photo credit: Michelle Marques
Trione-Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa. 

Budget cuts at the state level are impacting park lands around Sonoma County.

Volunteers at Trione-Annadel State Park were recently notified of a severe shortage of brochure maps, not just for the Sonoma County park, but for state parks in general.

Peter Ostroskie is with California State Parks. He says while the brochures are very popular items, they are not included in the yearly budget for the state parks division, so it is common for parks to run out and struggle to replace them.

“We’ve had a lot of partner organizations who have stepped up, such as Save the Redwoods League, in order to pay for brochures that have redwood trees at parks, or we have other non-profits that’ll step up and help pay for brochures for their parks,” said Ostroskie.

Currently, Trione-Annadel is considering a cheaper, one-page flyer that could be used instead of the brochures. There is a free app with maps, but Ostroskie says cell reception can be spotty in the park.

“You have to get to an area where there’s not as many trees and then you can get reception out there,” Ostroskie said. “We’re trying to push it to where folks try to download it ahead of time, so that they can see all the information that they need, plus we’re doing trail advisories on there and other updates so folks can stay in the loop more in real time.”

The map shortage is a symptom of a larger issue for California State Parks.

Ostroskie says the budget will be smaller this year for the state parks agency's Bay Area District, which includes Trione-Annadel.

“We would not be closing any parks," Ostroskie said. "It’s not anything like what you saw back in 2012 and 2013; what it would look like is that there would be possibly less services, delayed in like garbage pickups, because we do have to do all that through our contracts. There might be less staff that are available, whether it’s law enforcement staff or educator staff, or people at the kiosk."