Our research report: The American River Parkway: Recreation, Education, & Sanctuary has been posted to our website and here is the executive summary:
Executive Summary
1) Many Meanings
The American River Parkway means so many things to the many different people who explore it.
For families and their children it is a deep laboratory of educative experience and recreational communion; for bird watchers it is a continually discovering treasury of winged creatures from far and near; to the fisherman a rich harvest of seasonal joy; to the biker, horseback rider, and hiker, a pleasant traverse through beauty close to urban and suburban home.
2) New Parkway Plan
One of the major items we worked on during the initial planning period for the formation of ARPPS in 2002 was to encourage organized advocacy to finally conduct the planning update process that was mandated to be done every five years in the original Parkway Plan of 1985, but had not been done since.
Soon after, the update process began and now is reaching completion—for which we are very happy—and the community should feel some sense of pride in the work that has been done.
The crucial piece of the completion is to ensure that in the future, the update process sticks to the original five year sequence of review and update, as new issues will evolve requiring new planning.
3) Recreation
The most important reality to preserve in the work of the American River Parkway Preservation Society is that of the people to experience the Parkway fully, safely, and enjoyably; to absorb the sanctuary of an approximately 4,600 acre garden along the banks of the American River where families can walk, ride their bikes, ride horses, raft, fish, swim, sun themselves on the beaches and in the parks, play golf, have picnics, bird watch, jog, and just plain sit in a sunny spot and watch the river and people go by.
With horse-drawn carriages, bike rentals from downtown hotels and the increased public safety presence in the downtown and North Sacramento area of the Parkway long advocated for; we can envision people visiting Sacramento, staying in those downtown hotels, venturing out on the Parkway to get to golf courses, outdoor concerts and plays in Discovery Park, Paradise Beach, Sacramento State, Rancho Cordova, Gold River, Fair Oaks Village, Effie Yeaw and other Nature Centers, the Fish Hatchery, Nimbus Lake, old town Folsom, and links that are being established from new developments to the Parkway such as the proposed Folsom South Canal Corridor Plan.
4) Education
The primary educational experience of the Parkway is centered around the Effie Yeaw Nature Center http://www.effieyeaw.org/ with its multitude of educational events and publications directed towards the deepening of appreciation around the natural resources of the Parkway.
Unfortunately there is only one nature center in a Parkway of about 30 miles stretching from Folsom Lake to the confluence of the Sacramento River and several more are needed.
5) Sanctuary
The central aspect of the value of the Parkway is that of sanctuary, where urban and suburban residents can retreat into the natural environment for recreation, spiritual and psychological refreshment; and buildings (other than nature centers, golf course related structures, the Indian Heritage Center, and public accommodations) should not be allowed.
6) Conclusion
How do we accomplish all of this? How do we preserve, protect, and strengthen our Parkway so that the balance of educational, recreational and sanctuary experience is enhanced for all of us?
We can begin by looking to those parks where this has been done, and to those local resources able to help us get our Parkway to the future we envision: “We want our Parkway, seven generations from now, to be a vibrant, accessible, and serene sanctuary, nourishing and refreshing the spirit of all who enter it.”
This year our focus has been on strengthening the Parkway in those daily usage venues—biking—hiking—seeing and appreciating, with a call for a substantial increase in land acquisition and developed recreation areas to strengthen the Parkway’s footprint; and encouraging more and safer usage through a dedicated pedestrian trail freeing up the existing paved trail for bikes only, more picnic areas and park benches for passive appreciation accompanied by easier access for the frail elderly and handicapped, now virtually excluded, and more nature centers in communities like Rancho Cordova, North Sacramento, Rosemount, and Sutters Landing.
However, the single most important issue impacting recreation, education, and sanctuary, is the lack of public safety, particularly in the lower third area of the Parkway, where illegal homeless camps have been allowed for years, and where even park directors privately warn people not to venture alone.
