Budget Cuts Threaten Illinois' Natural Resources!

[Mike Clark]

We need to get as many people as we can to send this letter to our State Reps regarding the cuts of State property.......Its not just for the fact that the state parks in our area would be awesome for courses but the Volo Bog directly affects my kids education and school. Its the only place that Big Hollow sends the kids for field trips....
You can either copy and paste the letter at the following address or write your own. If you could notify friends and family regarding this issue that would be awesome too because this doesn't ONLY effect our area its statewide.

http://www.illinoisactionproject.org/showalert.asp?aaid=946


Thanks
Clark

[Bruce Brakel]

For disc golf's sake, you might want to do the opposite. 

When the state of Michigan was pouring money into the state parks the state parks were happy to be little used nature preserves.  When the State of Michigan decided not to do that anymore, one by one the state parks have seen the wisdom of becoming public recreation facilities.  The Michigan state parks are now starting to turn turn to disc golf as a means of attracting fee paying users.  We've gone from zero to three state park courses and more are being planned as each one turns out to be successful. 

The solution is not more state funding but to allow each park to retain and spend the funds it raises.  Every $25 annual state pass and $4 daily state pass sold at Holly State Park funds Holly State Park.  Michigan disc golfers who also use the state parks for hunting, fishing, camping and boating are going out of their way to buy their annual pass at Holly, because Holly has a disc golf course. 

[Mike Clark]

For disc golf's sake, you might want to do the opposite. 

When the state of Michigan was pouring money into the state parks the state parks were happy to be little used nature preserves.  When the State of Michigan decided not to do that anymore, one by one the state parks have seen the wisdom of becoming public recreation facilities.  The Michigan state parks are now starting to turn turn to disc golf as a means of attracting fee paying users.  We've gone from zero to three state park courses and more are being planned as each one turns out to be successful. 

The solution is not more state funding but to allow each park to retain and spend the funds it raises.  Every $25 annual state pass and $4 daily state pass sold at Holly State Park funds Holly State Park.  Michigan disc golfers who also use the state parks for hunting, fishing, camping and boating are going out of their way to buy their annual pass at Holly, because Holly has a disc golf course. 

This is all true. In a good system this is the way it should work. But unfortunatly we are talking about Illinois politics. It is a mystery to me why they have not adopted the policy of making people pay to enter the state parks. When I travel alot of the state parks that I go to are pay to use. Maybe if they do make these budget cuts they will adopt that policy. They are going to close some of the parks and lay off the people who take care of the property in our area.This is already part of the budget cut plan. They want to close Volo Bog and Chain of Lakes. Volo Bog is in Lake County Illinois. I do not want LCFP to purchase this property. If the property becomes available and it is legal to sell it I can almost guarntee LCFP will buy it. If they do we will never get Disc Golf on it. Chain of Lakes is on the border of McHenry and Lake counties. It mostly is in Lake County. I really do hope turns out to provide an oppurtunity. Lets hope it does.