- [Presenter] In 1864, California became the first in the nation to establish a state park system.

Founded during the turmoil of a civil war, California state parks made strides in protecting the state's rich and diverse landscapes, even before the founding of the national park system nearly a decade later.

Today, there are 280 state parks in California, spanning over 1.4 million acres, and state park service members continue to steward California's public lands.

protect our natural resources, and connect people to the outdoors.

Like the Torres family, which has been in the State Park Service for three generations.

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the family comes together to reflect on where we come from, where we are now, and where we're headed.

(gentle music fading) (dramatic music) - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(bright music) - In terms of state parks, I started up here in Marin County, Simon P. Taylor, which is where I started as a park aide back in '76, and worked at Mount Tamalpais State Park, Tomales Bay, worked at Turlock Lake State Recreation Area right there for a number of years and then ended up as the Park Supervisor at Mount Diablo State Park below here.

- All three of us worked at the San Luis Reservoir.

It's right here.

My name is Caitlin Torres and I'm the interpreter two for California State Parks for all of our different state parks within our river sector.

I've been with California State Parks for a little over for two years.

My dad, he worked, you know, for state parks as well.

- The soils here hold a lot of water down below the surface during the dry season.

My full name is Roman Luis Torres, I go by Ray Torres as a nickname.

My careers have been about 38 years worth of work in conservation, first with California State Parks for about 20 years, and then the US Forest Service for 18 years.

- Oh, there's beaver activity on that tree.

- Right there.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Wow, that's pretty cool.

- Right here.

We have been actually seeing them in the pond, which is on the other side of this.

When Tristan, my son, turned 17, you know, he was ready to get a job.

I was already with parks, and so I thought he would really love to just be a park aide, you know, starting out his career.

- My name's Tristan Boyer.

I worked at State Parks for about a year.

I'm at San Luis Reservoir, I was a park aide.

I'm super into photography and I ride bikes with my friends and stuff and motorcycles.

I love nature and I love teaching people about these state parks.

- California State Parks is a special place to be for sure.

There are several families like mine that have been generational within parks.

We kind of laugh about how much we're alike.

(light music) It makes me feel like I am with my people because I have you and I have grandpa.

Because we get to share that together, that means a lot.

- You know, I've worked for state parks, I've had my experiences, and I want to know what it's like for you.

- Yeah, me too.

Tell us about the '70s, Dad.

- Back in the day.

- Back in the day.

- Back in my day.

(Caitlin and Tristan laughing) - I think it was the same thing.

It was a time of environmental expansion, environmental awareness coming out.

You know, a lot of our contribution laws, NEPA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, all those came out of that '60s revolution till the late 1800s, early 1900s.

There was no public land as we know it today back then.

It was to be exploited.

This idea of a national park for the people, for me, comes directly out of this revolutionary idea of democracy and not being ruled by a king or a monarch.

Because in Europe at the time, there were preserves, but they were the king's property.

And none of the commoners were allowed to go there.

So it wasn't until Gifford Pinchot with the Forest Service and later on the Park Service, Stephen Mather, that came in and started putting some parameters about we need to start saving these places.

- When I was a park aide, I would meet lots of different people.

It would be people from Germany, it would be people from Australia, and they want to come and see this side of the world because they also have that connection with nature like we do.

And so I get the privilege and tell them, "Hey, check out this park."

And I think that's what my favorite part about being with the public was.

- I had the same discovery actually when I was a park aide as well, because you realize right away, it's not only about the trees and the critters and the landscape.

We have to have the public along with us to make that happen and to help them relate the connection of that outdoor role to their daily life.

- The public is what pretty much makes and breaks state parks.

If we educate kids early, then they grow up and they can probably teach their kids someday about how great it is.

And it's just like a cycle.

- It's a cycle.

- It is a cycle.

- Luckily, I had a dad that loved the outdoors.

And so I spent a lot of time with him in the Sierras since I was about seven years old.

and he's really the one that introduced me to the outdoors.

Got involved with backpacking and eventually climbing.

Was a member of the Sierra Club, still am, mountaineering.

And that led me in my mid-20s to state parks.

My dad came across from Mexico in 1924.

He was born in Jalisco State in Mexico in a little town called Atotonilco.

He took off from home when he was about 14.

Would have been about 1916. and ended up during that revolution period with Pancho Villa and heading north to the north border.

He worked in the revolution for a bit as a horse handler and as a ranch caretaker, and then they sent him up along the Rio Grande River to watch troop movements.

He told me he remembers sitting up on a ridge watching the trains by El Paso.

And once that revolution kind of slowed down, Pancho Villa was assassinated.

And so a lot of people who were supporting that movement fled the country.

And so my understanding is there's some 1 million people that vacated Mexico during that period.

Those estimates say some one million died because of that revolution and the changes in political status.

And so I've been piecing all this together.

My dad came to the States in '24 to avoid getting chased down.

That tradition, that history is very deep for me in what I believe in terms of the way people should be treated and equity and opportunity and equality.

Because of my background and my desire for social justice, I was a union leader with State Parks early on.

I think we've come a long way from the '70s when I started.

- State Parks was started in 1864, and I think our mission is still the same over all of these years.

You know, it's basically to share the outdoor spaces and the very first state park in California, if you can believe it, was Yosemite National Park.

My father and my mother met in Yosemite National Park, got married, so in '78 I was born.

My father graduated from the State Park Peace Officer Academy.

He also went to the Diablo Mountain Range and was a supervisor there as well, which I spent a lot of my childhood up at the Diablo Range.

- As a supervising ranger to Mount Diablo State Park, primary job for us was law enforcement and expanding my skills at Mount Diablo to include fire management.

- At this point, I was, I think, about 10 years old, 8 to 10 years old, and spent a lot of time in the housing, running around with my siblings while my dad was out working, and so that was a lot of fun.

And then my father and I actually lost touch for quite a few years.

He was no longer married to my mom, and we had this separation of time.

- Caitlin and I knew each other fairly well through her high school years.

Toward the latter part of high school, we lost contact.

- He was living his life living in other states and I was doing my thing and we had just kind of just gone different directions for a while there.

- From there, I went to New Mexico as a ranger, the Gila Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

Then took a promotion back to West Virginia for a supervisor job there for seven years.

Over the years, I knew Caitlin became a climber.

She fell in love with Yosemite.

- I started my outdoor career with Yosemite National Park back in 1996, where I became a tour guide.

I worked at Badger Pass Ski Resort and I learned to ski there.

- I did a stint in the Washington, DC office as the National Director for Wilderness for Forest Service.

And then the opportunity came up out here in California for either the Los Padres or the Angeles as the Forest Supervisor.

And so I ended up putting in for both and I got the Angeles.

- I did become a guide for Department of Water Resources for about seven years, ran a visitor center at San Luis Reservoir.

- Her journey over those decades that basically paralleled what my life was, we were both following each other, even though we really didn't have contact.

The first time I saw her after a couple of decades, I said, "I'm on my way up to Sacramento.

How about if I stop by the office?"

She goes, "Yeah."

It was nice because we got there and we went and looked at my old office and where her office was, which is only a couple doors down.

My grandson, Tristan, was working there.

So we thought, "Wow, we've got three generations that have been involved in this particular location in state parks."

- Most of my life, I didn't even know you.

And very little words are spoken about you.

I was getting into parks because my mom was doing it.

And I was like, you know, "this looks like the right path for me."

Then you came in the picture, and you also did this stuff.

I wouldn't have expected that, them to kind of follow down this path.

I mean, how does that really make you feel?

- It makes me feel really good.

With all the things that have happened, that I got support from Caitlin, that brought back my drive.

And so, yeah, this is the start of a good thing.

- We're really enjoying the reconnection and forgiveness.

It's been a healing occurrence in my life and I know for sure it's been a healing occurrence in his life as well.

Well, what I think is funny is I can't remember the name of this plant.

- Oh yeah, yeah I know what you're thinking of and I can't think of it either.

- [Caitlin] There's a coyote bush.

- Yeah, you mentioned the rose.

- California wild rose.

- Yeah.

- You see the little birds?

Straight over here in these bushes they're going in between the... - Oh, yeah.

- See them?

- It's been a life changing three years.

(gentle music) So Caitlin and I have been spending a lot of time recollecting about things, you know, about the past and her journey over those decades that basically the same, what my life was in terms of state parks and outdoors and climbing and backpacking and being in the woods.

And I love seeing her in the state park uniform.

Brings back a lot of memories.

(gentle music) - When I first started with state parks and out here at Dos Rios, this was a brand new state park.

I thought this would be a lot of fun to build from the ground up.

We are located on the confluence of the San Joaquin River and the Tuolumne River.

In the process of building a state park, actually we're in the very early stages.

So a lot of times when you go to parks, you'll see the interpretive panels that provide information about what you're looking at.

So I'm creating the panel plan for Dos Rios State Park.

So for instance, this panel number two is basically talking about the pond life.

This is our inaugural team here.

This is Armando Quintero.

He is our state park director.

There's myself, our park manager.

This is Danielle Gerhart, she is our superintendent for the whole district.

(gentle music) The park officially opened on June 12th of 2024.

And since then we have opened several hiking trails.

We are building a brand new welcome center.

We're launching some kayak programming, possibly some biking here very soon.

We are actually sitting in an orchard that may very well soon become a campground location.

So we're working on a lot of different things.

We have our hands in a lot of different pots right now with the Dos Rios.

We have had a lot of fun, our interpretive team, building up this brand new state park.

So my role as a park interpreter, basically it's a fancy word for educator.

So we speak the language of human to nature.

I do a lot of the oversight of the educational programming and public programming.

This time of year is really cool because we have our wintering waterfowl.

And so keep your eyes open while we walk.

This will be the access to the pond down here.

Usually the turtles are basking.

[unintelligible question] Yeah, it is pretty out here.

- My mom, she loves outdoors.

She loves meeting people.

She teaches the public about all these beautiful places I think everyone should experience in their life.

And I think that that also reflects onto me.

You know, I want to follow her footsteps.

This is always such a passion of mine, just being out here and taking photos.

When I'm riding bikes, I'm always flying through stuff.

But yeah, this is a lot more slower paced.

So maybe we'll just get something with the trees and the sun in the back and it might look okay.

I'm always looking for good lighting.

That's key for photography.

As I'm walking and, you know, the sun's a little bit too high, I'm going to wait maybe 20-30 minutes.

Sun's going to get a little lower, make it a little more golden.

Comes out to be a good photo.

Yeah, it just takes time.

Just got to be patient with it.

- When I first started out here at Dos Rios, the locals came out here from the little towns around here and they said that growing up, they were told that the rivers were dirty and stay out of the rivers, you know, people dump things there, it's dirty and things like that.

Times have changed now.

Riverside habitats are being restored and there's a whole life that happens around the rivers.

And so our river parks within our river sector are definitely one of our biggest priorities to share with the public.

State Parks Week is always in June and we're trying to incorporate all of the parks in our river sector.

And this is where we're thinking about having a cultural event.

- It's expected to look like lots of people.

- Oh yeah, it depends on what kind of events.

- So what's your guys' plan?

Kayaks and?

- So Great Valley Grasslands, we're doing an astronomy night.

That's going to be fun.

- That'll be really cool.

- 'Cause Great Valley Grasslands has like no light pollution.

- Yeah.

- And so we're going to do that.

And then we're going to do the cultural, the Native American, celebrating Native American culture here.

Especially here in the Central Valley and in the location that we're in, where there are not a lot of parks.

adhering to the voice of the community that uses our park is so important.

And I would like to make sure that we definitely take into consideration exactly what this park needs to be for this demographic in this community.

- The Angeles is one of the most complex forests in the National Forest System.

And it's kind of a climax in my career because it's a huge recreation program.

three ski areas, lots of trails.

The Pacific Coast Trail goes right through it.

It's surrounded by 18 million people and it gets 4.5 million people a year.

And the recreation management is all about managing people and having them have a successful and safe experience in the outdoors.

One of the biggest challenges right now is how do we save our state parks, our national parks, our national forests from being loved to death.

You got a campground with 200 sites, but you have 2,000 people who want to go there on a weekend.

You don't have enough parking, you know, and the trails are over-packed.

How do we accommodate them and still keep the integrity of the outdoors?

On the other side, there's a lot of the people that don't have open space near them.

Some of them, it's the first time they've ever been out.

We spent a fair amount of time and developed a number of programs with partners to outreach to underserved communities, particularly in the Latino community around LA, to introduce the outdoors, to introduce the environment, and get a better understanding of what's out there for them, because a lot of them, they don't have open space near them.

They see the mountains there, but they can't relate to them because it doesn't have, they don't have a place there yet.

They haven't had an experience.

And then the biggest part of this is trying to figure out how to get that underserved community to the woods, to have that experience, because that forms the basis of understanding how the planet works.

And so environmental justice is not just about nature and the land and carbon sequestration and all that, which is good, but it has to do with about how we live on the land and how we treat each other on the land.

- Some of the partnerships we have with where this park is located in the Central Valley, you know, there's a lot of Hispanic community, Latino partners.

It's been a little difficult for us to, you know, develop programs to bring the community out because sometimes the community is a little afraid to be all gathered in one space right now.

It's just hard to see it, you know, trickling down to everybody.

- What things are going on right now.

Civil rights protests, environmental issues, all of those things.

Back in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, it all was very similar.

There was illegal detentions and mass deportations.

We go through these cycles of environmental turmoil or political turmoil, and they kind of repeat themselves.

And we're talking 300 million people and how we manage those people.

A lot of different views, a lot of different perspectives, but we also need to understand human dignity and what we are doing in terms of a social justice perspective and it's not always the rich that should get the benefit.

(light music) - In the last 250 years, we've learned a lot of lessons, you know, on how to be better people to each other.

I think just moving forward in life with a kind heart is super important and not repeating the mistakes of the past history.

- If you're working here, educate the public, you have to be kind.

- Yeah.

- Because if you're not kind... - And make sure they know about these green spaces and places they can go to feel better.

- Yeah.

- And we're all public servants and we're there to manage these lands for the public, not for the king, not for the president.

We work for, you know, on National Forest, we work for the president, but we take care of these lands for the public.

If you don't understand where your resources come from, if you don't understand where your water comes from, then you're going to have some real challenges in the future because whatever actions we take in the Sierras affects everything downstream in terms of communities.

- The whole environmental movement, like you said, began, you know, '70s, '80s.

Now we are seeing things like state parks has the 30 by 30.

They want to restore 30,000 acres of habitat by 2030.

These projects are happening all over California.

And so I feel like it's really kind of a light came on.

This is the largest restoration project in all of California here at Dos Rios, 1600 acres.

And so it's gotten a lot of attention.

You know, we started out as a floodplain and then it became farmland and now we're back to floodplain.

And so that's happening all over California, we are trying to right, you know, the wrongs.

Everybody is on a mission right now to put on their thinking hats and what we can do to preserve and conserve our environmental spaces.

My ultimate goal is to create a space where people feel welcome to come and just relax your mind.

You know, just connect with nature, have that moment to have a reset, a deep breath.

When I'm out here, it's very calming.

And I don't have that normal world stress in my mind.

I think that everyone should have like a getaway like that.

It helps a lot.

That's why I come out so much.

- You know, you look at Tristan, who's just starting his 20s, it's fun to see, to watch him explore those same things that I did at his age.

You feel like you're indestructible, you're carefree.

And so that's what he's doing.

And I support him 100% because that's how you gain perspective on how the world works.

All of us, you know, start a profession and we do something that is very dear to us.

We're good at it.

We become very good at it.

And then we realize what parts add to that to make that happen.

Then you start thinking about management.

And how do I go from leading mountain biking tours to helping make the mountain biking experience more sustainable in the park?

You start thinking up ahead about leading out on those kind of things.

And it's a process of growth for him.

And he's got a lot of energy and he'll do well wherever he goes.

- There is such a connection with nature that you can have that just really sets you free.

And some people don't like know that yet.

And so I'm just glad I get to teach them that.

(gentle music) - My hope for this park for the future is what we are able to gather from the community that is enjoying it.

Okay.

Let me see your paddle.

These are the green spaces, the places people can come they wouldn't normally have or be used to having.

So what would they like to see here?

Would you like to see biking?

Would you like to see camping?

Would you like to have water access?

Forward, backward, turn.

- Yeah, it's coming back to me now.

- Okay, you're good, we can do this.

(both laughing) What I find most fulfilling about my work is getting people out into nature and just trying to help bring the community as a whole out here.

Look at this view, Tristan.

Isn't it beautiful?

So now you can officially say that you have kayaked on this pond.

- Wow, this is fun.

- Yeah, it is, huh?

- I'm going to come and do this more.

- Yeah.

(gentle music fading) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Announcer] You can visit our website for more information and additional resources.

(dramatic music) It's all at Generations250.org.

- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

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