According to a report issued by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) this month, Cabrillo National Monument, which has served as a focal point for the celebration of culture, the appreciation of history and the preservation of the region’s precious coastal ecosystem, is “in jeopardy” because of insufficient funding.
The NPCA’s report stated that the National Park Service estimates Cabrillo National Monument receives less than one-quarter of the federal funding it needs to properly manage, repair and preserve its historical structures, museum collections and natural resources. The NPCA study of both the natural and cultural resources of the park ” proportional to actual funding ” resulted in a rating of “fair.”
“Our national parks serve as archives of our culture and history, and living testaments to who we were and how we got to where we are today,” said Ron Sundergill, NPCA Pacific regional director. “Cabrillo National Monument links San Diego’s past with its present and its future. But those cultural and natural threads are threatened by a severe lack of funding for the monument.”
The NPCA is a private nonprofit advocacy organization.
“To some extent we’re a watchdog organization in support of the [National] Parks Service,” Sundergill said. “[Among other things] we make sure that the parks get enough funding and that they are protected.”
Cabrillo is threatened with the possibility of having to cancel two popular annual events, according to the report: the Cabrillo Festival and the Whale Watch Weekend and Intertidal Life Festival. However, the report also confirmed that the 45-year-old Cabrillo Festival is now supported by an outside community group and the U.S. Navy, while the 21-year-old Whale Watch Weekend and Intertidal Life Festival is supported by the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation, the monument’s nonprofit cooperating association partner.
“Funding for these events is evaluated on a year-by-year basis,” the report continues, “which means that these events could be canceled at any time.”
“Not that I know of,” said Mary Correia, Cabrillo Festival, Inc. president, who explained that federal budget cuts to the National Parks Service currently have no influence on the festival.”We were told three years ago that the park could no longer afford to hold the festival on the property due to the need for additional personnel, overtime and set-up costs.”
The festival, held each September to commemorate Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s 1542 discovery of “a very good enclosed port” now known as San Diego, is supported by the city, the county and private donations. A commemorative wreath-laying ceremony still takes place at the monument and the park celebrates the historical event with special displays and activities, but most festival events have since been held at Naval Base Point Loma.
“Certainly we could use more funding,” said Tom Workman, superintendent of Cabrillo National Monument. He added that a lack of funds has more of an effect on educational programs, seasonal rangers, outreach programs and building repair and maintenance.
Could the park close altogether?
“There is no danger of the park closing,” Workman said. “Entrance fees and tax dollars go directly toward keeping the park open.”
Karl Pierce, Chief of Interpretation and Education and Public Information Officer at Cabrillo, added, “We are relying more and more on Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP) to accomplish our work, and there are many opportunities for people to become involved in helping to care for Cabrillo National Monument.”
Pierce explained that VIPs currently staff the visitor center and present public interpretive programs, living history programs and education programs.
“They help us manage our museum collection, operate our green house, remove nonnative plants, monitor herpetofauna [reptiles and amphibians], shorebirds and tidepool fauna and flora, restore native habitat and protect and educate visitors about the tidepools,” Pierce said. “We also rely quite heavily on the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation and its membership for funding of interpretation and education programs, natural resource monitoring programs and funding assistance for our Museum Management Program.”
Sundergill said that although this past year national parks have received more funding than in previous years, the level of funding is inadequate.
“There are historical structures that need to be repaired, museum collections that need to be carefully maintained and, of course, there’s natural resources that need to be cared for,” Sundergill said.
“Interpretive ranger positions need to be funded,” Sundergill said. “There are two permanent full-time interpretive ranger positions that haven’t been funded for two years. Because of that, it’s going to be hard for the park to catch up.”
Sundergill said the point of these reports is to make the public aware of the shortfalls of park funding, not only for Cabrillo National Monument but for other national parks as well.
“This is not something unique to Cabrillo,” he said. “It’s certainly something that residents of San Diego should be concerned about. I know that they really appreciate and love that spot.”
The NPCA report points out that although the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and grounds have recently been restored and new exhibits were created for the Assistant Lightkeeper’s Quarters’ interpretive shelter, plans to refurbish and install historic furnishings and exhibits at other military structures such as fire-control stations, searchlight shelters and a World War II generator station have been stalled.
NPCA recommends rehabilitating these historic structures as cultural museums to help the public connect with the history behind the structures, the people who staffed them and the roles those people played in defending San Diego during World War II.
Restoration efforts have been effective in the removal of nonnative plant life and in bringing native species back to the park, officials said. Sundergill pointed out, however, that funding shortfalls have slowed the removal and halted scientific studies needed to determine the cause of disappearing species. Funding shortfalls have also limited the Park Service’s ability to measure the impacts of local air and water pollution on its delicate ecosystem.
“Cabrillo National Monument provides a natural coastal oasis within San Diego, the nation’s seventh-largest metropolitan area, and a gateway to the rest of the National Park System,” said Sundergill, adding, “We encourage Congress and the [presidential] administration to increase funding for the Park Service so that the tidepools, threatened coastal Mediterranean habitat, historic buildings and the park’s breathtaking views of the ocean are protected for future generation.”
Pierce suggested that concerned residents join the Cabrillo NationalMonument Foundation or consider becoming a VIP.
“These are two tremendous ways that the people of San Diego can help take care of their national park,” Pierce said.
For more information, visit www.nps.gov/cabr/, or www.npca.-org.