After over two years of closure as a victim of budget reductions, Oracle State Park will re-open on February 4. But the park will only be open to the public on Saturdays.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Arizona’s state parks, of which there are 31, include everything from famous Slide Rock to the Tombstone Courthouse to a plethora of man-made lakes. Two of the parks are currently closed, and many others are already operating on a five-day-per-week schedule.
Oracle State Park closed in late 2009 to preserve existing state park funds. Non-coincidentally, 2009 was the year the budget for Arizona State Parks was cut 27 percent from the previous year due to overall budget shortfalls. That 27 percent cut came mainly from the fact that parks no longer received General Fund dollars.
Nearly three years later, Oracle is open not due to a restored budget, but to the hard work of volunteers and Friends of Oracle State Park. Thanks to them, the public can now enjoy the historic Kannally Ranch House and the rest of the 4,000-acre wildlife refuge in the foothills of the beautiful Catalina Mountains in southeastern Arizona. At least every Saturday from 8 to 5.
While the closing and scaling-back of state parks may have been a necessity during an economic recession, two things should be kept in mind: First, the reductions have to stop somewhere. Arizona is home to more national parks and monuments than any other state, and our state parks are another attraction that draws visitors to more rural parts of the state. In 2007, according to a Northern Arizona University study, Arizona’s state parks saw over 2.2 million visitors who spent over $200 million. This tourism is vital to the regions surrounding the parks.
Second, Arizona is known worldwide for its natural beauty and history; we are the Grand Canyon State, and our most popular license place is the iconic mountain sunsets and silhouetted saguaro. State Parks protect not only natural areas and wildlife but historic sites that, public access aside, need finances to keep them from crumbling.
Can we afford to shutter what arguably makes us the most unique?
