Clients




 Save the Redwoods League

Challenge

California's state budget proposal threatened to eliminate $143 million in General Fund support for state parks, which would force the closure of more than 200 of California's 279 state parks, including 60 of 61 redwood parks. Fighting parks closures became a top priority for LCI's client Save the Redwoods League. The challenges were to:

  • Galvanize the public and build legislative support to reverse park closures and ensure critically-needed funding through an advocacy media campaign - and to keep state parks in the news throughout the budget process
  • Position Executive Director Ruskin Hartley as an expert on state parks closures and implications for California's redwoods
  • Ensure consistent messaging and strategy for the League as a leading member of the Save Our State Parks coalition - a group comprised of 30+ environmental groups fighting to save parks

Strategy/Tactics

LCI leveraged each legislative milestone to build awareness of the threats to state parks. LCI drafted and distributed statements from Hartley around the proposal to create a $15 vehicle registration fee to support parks, the Legislature's vote on the budget and the Governor's final decision on the budget. When budget news broke, LCI was poised to conduct proactive outreach to environment/state budget media across mediums to offer Ruskin Hartley as an expert resource. To maximize visibility, LCI distributed statements to environmental writers at key California publications and utilized both online and traditional newswire distributions. By generating online pickup of these statements, LCI made it easy for reporters to access Hartley's quotes, the League's messaging and information about the state budget process. LCI also pitched League statements as letters to the editor for newspaper editorial sections. Additionally, LCI worked to ensure that the League's messaging was consistent with other environmental groups fighting for parks.

Results

LCI's public relations campaign resulted in secured coverage of the League and state parks in top-tier and California media, including the

San Francisco Chronicle, TIME Magazine, San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard, Mid-County Post, Daily Triplicate, Contra Costa Times, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Monterey County Weekly and Humboldt Beacon. Ruskin also commented on the state parks in anational radio segment by Public News Service. Letters to the editor were published by the Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Alameda Journal, Piedmonter, Montclarion, Berkeley Voice and El Cerrito Journal. Sustained pressure from Californians, environmental organizations and media moved the Governor to reverse the parks closure decision.