{"id":2424,"date":"2022-05-18T16:29:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T23:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=2424"},"modified":"2022-06-26T12:20:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T19:20:52","slug":"new-state-park-is-in-the-works-near-modesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2022\/05\/18\/new-state-park-is-in-the-works-near-modesto\/","title":{"rendered":"New state park is in the works near Modesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2,500-acre riverside ‘gentle valley’ is expected to open to the public in 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source of this article: the Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers meet on the edge of the Dos Rios Ranch Preserve in Modesto.
(Rich Pedroncelli \/ Associated Press)<\/p><\/div>\n

California will get its newest state park in almost a decade.<\/p>\n

The 2,500-acre property at Dos Rios Ranch \u2014 a property in Stanislaus County, 10 miles southwest of Modesto \u2014 will be accessible to the public within a year, said State Parks Director Armando Quintero.<\/p>\n

The property will be transferred to the state parks over the course of a year, Quintero said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometime in 2023, there will be early access to the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Visitor facilities will be planned and installed over the next five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do an archaeological survey and ensure we\u2019re not disturbing any Native American sites or anything like that,\u201d said Quintero. \u201cThere is going to be a fair amount of planning that goes in before we bring in sustainable infrastructure there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom has earmarked $5 million for the park as part of his state budget proposal, said Quintero.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited to be evaluating this preserve as the next state park,\u201d Quintero said. \u201cWe strongly believe that everyone deserves to have close-to-home access to vibrant parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s special about this park, said Quintero, is that it sits at the confluence of two rivers \u2014 San Joaquin and Tuolumne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is access to both rivers so you can fish, as well as get in the water,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a way, it is a walk back in time to a gentle valley. It is one of those places where people will visit and say, \u2018Oh, my goodness, this is where I live.\u2019 That\u2019s my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quintero also makes note of the 1,500 acres of floodplains, along with the scenic landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis park will be a place where visitors can come in spring and summer,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring times of heavy rainfall, this park can actually be a place where water can be directed to the groundwater recharge area and can contribute to improving our groundwater health.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new state park is welcome news after decreasing land acquisition for years. After averaging more than 140,000 acres in the previous five decades, according to the state\u2019s parks and recreation department, California\u2019s land acquisition for state parks was only 37,929 acres between 2010 and 2018.<\/p>\n

Acquisition was low in the past decade because \u201cCalifornia\u2019s budget and fiscal outlook was different then,\u201d said Gloria Sandoval, the deputy director of public affairs for California Department of Parks and Recreation. \u201cIn some years the state faced difficult budgetary decisions and did not have resources to acquire new properties.<\/p>\n

The park will be the first one since Fort Ord Dunes was designated a state park in 2009, according to the Modesto Bee.<\/p>\n

California has 279 state parks. About 68 million people visit those parks annually, according to Sandoval. Quintero said the state parks and recreation department is interested in adding to the state park inventory because \u201cthe population here is exploding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring COVID, people were hungry for these outdoor spaces,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are always keeping an eye on what could be next.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2,500-acre riverside ‘gentle valley’ is expected to open to the public in 2023 Source of this article: the Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2022 California will get its newest state park in almost a decade. The 2,500-acre property at Dos Rios Ranch \u2014 a property in Stanislaus County, 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,11,34,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-and-spending","category-california","category-california-state-parks","category-water-shortage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424\/revisions\/2426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}