Will parks be history?

Concern -- even outrage -- continued to build Friday on the North Coast to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to close 48 state parks in a deficit-slashing move.

"We're definitely not going to be allowing that to happen," declared Michele Luna, executive director of the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods. "We are mobilizing."

Her group coordinates the efforts of about 450 volunteers who donate thousands of hours to state parks in the region, including two targeted by the governor: Armstrong Woods and Austin Creek state parks near Guerneville.

The adjoining parks together drew more than 1 million visitors last year to magnificent redwood groves and backwoods land.

"There's a long road between this announcement and what's going to take place, and a there's a lot that can happen between now and then," Luna said.

The closings are part of the proposed 2008-09 state budget, which requires legislative approval.

At bucolic Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park on Friday, the reaction was more subdued, but just as heartfelt.

A dozen students squeezed into a dimly lighted room, listening as their teacher discussed the making of adobe bricks.

Fifth-grader Joe Burkhard reacted in mock horror as he learned workers for Mexican Gen. Mariano Vallejo used manure in the process. Glancing at the walls, the 10-year-old on a field trip with classes from Coleman Elementary in San Rafael declared, "They're kind of smelly."

The bricks aren't the only things that stink, say critics of the park-closing plan, a relatively small part of Schwar- zenegger's wide-ranging proposal to deal with a projected $14.4 billion state deficit over the next 18 months.

"It's worth keeping them open," said parent Betty Lituanio of San Rafael, who was on the adobe grounds with her daughter Daniella, 9. "I mean, look at these kids."

Six parks in the region north of the Golden Gate are on the closure list: Armstrong Redwoods, Austin Creek, Petaluma Adobe, Tomales Bay State Park, Manchester State Park, Clear Lake State Park and Anderson Marsh Historic Park, also in Lake County.

The Petaluma park, one of the smallest on the the list, gets more than 26,000 annual visitors, including 100 school groups. It offers popular programs such as overnight stays and living histories where kids dip candles, make baskets and shear sheep to learn about life in California 175 years ago.

Roy Stearns, a state parks spokesman in Sacramento, said the governor's budget team used four selection criteria, including attendance, revenue generation, location and ease of securing a park.

"Not all units can be closed," Stearns said. "Sonoma Coast State Park, for example, has dozens of ungated entrances along Highway 1."

Armstrong Redwoods, with 813,000 visitors a year, is the second-most well-attended park on the list, exceeded only by Montana De Oro in San Luis Obispo County. It generated about $130,000 a year in revenue, while Tomales Bay took in about $75,000 and Petaluma Adobe just $7,200.

By comparison, Montana De Oro generated $330,000. San Simeon State Park, also on the hit list, took in $641,000.

Stearns said some parks getting as many as 5 million visitors a year were left open. "It made sense to not close the highest revenue-generating places in the state," Stearns said.

Parks would remain closed until the state had enough money to reopen them, Stearns said.

Mothballed parks will continue to be maintained, officials said. That will be especially important for old adobe buildings, which occasionally are damaged by nesting birds and require roof repair.

"We still have to maintain the buildings whether we're closed or open," said Scott Pace, a supervising ranger for Sonoma State Historic Park and the Petaluma adobe. "We cannot lose our resources."

This would not be the first time state history parks are closed for budget reasons, Stearns said. In the early 1990s, a number of parks were shut after 572 parks jobs were cut.

Pace said the reductions forced the closure of North Coast parks for several days a week. They reopened after intense lobbying from business groups that said the closures hurt tourism.

"They tried this in the past and found communities were losing so much revenue they couldn't pull it off politically," Pace said.

Luna, the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods executive, said she was making arrangements Friday to charter extra buses for an annual "advocacy day" in Sacramento, in which park supporters meet with legislators and discuss park needs. Advocacy Day is scheduled this year for April 7 by the California State Parks Foundation.

"We are going to be addressing this swiftly," said Margaret Kennett, president of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce, who said the proposed Armstrong Woods closure "would be a major blow to the area."

She predicted both business owners and community residents would get behind any campaign to keep the park open.

Park benefactress Betty Riess, a resident of Oakmont and longtime supporter of Armstrong Woods, said she was stunned to learn her beloved park might be closed. She and her late husband, Herb Riess, donated more than $10,000 for the new educational display that illustrates the longevity of the Sequoia sempervirens that each year wow visitors.

Knowing that the display she worked toward for many years might be shut away from view with the trees it honors "is unreal," Riess said.

"I have a very, very deep passion for Armstrong," she said. "I mean I really, I love it with all my heart, and Herb did, too."

Luna acknowledged the difficult financial straits in which state officials find themselves and said she didn't know what the appropriate fiscal action might be.

"We will let them know they've got to come up with another way," Luna said. "I don't know what it is."

In Mendocino County, five miles of beach extending south toward the Point Arena Lighthouse, spectacular coastal terrain and camping amid cypress trees are the main draws for visitors to Manchester State Park.

The park, however, is not nearly as popular as its sister state parks in Mendocino County, owing to its remote location at the county's southern end. It is not on the state's camping reservation system even during the busiest summer months when other coastal spots fill up. No visitor numbers were available.

"It does fill up now and then. Right now we might get a few steelhead fishermen and snowbirds," maintenance worker Jens Shelby said of campers from the northwest who come to California in winter.

Visitors aren't disappointed when they arrive. Sand dunes, butterfly habitat and an array of coastal wildflowers make the park popular for walks. Two creeks boast steelhead and salmon fishing. There are 30 campsites, which have running water and fire pits.

"The openness and just being able to walk the giant beach out there brings people," said Shelby, who has worked for the Mendocino state parks district nearly 20 years.

Meanwhile, kids at the Petaluma adobe Friday peered into the married servants quarters, marveling at the austere conditions families endured in the 19th century.

George Szot of San Rafael watched his son Andrew, 10, soak it all in.

"You hate to lose what makes California strong," Szot said. "It's a tough decision for everyone."

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.