This Land, Your Land

Gov. Bev Perdue's budget proposal would close most state parks two days a week and close Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest in Wilkes County and Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest in Bladen County altogether to save money.

A proposal floated in November targeted Mount Jefferson State Natural Area in Ashe County and Singletary Lake State Park in Bladen County for closing.

Under the budget Purdue presented this week, state parks would close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for Carolina Beach, Chimney Rock, Fort Macon, Haw River, Jockey's Ridge and Mount Mitchell, which have contracts requiring them to remain open, according to The News & Observer, and Hammocks Beach and Umstead, which are impractical to close.

Closing Rendezvous and Turnbull Creek educational state forests is attributed to low attendance and is to save $131,000, according to NBC 17.

"The governor's recommendation is to save $3 million by reducing funding to the Division of Parks and Recreation by 10 percent," the Journal says. "Staff reductions would be avoided by closing most parks two days a week. The division would be given flexibility in how to manage that."

Purdue's budget also closes the state's nine welcome centers two days a week and would eventually privatize them to save $1.9 million, the Journal says.

North Carolina's state parks reported this week they had 14 million visitors in 2010, second in attendance only to the record year of 2009.