SANTA CRUZ  CA — A massive volunteer-led signature drive is finding its way to street corners, grocery stores and weekend festivities along the California Central Coast.

The corps of name gatherers, who range from college students to retirees, has seen the gates come down across many of California’s 278 state parks this year, and the group thinks the cash-starved park system can be resurrected with a ballot measure.

“I don’t remember signature-gathering on this scale before,” said Bonny Hawley, executive director of Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks and one of the organizers of the statewide effort to qualify the State Parks measure for the November ballot. “People are really excited about this.”

The measure proposes an $18 hike in vehicle license fees to create a new, nearly $500 million pot of money for the park system to run on.

Proponents say the measure would give California state parks their own financial footing and protect the coveted beaches, forests and historic monuments from the whims of the Legislature, which has had to reduce money for parks to balance the state budget.

Under the proposed measure, entrance to state parks, now $10 a day in most of Santa Cruz County and $125 for an annual pass, would be free.

“It’s not just one of those ballot measures where we raise money and the benefits are intangible. Residents get free access to state parks,” said Garrison Frost, a spokesman for Audubon California, one of the measure’s chief proponents.

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