Filmmaker Alden Olmsted's effort to prevent California state parks from closing fits every known definition of a grassroots campaign.

The son of a renowned naturalist, Olmsted is visiting every one of the 70 state parks slated for closure and dropping off plastic donation buckets that were once used by a friend for storing marijuana. His goal is to collect a dollar from every Californian.

"If every California resident donated just $1, the parks would have more than the $33 million and we would be able to prevent them from closing," he said last week as he strode into Candlestick Point State Recreation Area carrying one of his aromatic jugs affixed with a photograph of his recently departed father, John Olmsted, who once worked as a naturalist at Golden Gate Park.

Idea is catching on

It may sound like a pretty basic idea, but Olmsted's boots-on-the-ground appeal to the real park stakeholders may actually catch on. Close to 100 people have already contributed nearly $1,500 to a campaign that is only a week old.

Olmsted, 39, of Nevada City, has so far visited 17 state parks, including Candlestick Point, Annadel State Park in Sonoma County, and Olompali State Historic Park and Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County. His plan is to find a "bucket host" to take charge of donations at every park. So far he has nine of them. The hosts would report back to him every Monday and the results would be posted on his website, www.johnolmsted.net, where a link would also be available for people to make online donations.

"What are the parks worth? Well, I know they're worth a buck," Olmsted said. "I know we can't get everyone, but if most people can give a buck it will at least buy some time while we figure out more solutions."

$22 million in cuts

The state park money problem has thus far stumped politicians, conservationists, lobbyists and number crunchers throughout the state. Voters last year refused to tack $18 onto the vehicle license fee to pay for the parks, forcing Gov. Jerry Brown to propose $22 million in cuts over two years to the state parks budget.

The budget cuts mean 70 of the 278 parks, including the governor's mansion and at least 14 sites within an hour of San Francisco, would have to be closed starting in September. The list includes redwood forests, beaches, coastal woodlands and some of the state's most important cultural and historic sites, including Bay Area sites such as Candlestick Point, Samuel P. Taylor, China Camp State Park and Jack London State Historic Park. As many as 220 jobs would also be eliminated.

Olmsted said the death of his father in March at age 73 was the impetus for the dollar-for-parks campaign. John Olmsted, who was the education director at Golden Gate Park about four decades ago, led efforts to preserve many Northern California nature areas and state parks starting in the 1960s when he arranged the acquisition of a planned motel site that has since become Jug Handle State Natural Reserve. He also worked as a naturalist and docent at the Oakland Museum, the UC Berkeley Extension and the Mendocino Art Center.

The elder Olmsted - a distant relative of Frederick Law Olmsted, who founded American landscape architecture and built some of the nation's greatest parks - started the nonprofit California Institute of Man in Nature and the Sequoya Challenge.

Honoring his father

Alden Olmsted, whose film credits include a role as a thief nailed to the cross in a documentary about crucifixion, was not necessarily eager to follow in his father's footsteps. He was just starting to make a name for himself as a screenwriter and filmmaker in Hollywood, but he nevertheless interrupted his budding career to be with his father in Nevada City after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He recently completed a documentary film, "My Father, Who Art in Nature." His father saw the film five days before his death.

"I absolutely feel like I owe it to my father to help save the parks that he helped create," Olmsted said. "I figure this might put a public face to the story without politicians being involved."

Olmsted affixed images of his father on the donation jugs and has since motored from Crescent City to Fort Bragg and from Sacramento to Marin County in search of donations. Two people donated within minutes of his arrival at Candlestick, where Ann Meneguzzi, the supervising ranger, vowed to help him any way she could.

"This park represents the outdoors and the wild to a lot of San Franciscans," Meneguzzi said, as she led Olmsted on a tour of the park. "If we abandon this, how do you prevent vandalism? How do you ensure public safety? The idea of the parks closing is abhorrent."

Meneguzzi was on a roll, but she paused and looked at Olmsted. "Thank you for helping out the park system," she said.

Olmsted left a donation bucket with the proprietor of the Road House Coffee Co., on Third Street, where Meneguzzi said many Candlestick Point hikers gather.

"I don't know if this will work, but I couldn't just sit there and do nothing," Olmsted said of his quest. "I want this summer to be the summer that we say, 'We're sick of this,' and save the parks. There is no reason why we can't all do this together and make a difference."