San Francisco --

Three of California's most picturesque state parks - including two in Marin County - were taken off the state park closure list Thursday after the National Park Service agreed to take over security and operations.

The park service plans to patrol and collect fees from the 250,000 people a year who visit Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park when the state closes as many as a quarter of its protected areas, historic sites and natural preserves next year.

It is one of the first of what park officials hope will be many collaborative partnerships among public and private agencies and government organizations to keep parks open.

"It's very exciting news, and it is a continuation of a long-term collaboration between the National Park Service and the California State Parks," said Jerry Emory, the spokesman for the California State Parks Foundation. "It's not a silver bullet, but it keeps some parks open."

The key to this agreement, park officials said, is that all three state parks are adjacent to national parklands. Staffing, resource protection and park operations were, to at least some extent, already being shared.

The 2,000-acre park in Tomales Bay, with its pristine beaches and virgin stands of bishop pines, is actually within the borders of the Point Reyes National Seashore. Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park is within Redwood National Park, near Crescent City.

The most complicated of the three agreements was the one involving Samuel P. Taylor park, a camping haven amid redwood trees that is surrounded by land that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Recreation area officials said a $2 day use fee will be tacked onto the existing $5 fee at Muir Woods National Monument. That money will go into a fund that will pay for operations at Mount Tamalpais State Park, which isn't on the closure list, and keep Samuel P. Taylor open at least four days a week.

"The closure of the state parks that are within our national park areas could create use pressures and unacceptable threats to park resources," said Frank Dean, the recreation area's general superintendent.

A large portion of the money will also be used to protect and enhance the watershed that feeds Redwood Creek, which originates on Mount Tamalpais, passes through Muir Woods and flows out to the ocean at Muir Beach.

"Muir Woods, Golden Gate and Mount Tamalpais State Park are inextricably linked in the complex watershed of Redwood Creek," Dean said.

The agreement will not save 67 of California's 278 parks, including the governor's mansion and several other parks within an hour of San Francisco. Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco, China Camp State Park in Marin, and Olompali State Park and Jack London State Historic Park in Sonoma County, are still on the closure list.

All together, the parks scheduled for closure attract about 5.6 million visitors a year.

The one-year deal, which can be renewed by mutual agreement, obligates the National Park Service to keep the three state parks open, but officials said no additional federal money will be spent on the parks and no major or long-term infrastructure improvements or repairs will be made.