California is set to open its first new state park in a decade this summer, Governor Gavin Newsom and state officials announced on Monday. The 1,600-acre Dos Rios tract in the state’s Central Valley will open on June 12 as California’s 281st state park.
The new park is located near the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers and is surrounded by vast almond orchards and dairy pastures. Californians will be able to use the park for hiking and picnicking, with plans for swimming and boating access in the future.
The Earth-Day announcement comes as Newsom unveiled new targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions on natural lands. The plan sets out to reduce the risks of wildfires, expand forest cover, and restore wetlands. Newsom said the targets would move the state closer toward achieving its mandate of carbon neutrality by 2045.
The targets come out of a law Newsom signed in 2022 requiring the state Natural Resources Agency to work with other agencies to create a plan to reduce emissions from natural lands. The plan aims to reduce the risks of wildfires across nearly 53,000 square miles of land by 2045 through methods such as controlled burning.
The state also plans to plant 4.2 million trees, manage and restore 1.6 million acres of grasslands, and protect more than 233,000 acres of wetlands and seagrasses along that timeline. California has spent about $9.6 billion since 2020 on efforts address climate change using the state’s natural lands.
Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot called the plan “a big deal” because the state has focused much of its climate policy on reducing emissions from other areas, such as the energy sector, and less so from natural lands.
