‘OK State Parks may shut down due to budget deficit’

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

StateImpact has reported on the dwindling number of Oklahoma state parks since Gov. Mary Fallin took office in 2011. The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department says budget cuts are to blame, and as KSWO reports, the biggest spate of park closures yet could be on the way:

OK State Parks may shut down due to budget deficit

OK (KSWO)- Oklahoma is continuing to see some of the impacts from a major budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year and it’s the tourism industry that could be hit the worst. That’s bad news for our state parks. The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department told the staff to be prepared.