Thursday, February 4, 2010

Dire News for State Parks & Historic Sites

This is bad: History Under Fire. According to the article, from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's magazine, the states of Pennsylvania, California, and Arizona have taken the drastic step of closing some of their state parks. Further, other states are considering the same measures in today's climate of budget tightening and slashing.

As the article describes, some of these parks and sites are being kept open by dedicated volunteers and friends organizations, but many have stayed closed. And the latter adds an unfortunate side effect to an already unfortunate situation - the cumulative effect of being closed for a year or more means that buildings fall into disrepair, staff and supporters drift away, and the community can forget about the site. The article quotes Linda Kaat, a Friend of the Brandywine Battlefield, ""Once they are closed, it is difficult to get sites reopened."

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