Nonprofit wins 1-year reprieve for Castle Rock

The Sempervirens Fund, along with several partner organizations, has committed $250,000 to keep Castle Rock State Park open next year.
The Boulder Creek park — known among rock climbers for its natural rock formations — was one of 70 slated to close July 1 to remedy a $300 million budget deficit at the state level.
Sempervirens is working on a donation agreement with the California State Parks system that would ensure the donation is used to keep the park open starting July 1.
The money will pay for a ranger and maintenance at the park for a year.
“We view this as a stay of execution,” said Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Reed Holderman. “We do not view this as a permanent solution. We need to do more to get off death row.”
In addition, the fundraising group — which includes the Portola and Castle Rock Foundation, Adventure Out, REI and Planet Granite — will provide enough money to open the San Lorenzo River Redwoods, 1,340 acres that has never been open to the public. The land contains the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River and will increase Castle Rock’s size by about 35 percent, including additions to the park’s trail system.
Holderman said Sempervirens bought the land from the San Lorenzo Valley Water District 12 years ago, but, as now, the state had no money to open it to the public.
Castle Rock encompasses 5,229 acres and contains more than 32 miles of hiking and equestrian trails.
Holderman said the hope was that the California state budget would improve over the next year and become able to fund the state park system itself again.
Chet Bardo, the Santa Cruz district superintendent of California State Parks, responded to the donation with a prepared statement.
“We are extremely grateful to Sempervirens Fund and its partners for stepping up to support Castle Rock,” Bardo said. “There is still a lot of planning to be done to figure out how best to operate the park, but it is a relief to know that this beautiful and unique park will remain available for the public to enjoy.”
Sempervirens also plans to build a new entrance to the park, adding more parking, flush toilets and amenities for visitors.
Holderman said the entrance would increase use and allow state parks officials to track use more easily, as a way to show the park is important to the system.
Many people park their cars on the roadway outside Castle Rock and walk in, making it impossible to track how many use the park. Holderman said that when one lawmaker visited the park last year, she saw a Maserati sports car parked outside the entrance, likely to avoid paying the day-use fee.
Plans for the entrance are complete, and an environmental impact report is under way. Once the permitting is done, Holderman said, construction will begin.
He said many of the donations to Sempervirens were private donations from people in Santa Cruz County and Silicon Valley; thus, using the donations to keep the park open was a natural thing to do.