With a proposed cut of $22 million in two years, the California state park system is looking for ways to cut back, including possibly shutting down some state parks in California temporarily. With closures, the threat of development is imminent, and has led to the drafting of SB580 — a bill currently making its way through the Senate to curb unwanted development.

Not many people would expect to find the site of the most prolific drug problem in the county in such a serene environment. But at a September meeting of local organization Santa Cruz Neighbors, Steve Carney, former head of the Sheriff’s Office Narcotic Enforcement Team, shared some surprising information: Pogonip State Park, located directly across Coolidge Drive from Stevenson College, is the “meth capital” of Santa Cruz County, where between 10 and 30 drug arrests are sometimes made in a single 10-hour police shift.

The dramatic landscape of Natural Bridges State Beach served as the backdrop to an impassioned rally on June 1, with over 500 residents coming together to oppose Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed plan to cut $213 million from the California State Parks system by 2011.