Stand for an hour or two in the middle of the Upper or Lower Paugussett State Forest with a petition in hand and see how many signatures you can get for restoring the $2 million cut from funds for state parks and forests in Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal. Better take your binoculars as well and do a little birdwatching to pass the time before you head home with your empty sheet of paper.

Notwithstanding this likely scenario, there is a vast constituency for Connecticut’s wild and natural places. DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee testified to the legislature’s Appropriations Committee last month that Connecticut’s parks and forests attract more than eight million visitors a year, generating more than $6 million annually for the state’s general fund, mostly from parking and camping fees.

It used to be that most of the revenues generated by the state’s parks were dedicated to their management and conservation in what was called the Environmental Conservation Fund. That system fell victim to the recession, however. In 2010, park revenues were redirected to the general fund, where they became available for other state spending priorities. State budgetmakers quickly learned to insinuate their hands into every available pocket to balance increasingly lopsided budgets.

Recognizing that the practice of diverting funds in this way posed some long-term threats to infrastructure, legislators started talking about revenue “lockboxes,” particularly for transportation funds to reconstruct and maintain the state’s sorely neglected roads and bridges. Now that the creeping impact of budget cuts on the state’s parks and forests is drifting toward a similar legacy of neglect, some legislators are looking around for protected sources of funding for these critical natural resources.

One promising idea has emerged from the state Environment Committee under the stewardship of its new Senate co-chair, Ted Kennedy, Jr (D-Branford). It calls for the creation of a State Parks Sustainability Account funded by an opt-out voluntary $5 donation paid along with biannual motor vehicle registration fees. Because the funds would be dedicated donations, they would be off limits to budgetmakers in their perpetual hunt for spare change — or more precisely, spare millions. If just half of us make the donation when we register our cars and trucks, the proceeds will yield more than $2.5 million a year.

This would be a good first step toward establishing a raid-proof source of continuous funding for Connecticut’s parks and forests. These natural assets and resources have come to us through a continuity of responsibility from preceding generations — a responsibility we should never spend down no matter what the fiscal climate in Hartford.