But this is Chico, too

The total area covered by urban parkland in the United States exceeds one million acres.
A nice little chunk of that is right here in Chico. Bidwell Park, with 3,670 acres, is the 18th largest municipal park in the country. It is the 14th largest city-owned park.

I’d heard this already, but I’ve finally seen it in writing. It comes from a document put together by the Trust for Public Land, which has tabulated all of the park acreage and come up with the one millon figure. Irv Schiffman brought this to my attention in an e-mail he sent me earlier this week.
The largest city park is Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso, Texas. It has 24,000 acres. The largest city-owned city park is South Mountain Preserve in Phoenix. It has 16,283 acres.

For a long time, we boasted that Bidwell Park was the third- or fourth-largest city park in the country. I was one of the boasters. But even at 14th or 18th place, we’re doing all right. As Schiffman pointed out, Chico is one of the smallest cities on the top 100 list. We have more acreage per person than most cities. If everyone in the Chico urban area went to Bidwell Park at the same time and stood as far apart from each other as they could, there would be less than 30 people per acre. In some of the wooded areas, we wouldn’t be able to see our nearest neighbor.

Among famous parks, Griffith in Los Angeles, with 4,218 acres, ranks 15th, Balboa in San Diego, with 1,091 acres, ranks 74th, Golden Gate in San Francisco, with 1,018 acres, ranks 76th, and Central in New York City, with 840 acres, ranks 85th.

If we could fudge a little and include the 750 acres of the Bidwell Ranch — which in time will be accessible to the public — and fudge a lot and include the 4,000 acres of Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve — which you can enter if you get a permit — then Chico would jump to 5th place. After all, both parcels adjoin Bidwell Park. But I suspect the Trust for Public Land is a stickler for counting only parks, not other kinds of open space preserves.