Oct 5, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Haleemah Atobiloye (she/her) | Program and Communications Strategist | haleemaha@cehn.org | (202) 350-1372
For most of us, experiencing nature starts a few blocks from home: the neighborhood park, the shade tree on the corner, the schoolyard at recess. Who gets those blocks, and who gets to reach them safely, are where equitable conservation, public health, and justice meet every day. SB 1268 makes equitable access to parks and nature a standing commitment of the State of California.
WASHINGTON, DC — On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Outdoors for All Act (Senate Bill 1268) into law. The Act writes California’s Outdoors for All initiative into state statute and codifies a Deputy Secretary for Access at the California Natural Resources Agency to lead the work. The law directs opportunities and investments to disadvantaged and low-income communities, requires the agency to consult community organizations and take public input, mandates regular reporting to the Legislature, and ties outdoor access to California’s commitment to conserve 30 percent of its lands and coastal waters by 2030.
“One hundred million people in our country, including 28 million children, lack access to green space within a ten-minute walk of home. But proximity alone does not guarantee meaningful access. The question is not simply whether a park exists nearby, but whether it is safe, welcoming, and accessible enough for families to use and children to enjoy. Members of our Urban Parks & Greenspace Workgroup have spent years working to address these challenges and the structural inequities behind them. Communities of color continue to experience significant disparities in access to quality green space, with smaller, more crowded parks reflecting generations of unequal investment. The California Outdoors for All Act recognizes the difference between a park on a map and a park that is truly part of people's lives. By directing resources to historically marginalized communities, this legislation represents an important step toward ensuring that everyone, regardless of their neighborhood, income, or race, has the opportunity to experience the benefits of nature close to home. We celebrate its passage and California's leadership in advancing more equitable access to parks and nature for all,” says Joel Pannell, Co-Lead, Urban Parks & Greenspace Workgroup, America the Beautiful for All; Vice President of Policy at American Forests.
Signed the same day, a companion bill, AB 1804, made the California State Library Parks Pass permanent. The pass is available at more than 1,100 public library branches across California. Families check it out the way they would check out a book, keep it for up to three weeks, and use it for free entry to more than 200 state parks. When one comes back, the next family takes it out. At a moment when the federal government is stripping the language of access and equity out of its own environmental policy, California has built the opposite: a system that assumes everyone belongs outside.
Our coalition is deeply grateful to the members, partners, policymakers, and advocates who worked and fought so courageously to bring this law into reality. Across our coalition, we continue to use data to understand which communities carry the heaviest burden of heat and of distance from the outdoors, and we build that evidence into our narrative, our policy demands, our stories, and the tools we need to close the gap.
Our 2026 coalition priorities: the Urban Parks & Greenspace Workgroup set codifying California’s Outdoors for All work as one of our shared goals
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About Us
The America the Beautiful for All Coalition unites 300+ organizations across missions, ecosystems, communities, and cultures to steward nature while upholding environmental justice and defending public health. We follow the leadership of the communities closest to the lands, waters, and wildlife under threat.
