National Park Service

This storied adobe mansion outside Los Angeles was once a getaway for California's last governor under Mexican rule, a landowner so wealthy he called the nearly 9,000 acres of land around it his "ranchito. " Now, state budget cuts have reduced supporters of Pio Pico State Historic Park to begging for recyclables to cash in to keep the gates to the 1850s landmark from closing. As California moves to close dozens of state parks by July 1 to save money, those fighting to prevent the closures are growing increasingly desperate.

California has struck deals to keep 11 state parks open and more reprieves are in the works, whittling the number of parks that will be closed this summer because of budget cuts, officials said Tuesday. Private donors, foundations and other government entities have come forward with funding or operating agreements to keep the 11 parks open for one to three years, said Roy Stearns, deputy director of California State Parks. The agency announced last year that the state's fiscal troubles would force it to shutter 70 of the 278 parks in the system.

Southern California Edison and two federal agencies said Friday they are only weeks away from resolving a years-long disagreement over connecting renewable energy projects to the grid. The parties reached a preliminary agreement one week after Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Edison urging the utility to end an impasse that had frustrated the government because solar projects were sitting idle long after they had been built. Utilities elsewhere in California have signed similar interconnection agreements with few problems or delays.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is asking the Obama administration to explain why federal authorities haven't cracked down on the Occupy D.C. protesters camped out in a federal park downtown. In a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the chairman of the House oversight committee claimed that the encampment appears to violate a ban on "camping" in the park. Issa also notes that the square was also recently refurbished with $400,000 in new grass, light fixtures and other upgrades, paid for with stimulus money.

The Statue of Liberty hosted a 125th anniversary celebration Friday and then decided to take off the rest of this year and part of the next. Being a hostess, of course, can be a lot of work, but in this case, it's a lot of work that's being done to the hostess that will keep her closed for about a year. Now the party is over, although the National Park Service emphasizes that Liberty Island will remain open during the $27.25-million renovation. About 3.5 million people visit Liberty Island in a year, but only about only 2,500 tickets a day have been available for the inside tour of Lady Liberty, which means about two-thirds of the visitors don't go inside.

Three California State Parks of the 70 slated to be closed next year because of the state's budget crisis have been given a reprieve for at least a year. The National Park Service has agreed to step in and operate these state parklands that fall within national boundaries: --Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area; --Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Golden Gate National Recreation Area; --Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park within Redwood National Park, near Crescent City.

One day deep in the administration of George W. Bush — a time of tumult among environmentalists and conservationists — Roger Kennedy found himself shaking his head and sighing. The Endangered Species Act was in the cross hairs of a Republican Congress and his beloved National Park Service, which Kennedy directed from 1993 to 1997, was under assault. Kennedy was disgusted by the partisan bickering. When had stewardship of the environment become a political football, he asked, posing a rhetorical question to a reporter.

One of roughly a half-dozen mountain lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains was killed Tuesday trying to cross the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center at the start of the morning rush hour. Circumstances of the death, apparently from a collision with a vehicle, were not known, and the California Highway Patrol said it had no record of an emergency call reporting an animal-related incident in that area Tuesday. "We believe it may have made such a daring crossing attempt possibly because it was being flushed out of the area it was in by another male lion," said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

A closer inspection of the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument found about half a dozen more cracks, and the structure will be fenced off while engineers decide how to repair it, the National Park Service said Wednesday night. The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials reopened one day after the East Coast's rare 5.8 temblor, but the Washington Monument will remain closed indefinitely. Finished in 1884, the monument is one of the capital's most popular tourist attractions, with about 1,700 visitors going inside each day. It is the world's tallest obelisk, standing more than 555 feet high.

The Statue of Liberty officially turns 125 on Oct. 28, when musical programs and special tours are planned to mark the event. The next day, the entire inside of the national monument will be closed for a $27.25 million renovation expected to last a year, the National Park Service announced Wednesday. The work won't affect the outside of the building on Liberty Island, however, which will remain open to visitors throughout the project. Upgrades will be made to the statue's pedestal and the "200-year-old fort base from which the statue rises," including new elevators and stairways, redone bathrooms and improved electrical and mechanical systems, the park service says.