By Tim Garman.
The view from Davis Gulch Trail at Whiskeytown Lake.
Is it doomsday for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area? With all of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts, will Whiskeytown National Recreation Area become an uncared-for free-for-all this summer? These are serious possible scenarios, with Whiskeytown National Recreation Area possibly losing 75 percent of its staff.
Let’s look at some good news, before we get to the bad. So far, for now, Whiskeytown’s seasonal law enforcement and firefighting staff will be retained.
That’s the end of the good news.
President John F. Kennedy famously spoke at Whiskeytown Dam on September 28, 1963.
Photo source: JFKLibrary.org
During his speech Kennedy mentioned the importance of conserving our natural resources. The park officially opened to the public on November 8, 1965, and throughout these nearly 60 years, has offered visitors near and far a wealth of recreational uses.
Whiskeytown offers 70 miles of trails, four waterfalls, and recreational opportunities like swimming, kayaking, sailing, and fishing. Some of the other activities that happen at the park are the Whiskeytown Regatta, Christmas at the Camden House, the Apple Harvest Festival, Ranger led tours, Discovery field trips, fishing tournaments, the Redding Yacht Clubs sailing program for kids (more on this later), and so much more.
In 2023 our National Parks saw 325 million visitors, which contributed a record $55.6 billion in total revenue with $26.4 billion spent in locations surrounding the local parks. Here at Whiskeytown we saw 920,000 visitors in 2023 which generated $46.4 million for the local community. An estimated $12.5 million was spent on lodging, and $10.5 million at restaurants.
Our local economy will take a devastating hit if we were to lose the guests that Whiskeytown attracts each year. The TOT money that the City of Redding and Shasta County rely on would dry up, and we will see cuts to programs that we can’t afford to lose.
When Russell Vought took over as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, it spelled doomsday for our National Parks. Project 2025 aims to remove some of the protections of our treasured National Parks. You might ask, who was behind project 2025? Russell Vought is one of the names you will find. The very same man who said in a video in October 2024, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected, when they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.”
Vought’s vision has been clear for quite some time. He wants to end public services and privatize everything. Can you imagine who he might like to put into those positions? Millionaires, billionaires, and political loyalists come to mind (kind of sounds like Shasta County).
Could you imagine someone like Elon Musk running our National Parks? I don’t think he will care about the beauty and serenity that they offer to the 325 million annual visitors. Chances are he will see $$$$ and he will try to monetize our parks by selling them off or ravishing them of their natural resources, the very same ones that JFK so proudly spoke about protecting in 1963.
I am a conservative Republican, and I don’t mind budget cuts where they are necessary. But you cannot come in with a chainsaw and just start clearcutting every program to the bare bones. That is not budget cutting, that is downright destruction. Budget cutting should look like sharpening the chainsaw, and cutting out the dead branches and trees that might exist, while leaving the forest intact.
Will these deep cuts ensure doomsday for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area? Let’s look at this park more closely and see what it might look like. At this point here is what Whiskeytown is facing: No seasonal employees unless they are fire or law enforcement. Term employees (4-year contracts) will no longer be renewed. Although permanent employees will stay, the problem is that 75 percent of the park staff is made up of seasonal and term employees. No more trail maintenance. No more road maintenance, which is significant, because the North State has suffered a lot of damaging rains this winter.
The bare bones staff will do their best, and I am sure some of the employees who lost their jobs will volunteer on the weekend if they can, and if they are allowed. The reality is they will not be able to serve the entire park. Safe drinking water might be a thing of the past. What will happen if the bathrooms are closed? This is a real possibility. Will people just use a tree, or worse yet, use the lake? I hope they can at least keep the Whiskeytown Visitor Center restrooms open. Oak Bottom and Brandy Creek bathrooms could also stay open, since they have the marinas. The park also has 116 camp sites, which I doubt will remain open with just a bare bones staff.
There are three scenarios that I see as possibilities for the park this summer. The first scenario is that the feds realize they are making a mistake, and decide not to cut as many positions as they’d planned. This is the best scenario possible, even though it would still be challenging. Would you trust the feds enough to accept your old job from which you’d just been fired, knowing they might change their minds and just eliminate your position again the next day?
The second scenario is that conditions at Whiskeytown Park deteriorate so badly that the only safe thing left to do would be to shut it down. Again, this would be terrible for our local economy.
The third, and worst scenario, is that Whiskeytown Park becomes so understaffed that the area falls into filth and disrepair, and the park becomes a free-for-all. Homeless move in. Trash, drugs, needles and lawlessness would become the norm.
Is that what we want for our beloved Whiskeytown National Recreation Area? As an example of just one Whiskeytown treasure, what will happen to the cherished, historical Redding Yacht Club?
Photo source: The Redding Yacht Club.
Every summer the club holds multiple series of week-long sailing lessons for our children. They teach anywhere from 70 to 100 kids each summer. What will happen to our youth?
Teddy Roosevelt once said, in reference to the American West, “It was here that the romance of my life began.”
Our children are finding fewer and fewer places where they might find the romance of their lives. Don’t we want our kids to get off their cell phones and get outdoors? Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic myself, still in love with the beautiful natural resources our National Parks provide. I want that for my grandkids, and yours.
Some of my favorite childhood memories were when my grandmother would load our fishing gear in her old green Oldsmobile, and take my brother and me fishing at Whiskeytown. Sometimes we even caught fish. Oh, how I miss those days. When you grow up poor, you really learn to cherish those little things. When I was elected as Shasta County District 2 Supervisor, I had the honor of serving Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, the area that I have so much love and passion for.
I really appreciate the Beach Bus that Friends of Whiskeytown and RABA provide to take folks to the Whiskeytown area each summer. It gives everyone, from all walks of life — many who otherwise could not get to the lake — a chance to fall in love with the outdoors.
Who knows, maybe even a kid like myself will fall in love with Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, as long as it’s still safe, staffed and viable. Please don’t take that away from not just our kids, but all of us.
Tim Garman
Tim Garman grew up in Red Bluff, and has made Shasta County his home for the past 23 years. Tim has a heart to serve his community. He has been involved with type 1 diabetes research through TrialNet for nearly 18 years, and is a TrialNet Hero. Tim and his wife formed a children’s type 1 diabetes support group after two of their children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Tim proudly served as Shasta County District 2 Supervisor. Tim makes award-winning raisin cinnamon bread. His hobbies include fishing, gardening, photography, and every so often, crocheting.
