Governor’s Briefs: State Parks Week Highlights Access as Trump Slashes Public Lands, Police and Safety Funds

After Celebrating State Parks Week, Newsom Administration Calls Out Federal Assault on Public Lands

SACRAMENTO — As the Trump administration threatens the future of federal public lands, California is celebrating its thriving state park system, the largest in the nation, and its commitment to expanding access to the outdoors. This comes after the state celebrated its fourth annual California State Parks Week with more than 170 events last week, highlighting the people, places and programs that make California’s 280 state parks truly unique.

On June 13, the Newsom administration sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior warning of public safety risks and reduced access due to major cuts proposed to staff and programs that support National Parks and other federal public lands. In contrast, California is expanding access to the outdoors, investing in communities and laying the groundwork for further expansion.

As outlined in the letter, the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to federal agencies like the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs threaten public lands, water supply, wildlife, and tribal sovereignty. These cuts would lead to reduced staff, services, public access, and increased risks such as wildfires and jeopardized public safety. 

Outdoors For All

Connecting people to nature is critical for our physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Outdoor spaces also help communities adapt to climate change, can be good for wildlife and biodiversity, and are reliably a powerful economic engine for the state. Unfortunately, outdoor access and its many benefits are not equitably distributed to all communities.

California has made an investment of more than $1 billion dedicated to expanding parks and nature access, including to Californians who live in underserved communities.

The administration’s Outdoor Access for All and California Natural Resources Agency’s Outdoors for All initiatives have created access programs for children and families to explore California’s state parks, mitigated impacts from climate change, and helped the economy.

State Parks protect the best of the state’s natural and cultural history; more than 340 miles of coastline; the tallest, largest and among the oldest trees in the world; and deserts, lakes, rivers and beaches. There are more than 5,200 miles of trails, and 15,000 campsites, prehistoric and historic archeological sites, ghost towns, historic homes and monuments — all waiting to be explored.

Trump is Gutting Police and Public Safety Funding in California

LOS ANGELES – Donald Trump, a convicted felon who has prioritized pardoning individuals convicted of assaulting police, is gutting public safety funding — slashing billions from programs that help police departments, fight terrorism, prevent gun violence, and protect women and children from domestic violence — all while he added to the nation’s debt to pay for militarizing Los Angeles and his birthday party July 14.

Trump is defunding public safety

President Trump is proposing to gut public safety funding across the country. At a time when violent crime is dropping, Trump’s “big beautiful bill” threatens to erase substantial progress on public safety, at a time when exactly the opposite is needed. 

The President’s proposed funding cuts include: 

• $1 billion from police departments to reduce violent crime, hate crime, and crime against women.
• $646 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for violence and terrorism prevention.
• $545 million from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), cutting its workforce by more than 2,000 personnel and reducing its capacity to keep criminals off the street.
• $491 million from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), making our cyber and physical infrastructure more vulnerable to attack.
• $468 million from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), greatly reducing its ability to crack down on firearm trafficking and reduce gun violence.
• $212 million from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), greatly reducing its capacity to help state and local law enforcement and weakening efforts to fight international drug smuggling impacting the United States.
• $107 million from Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Public Safety and Justice, exacerbating current understaffing and making tribal communities less safe.