Recreation and Resilience in Mariposa County
The Merced River Trail | Photo courtesy of Martin Nunez
The Recreation and Resiliency Master Plan will re-imagine park lands, open spaces, and trails to enhance the quality of recreation while increasing the ability of the community and natural systems to prepare, recover, adapt, and grow from disruptive experiences.
We need your input! Mariposa County is made up of many diverse communities, so we are looking to you to provide input and represent where you live.
Purpose
The Master Plan is a 20-year vision that sets the direction for the County as a resiliency leader and as a great place to live and recreate. This planning process and the resulting plan for our system of parks, open spaces, and trails will articulate the role of Mariposa County's recreation infrastructure in supporting community-wide health and resilience, and provide a strategy for how future investments can participate in, or even lead, that effort.
Process & Plan Framework
Over the eight months, we've identified the vision, goals, and strategies relating to recreation and resilience in Mariposa.
Currently, we're in the "District Recommendations" stage of the project, working to identify key recreation projects throughout the county.
Planning Related to Recreation and Resilience
In order for the Master Plan to build upon previous planning efforts, fifteen plans were reviewed at the beginning of the planning process. The plans had several recurring topic areas relating the 2020 Recreation and Resilience Master Plan:
- Connectivity
- Recreation
- Programming and education
- Arts and culture
- Natural environment
- Climate change resilience
- Community, partnerships, and funding
At right: Summary matrix of reviewed plans. (Note: Numbers correspond to the number of goals within a plan relating to a topic area.)
Mariposa County
Right: Mariposa County's existing parks, recreational facilities, trails/trailheads, and schools.
Below: Mariposa County's most visited parks and recreation facilities, based on responses from a July 2020 online survey with 87 responses.
Click to enlarge the images.
Access to Public Lands and Partners
It is difficult to describe park lands and open spaces in Mariposa County without acknowledging the vast public lands under various management and ownership. Publicly owned land makes up 52% of the total land area of Mariposa County.
National Park Service
Yosemite National Park is a huge driver for regional tourism and the local economy. The park makes up 26.4% of the county's land.
United States Forest Service
The USFS owns the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests, which make up 16.5% of the overall county.
Bureau of Land Management
The BLM manages almost 6% of the county's land, and offers activities such as off-roading, hiking, and snowmobiling.
Merced Irrigation District
The MID owns Don Pedro Lake, which provides boating, fishing, and biking opportunities in the northwest part of the county.
Sierra Foothill Conservancy
Stockton Creek Preserve, adjacent to Mariposa proper, has a new trail system. The preserve is owned by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy and managed in partnership with the Mariposa Public Utility District.
What We've Heard
Click through the slides below for some of the key feedback we've gathered from the public engagement efforts to date.
Shared Values
1) Our parks, open spaces, and trails are a point of pride for our communities: they foster equity, diversity, inclusivity, and they support the common good.
2) Through our Parks we build community, engage our residents, and empower ownership for the future of a resilient system of recreation.
3) Mariposans are respectful: we take care of our recreation opportunities and deepen our connection to the County's landscape through our outdoor experiences
Vision
Mariposans are inspired by the quality of recreation in our County: our system of park lands, open spaces, and trails meet recreation needs now and into the future while elevating existing resources. Mariposa County is resilient: our community and natural systems are prepared to recover, adapt, and grow from disruptive experiences.
Resilience Defined
Intersection of Recreation and Resilience
Themes of Resilience for Mariposa County
Scroll through the information below to learn more about each theme.
Goals and Strategies
Recreation District Recommendations
Click the image to enlarge the map.
The county is broken into recreation districts to better analyze how parks and recreation facilities are allocated throughout the county. The boundaries of the four recreation districts used in this Plan were defined based on the following:
- Recreation districts from the 1990 Parks and Recreation Master Plan
- County board of supervisor districts
- Census block groups
- County community planning area boundaries
Get & Stay Involved
Missed the previous Community Forums?
Recordings of both Community Forums can be viewed at the links below:
Have any questions of comments?
Email them to Mikey Goralnik at mgoralnik@mariposacounty.org.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to our Steering Committee members:
- Sarah Williams, Mariposa County Planning
- Steve Engfer, Mariposa County Planning
- Jessica Carey, Mariposa County Planning
- Leigh Westerlund, Mariposa County
- Tara Schiff, Mariposa County Economic Development
- Ginnie Day, Mariposa County Public Health
- Shannon Hansen, Mariposa County Public Works
- Jonathan Farrington, Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau
- Scott Fiester, Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce
- Bill King, Mariposa Trails
- Bridget Fithian, Sierra Foothill Conservancy
- Jessica Thompson, Sierra Foothill Conservancy
- Cara Goger, Mariposa County Arts Council
- Daisy Phillips, Mariposa County Arts Council
- Molly Stephens, UC Merced
