The American River Parkway Foundation created a ‘Demand Letter’ listing needs they want to be met immediately addressing illegal campers on the parkway. The foundation wants both Sacramento City and County to work together to devise a plan by March 31 to move the 750 campers on the parkway into Sacramento-provided services. “We’ve seen over the years the number of illegal campers just increase and we’re looking at the destruction of the parkway,” said Dianna Poggetto, Executive Director of the American River Parkway Foundation. Saturday, the Foundation along with assemblymembers, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the community worked to clean a segment of the parkway. Read More
In a separate meeting, KCRA 3 met with the American River Parkway Foundation, the group who work to preserve the 23-mile-stretch of 4,800 acres that line the American River through four municipalities. “I don’t think the parkway has ever been a place where there have not been illegal campers, some people choose to be out here, the number of campers over the last three years has drastically changed,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director of the American River Parkway Foundation. According to the foundation in 2019, 200 to 300 people were living in encampments on the parkway, in 2022 there is an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 camping. “It used to be just in the lower reaches, now the campsites are up and down the entire parkway…for people to visually understand the impact, if it wasn’t for the parkway foundations volunteers, and even Sacramento County Regional Parks maintenance crews, we would be standing in a, in a, it would look like a landfill,” Poggetto said. Poggetto and the American River Parkway Foundation have not taken a stance on any legislation being discussed at this time. Read More
An environmental group has demanded the city and county of Sacramento remove 750 unhoused people camping out at the American River Parkway by the end of the year, citing multiple hazards tied to the homeless encampments that dot the 23-mile natural corridor. “The Parkway is in crisis,” the American River Parkway Foundation wrote in January. “The environmental and public safety impacts of the growing number of incidents of illegal camping threaten the Parkway’s beauty and sustainability and are a hazard to communities, schools, and businesses that border the Parkway.” Read More
Fed up with illegal parkland camping, the American River Parkway Foundation has addressed a three-page scold to Sacramento City and County. Following the widely-publicized communication, Foundation leaders have achieved meetings with elected policymakers. “We hope to start a conversation that will result in solutions,” says Foundation executive Dianna Poggetto. The non-profit last year got vocal about Parkway deterioration. At a public forum, more than 200 citizens learned the beloved County gem was more imperiled than at any time in its 60-year history. Read More
The American River Parkway Foundation sent a letter to Sacramento County and the City of Sacramento demanding something be done to address the homeless problem. They say it’s the county’s responsibility to provide for the safety and health of its residents, including its parks, and that continued inaction is damaging the local environment. Dianna Poggetto is the executive director of the American River Parkway Foundation “The foundation has watched the county and the city over the last couple of years, and they’ve had initiatives but nothing…everything’s been stalled,” Poggetto said. Now, the foundation is demanding the city and county take action. Read More
