This historic Fresno, California park will be lost forever...
unless we act today!
Beautiful Roeding Park is located in Councilmember Cynthia Sterling's District 3. Please contact her or the other City Councilmembers and let them know you support the Friends of Roeding Park as we work to preserve this open space for all the citizens of the central San Joaquin Valley.
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Follow the link below to hear audio from the meeting of the Fresno County Zoo Authority as they are forced to delay until their next meeting the Chaffee Zoo Corp's request for $9.45 million for a new Seal and Sea Lion Exhibit due to the lack of written documentation or any environmental study provided to the Authority about the project by the Fresno Chaffee Zoo Corp.
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It has been 6 years
since Measure Z was presented to Fresno County
voters in 2004 as the only way to repair and restore the Chaffee Zoo (see their teary-eyed elephant campaign sign, left).
Unfortunately, the people now responsible for the taxpayer's money have
chosen to spend it on plans, studies and consultants and let literally
millions pile up in an account rather than spend it to significantly
improve the daily lives of the elephants and other animals they told us were in such
terrible trouble.
The reason they give is that it has taken more time than expected to get their
ambitious expansion plan
approved. But, these business-savvy people must have known back when
they were pushing the urgency of "saving the zoo" that it always takes
far longer and much more expense for exhaustive studies and consultants
to gain approval for an expansion than it takes to fix what they
already had. They have put the cart far in front of the horse.
These are the same people who told the voters that the AZA would pull the
zoo's accreditation if they didn't get the tax money immediately to fix the zoo.
Yet, with no real changes to date, other than animal deaths and shipping others
off to L.A., the AZA keeps on extending the zoo's accreditation.
The decision to delay improving conditions for the very animals they said
were in such urgent need exposes the true agenda of the current zoo board and
appointed Fresno County Zoo Authority - to significantly grow the size of the zoo, not "repair and restore" it as was stated in the original 2004 Measure Z ballot language.
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Roeding
Park was donated to the City of Fresno in phases starting in 1903 by
Frederick and Marianne Roeding for the purpose of a public park and as
a demonstration arboretum.
Having grown large over the past
100 years, the majestic, well-planned groves of big trees at Roeding
today offer shady, often crowded gathering places for diverse families
from central Fresno neighborhoods seeking free respite from the Valley
heat - a place for picnics, quinceañas and weddings; children running
free; spontaneous and organized soccer and volleyball games and coolers
filled with cool beverages, snacks and BBQs.
Although a zoo has
existed in the park to some degree since the early years, today the zoo
is planning to expand across the entire southeastern section of the
park (into the original 1903 donation land) nearly all the way to
Golden State Boulevard. See Zoo's Proposed Master Plan.
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| Bust of George C. Roeding, the man who created Roeding Park may be seen beside the zoo administration office just inside the Belmont Ave entrance. |
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| Kids fishing in these ponds will soon not be allowed. |
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The
fountain pictured at the top of this page, the fishing ponds, large
fields, the horseshoe pits and numerous picnic table areas & the
Palm Point Picnic Shelter will be lost to the public as free access when these areas are converted to zoo uses.
Large Safari Park-type animals such as elephants, giraffes, gorillas, chimpanzees, lions, hippos, tigers, bears, zebras, and rhinoceros need many more acres than Roeding Park can ever provide. Let's keep a first-class Children's Zoo in the park and find another site with acreage for the big animals like other cities, such as San Diego, have done.
Please check back here often
as new information will be added.
If you would like to get involved, please let your friends know about the zoo's expansion plans and send us an e-mail so we may add you to our ever-growing confidential list of the Friends of Roeding Park:
info@saveroedingpark.org
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The Roeding family has retained attorney Richard Harriman to represent the interests of the people who use and enjoy the park during the zoo expansion approval process. If you would like to make a donation to the legal defense fund in memory of Peter Roeding Butler, who fought strongly to save Roeding Park by participating in a lively debate which aired on KVPR FM89.3 in Fresno in 2004, please e-mail us today at info@saveroedingpark.org. Donations to this fund are not tax deductible.
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