In August 2022, CURes launched a project with California State Parks and Parks California to conduct a survey of visitors and local residents near the Oceano Dunes District parks, which include the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area and Pismo State Beach.
In Phase 1 of the project (2023-2024), CURes worked with researchers at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and community liaison Dr. Erica Ruvalcaba to conduct surveys of 1,233 people across 55 locations in the Oceano Dunes District Parks and surrounding communities. Survey questions were designed to gather insights into visitor and community demographics, frequency and types of use, barriers to use, environmental awareness and perceptions of use, and familiarity with park opportunities. The survey effort sought to oversample communities local to the parks, especially from the community of Oceano itself, and Latino and Hispanic community members. In previous outreach, some of these groups were underrepresented in the process.
Phase 2 of the project launched in November 2025 with the goal to conduct community engagement related to the survey findings.
A report, “Oceano Dunes Community Survey Results” was completed in December 2024 and will be released following the conclusion of Phase 2.