearly 90% of participating zations felt closer to, and more likely to engage with California’s e program.

passPORTS—Reimagining the School Field Trip

The passPORTS program, an innovative blend of online learning and field trips to state parks, started as a pilot in 2020 in 5 state parks, and grew to 10 in its second year In 2022, passPORTS expanded to 28 parks! More than 5300 students from 44 school districts participated in these enriching and educational blended experiences. Through this effort, we will continue to meet students and teachers in the classroom, and grow the program to ensure equitable and sustainable access to California’s state parks for K-12 students.

Adventure Pass Grants

Shortly after the launch of the State Parks’ Adventure Pass program which provides fourth graders and their families free admission at 19 state parks, we acted nimbly to reduce transportation barriers and expand opportunities for public participation by quickly launching a grant to accompany the program.

Building Community Through Nature

In many different ways we ’ re working to position 'parks as community hubs'. In Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, for instance, we supported the cocreation of multiple engaging community-driven events like Growing Together, and the Where’s Rodney StoryWalk. These events are helping to reestablish relationships between the park and its neighboring community members. At Candlestick, we also helped to establish a local Park Advisory Committee – a body that will inform and guide the programming offered in the park – and provided critical staffing support to steward a community co-created park sustainability model.

In addition to supporting the launch of the muchanticipated LA River Farmers Market at Los Angeles State Historic Park, we supported the park in working with community organizations to expand education and activation on Procession: a civic activation tracing the geographic and cultural memory of Los Angeles through the legacy of the Los Angeles River (Paayme Paxaayt).

We aim to increase the representation of erased layered histories and amplify the contributions and stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian and other cultural communities.

Honoring Vital Voices & Celebrating Stories

California encompasses an array of natural, historical, and culturally significant places, histories of which have largely been told through the European-settler perspective, leaving behind narratives of people who lived in and stewarded these places long before park boundaries were drawn.

Untold Stories

In 2022, we hosted a virtual “ParkSpeak” session celebrating the first tribally operated Visitor Center within the state park system. During ParkSpeak, Chairman Joseph L James of the Yurok Tribe shared the significance of indigenous stories in collaboration with California State Parks. This important effort was amplified through an NBC Open Road story.

To help integrate this ethos into practice at state parks, we supported Untold Stories Interpreter Trainings in conjunction with International Sites of Conscience at four park sites

“In a short time, Parks California has become a valued and trusted partner in our work because they recognize the importance of ensuring Native perspectives and voices are represented in shaping the future of outdoor spaces statewide. Parks California understands that tribal communities, as original stewards of the land, must have decision making abilities related to public lands."

Rosie Clayburn

Yurok Cultural Resources Dept Director, Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer & Parks California Board of Directors

Parks of the Future Taking Root

Parks California is based on a new and more sustainable model for public-private partnership. Within this model, ‘parks of the future’ takes on multiple meanings It also speaks to the opportunities for innovation in technological advancements in stewardship, as well as to reflections on historical learnings. It requires parks to be relevant and accessible for future generations

Parks of the future are welcoming to all people, resilient to a changing climate and home to thriving ecosystems that support plants, animals and our quality of life In 2022, that vision began to take root in the form of workforce innovations and reimagining park infrastructure and outreach.

We envision a California State Park System that is a model of 21st century innovation.

Growing the Next Generation of Park Stewards

Parks can move with intention into the future with a talented and inclusive workforce, equipped to lead the care of our landscapes In 2020, we invested in partnership models between State Park Districts and non-profits, community-based organizations, colleges, and Tribes that introduced a diverse cadre of young people into park stewardship career pathways they may never have considered To date, four participants have leveraged their experience into full time positions with state parks!

Additionally in 2022, the program funded six projects with over $171,000 in total investments made to implement wildfire and climate resiliency workforce projects across state parks. One such project with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is captured in this story by famed author and photographer Pete McBride.

In partnership with the California League of Park Associations and California State Parks, we led peer-exchange discussions with a network of statewide practitioners.

"The real value of these programs is that you might be speaking to the next superintendent of this park."

Jason Eaton

Park Maintenance Supervisor, California State Parks

Reimagining Park Infrastructure & Outreach

After a wildfire destroyed over 97% of the facilities in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we joined a partnership called ‘Reimaging Big Basin’, a project to solicit community involvement and provide technical expertise on rebuilding Big Basin as a model for 21st century parks: inclusive climate-ready and resilient. We staffed a planning specialist at the park to develop new tools for improved access and forest health. Working with local parks, statewide scientists and the Parks California Climate Fellow, we are integrating lessons learned from Big Basin into a suite of statewide tools.

'Reimagining Big Basin’ seeded a parntership with Exploring New Horizons (ENH) wherein 3,544 fifth and sixth grade outdoor education students were given an opportunity to provide input into the park’s reimagining. Students developed and completed their own curriculum and devised individual “plan your park” activities for the park.

At Silver Strand State Beach, we piloted a Lower-Cost Coastal Overnight Accommodations Study The study prioritized underrepresented communities with limited access to experience overnight camping. Working with over a dozen non-profits, we sought community input on overnight accommodation options such as cottages, trailers, hike and bike camping, and traditional campsites. Additionally, we organized an event featuring the overnight camping options presented in the survey so that participants had an opportunity to see the possibilities beyond a printed representation

Elevating Connectivity

To root parks in the 21st century, we ' re investing in park-appropriate technology that helps parks feel more welcoming to new generations and makes the benefits of parks more accessible. In 2022, collaborated in the development of Virtual Adventurer, an official mobile app of California State Parks, to help people explore parks through immersive augmented and virtual reality.

As we help build Parks of the Future, prioritizing partnerships will be key to connectivity. In the past year, we set the stage to launch an in-depth, comprehensive study on the value of California's Department of Parks and Recreation's relationships with the non-profit sector. We were honored to present important findings from that study as the keynote at the 2022 California League of Park Association’s annual conference.

"Being an intern last summer really gave me the experience to bridge the things that you learn in school to the real world."

Jen Mendez

Former Intern, now Programs and Conservation Manager at Crystal Cove Conservancy

Portraits of Impact

Alongside our grantees, we ' re building bridges (sometimes literally, but also metaphorically) to parks for communities and individuals alike. In our third year of operations, we were fortunate to see important impact take root due to the incredible work of our grantees. We are proud to support non-profit partners across California working together for people, for nature and for the future of parks. We're especially excited to welcome and celebrate the 2022 grantees for our Route to Parks and Career Pathways programs!

By the Numbers

Theprivateandpublicfinancialinvestmentssupportingourworkwith CaliforniaStateParksontheestablishedJointPrioritiescontinuedto growin2022,asshownintheprogramschartbelow Thetotalfunds for programs grew by 155% year-over-year with an addition of a 'ParksoftheFuture'programarea

Expenses Programs

$354k Private Donors $1.4m State Government $1.6m Foundations

$292k Management $675k Development $3.5m Programs

$1.4m Parks of the Future

$1.3m Access & Education

$668k Climate & Stewardship

With Gratitude

Our Partners in Philanthropy

We share a responsibility to bring resources to bear in caring for these vital places We value our role in turning generous financial and in-kind donations into action that supports the sustainability of and equitable access to California's treasured landscapes. Support for parks comes in all shapes and sizes, and all of it helps us to connect people and places. Whether in-kind or financial, no matter which shape it took, we want to extend a huge thanks to our incredible donors and partners in philanthropy for your support in 2022!

Highlight: Partnering to Raise Awareness

The custom "Parks for Everyone" limited-edition print, crafted by renowned artist Shepard Fairey and sold exclusively through Obey Giant channels, helped us raise awareness about our work by reaching millions of new, potential park supporters through Obey Giant’s social media promotion that surrounded this incredible in-kind donation.

Our Board & Advisory Council

We are continually grateful for the leadership and support of our Board and Advisory Council Especially during this important year of evolution, their perspectives and insight were invaluable Board Advisory Council

Steve Lockhart

Chair, Founding Board Member

Deanna Mackey

Lauren B Dachs

Sharon Farrell

Founding Board Member

Doug McConnell

Tony Lillios

José G. González

Vice-Chair Secretary Treasurer

Rosie Clayburn

Board Member

Michael Mantell

Board Member

Dawn Ortiz-Legg

Board Member

Kindley Walsh Lawlor

Board Member

Michael Camunez

Board Member, joined in 2023

Gayle Miller

Ex Officio; Proxy for Joe Stephenshaw

Armando Quintero

Ex Officio; Dept. of Parks and Recreation

Woody Smeck

Louise Stephens

Sean Woods

Caryl Hart

Joinedin2023

“HavinggrownupinCalifornia, Iampassionateaboutthework ParksCaliforniadoesto encourageaccessandawareness forallresidents,especially thoseinunderservedareas,that thestateparksarearesource forallofustopreserveand enjoy.”

Deanna Mackey

Vice-Chair, Parks California Board of Directors

Our Park Partner

TheworkofParksCaliforniawould not be possible without the incredible partnership with the CaliforniaDepartmentofParksand Recreation and the amazing people at California State Parks. They have worked as a true collaborator, helping to design a new model of public-private partnership and supporting our teamaswe'vetakenroot

StayEngaged

In many ways, we ’ re just getting started. Completing our third year as an organization allowed us to truly take root and, from this place, we remain steadfast in our aim to bring innovative and collaborative energy to strengthen parks for people, for nature and for the future.

We welcome you to join us in our evolving journey in this endeavor! Please feel free to reach out to us directly by emailing info@parkscalifornia.org, or calling (877) 455-9290.

Follow us online at www parkscalifornia org and stay connected via social media at:

Parks California is a 501c3 non-profit organization, EIN #83-1523594