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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20000825/us/threatened_parks_1.html

Friday August 25 3:21 PM ET Study Finds State Parks Endangered

By JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sprawling cities and shrinking funds are endangering state parks across the country, according to a study released Friday that calls for creating buffers between developed areas and parks.

The study by National Park Trust, a privately funded land conservancy, found more than 90,000 acres within state parks in 32 states are threatened by commercial and residential development and increased traffic, among other things.

``The solitude that you expect in a park now is being lost to high-rise buildings, second homes and lawnmower noise,'' said Paul Pritchard, president of the trust.

Trust officials said many states have cut park funding while land prices have risen, making it more expensive to purchase acreage for parks. While calling for more money, the study also suggests states try to target land purchases toward areas around threatened parks to head off development.

The study was based on surveys filled out by state park directors, but 18 states didn't submit answers, including the three with the largest populations - California, Texas and New York - and Alaska, which has the greatest land mass.

As a result, the National Park Trust did not claim to produce a scientific ranking of the most endangered park systems but did release a subjective list of the 10 with the most imminent threats.

Georgia topped that list, with 8,212 of its 74,542 acres of state parks threatened, followed by North Carolina, Minnesota, Nevada and West Virginia. Florida's 25,000 threatened acres represented the highest total, but it ranked seventh because the trust did not consider the problem as pressing as the states ahead of it.

``I didn't think we'd be No. 1,'' said Burt Weerts, director of Georgia's state park system. ``We were just very candid, certainly not malicious. Georgia is the fourth-fastest growing state, and with that growth you get sprawl.''

Four Georgia parks were listed among the most endangered, including Etowah Indian Mounds in the northeastern part of the state. Several thousand Indians lived there 1,000 years ago, but now a sod farm owns the land and there is concern developers may try to purchase it for homes.

The trust said Georgia should issue bonds to help fund the expansion of existing parks and the purchase of new ones.

The report also calculated which states have the fewest acres of preserved land per person. Rhode Island had the worst ratio, followed by Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa.

In a study released last year, the trust found similar problems facing the national park system. However, it concluded the need for funds is even greater for state systems.

``The problems of funding our state parks are as diverse as the lands and resources in the states,'' said Charles Sulkin, Delaware's parks director. ``We're not just comparing apples and oranges. It's like 50 different kinds of fruit.''

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On the Net:

National Park Trust: http://www.parktrust.org

-- K (infosurf@yahoo.com), August 26, 2000