Yosemite Conservancy Spring.Summer 2016 :: Volume 07.Issue 01
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YOSEMITE CONSERVANCY SPRING.SUMMER 2016 :: VOLUME 07.ISSUE 01 Keeping Yosemite “Wild” INSIDE Preserving Yosemite’s Wilderness A Guide to Leave No Trace Expert Insights on Preserving Ackerson Meadow Q&A with a Yosemite Botanist PHOTO: (RIGHT) © KARL KROEBER. PHOTO: MISSION Providing for Yosemite’s future is our passion. We inspire people to support projects and programs that preserve and protect Yosemite National Park’s resources and enrich the visitor experience. PRESIDENT’S NOTE YOSEMITE CONSERVANCY COUNCIL MEMBERS Yosemite’s Wilderness CHAIR PRESIDENT & CEO Philip L. Pillsbury Jr.* Frank Dean* he word wilderness might sound VICE CHAIR VICE PRESIDENT, forbidding, or it might conjure up a Bob Bennitt* CFO & COO Jerry Edelbrock sense of adventure. In an increasingly crowded world, national parks — and their protected Wilderness areas — provide COUNCIL important space, solace, and a refuge for both Hollis & Matt Adams* Jean Lane Jeanne & Michael Adams Walt Lemmermann* wildlife and humans. Some years ago, I had Gretchen Augustyn Melody & Bob Lind the privilege to ski with good friends into a Susan & Bill Baribault Sam & Cindy Livermore snowed-under Tuolumne Meadows. We had Meg & Bob Beck Anahita & Jim Lovelace Suzy & Bob Bennitt* Mark Marion & the meadows to ourselves and enjoyed a full David Bowman & Sheila Grether-Marion moon that reflected off the snow to make it Gloria Miller Patsy & Tim Marshall almost as bright as daylight. It was an amazing experience. Tori & Bob Brant* Kirsten & Dan Miks Marilyn & Allan Brown Robyn & Joe Miller More than 95 percent of visitors to Yosemite spend their time in Yosemite Steve & Diane Ciesinski* Janet Napolitano Sandy & Bob Comstock Dick Otter Valley, Mariposa Grove, or along Tioga Road. By comparison, the Yosemite Hal Cranston* Sharon & Wilderness is relatively lightly used, yet hikers seek more permits than the Carol & Manny Diaz Philip Pillsbury* resource quota allows for the most popular trails. Backpacker use of the John Leslie* & John Dorman* Bill Reller Dave & Dana Dornsife* Pam & Rod Rempt Muir Trail between Yosemite and Mt. Whitney is at an all-time high. Lisa & Craig Elliott Frankie & Skip Rhodes* Kathy Fairbanks Liz & Royal Robbins The popularity is not surprising, as the beauty and inspiration provided by Sandra & Dave Rossetti & exploring the Yosemite high country is magical. However, the park’s Wilderness Bernard Fischbach Jan Avent* is also fragile. Conservancy donors support many projects to help preserve Cynthia & Bill Floyd* Lisa & Greg Stanger* Jim Freedman Jennifer & Yosemite’s Wilderness. Grants for trail rehabilitation, habitat restoration and Susan & Don Fuhrer* Russ Stanton* wildlife research reduce the effects of human impact, so that inspirational and Bonnie Gregory Ann & George Sundby magical experience remains for the next generation. You can read about some Rusty Gregory* Susan & Bill Urick Karen & Steve Hanson Clifford J. Walker* of these important projects, such as restoring habitat in Lyell Canyon and Chuck & Wally Wallner* & extending park boundaries to include Ackerson Meadow, in the following Christy Holloway* Jill Appenzeller pages. The Yosemite Wilderness is yours to enjoy, so thank you for making Christina Hurn & Jack Walston & these projects possible through your financial support. Richard Tassone Sue Estes Jennifer & Phyllis Weber* & Gregory Johnson* Art Baggett Thanks for all you do for Yosemite! YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK COVER PHOTO A visitor enjoys the John Muir Superintendent Don Neubacher Trail through Cathedral Meadow, a designated Wilderness area, on her way to Cathedral Peak, *Indicates Board of Trustees Frank Dean, President in the distance. PHOTO: © JENNIFER MILLER. We are now on Twitter and Instagram! Follow Yosemite Conservancy, and stay connected. 02 SPRING.SUMMER 2016 :: YOSEMITECONSERVANCY.ORG PHOTO: (RIGHT) © KARL KROEBER. PHOTO: SPRING.SUMMER 2016 CONTENTS VOLUME 07.ISSUE 01 ABOVE The pristine, rugged beauty of the Yosemite Wilderness inspires people to connect with the natural world. IN THIS ISSUE DEPARTMENTS 12 EXPERT INSIGHTS 04 RESTORING YOSEMITE’S Resource manager Linda Mazzu shares the WILDERNESS CHARACTER excitement of expanding Yosemite’s borders with the protection of Ackerson Meadow. Programs restore the untrammeled 14 Q&A WITH A beauty of Yosemite’s designated YOSEMITE INSIDER Wilderness areas, while protecting native Yosemite botanist Garrett Dickman explains wildlife and sensitive habitats. how planting native species saves pollinating wildlife in Yosemite. 16 GRANT UPDATES 08 LEAVE NO TRACE: Preserving habitat in Lyell Canyon; restoring A STARTER’S GUIDE beloved Yosemite trails; saving frogs and turtles; and researching rare flora. Whether in Yosemite Valley, Wawona or deep in the backcountry, every 22 PROGRAM UPDATES Outdoor Adventures explore little-known visitor can follow these simple steps wonders; theater programs celebrate the to protect our park. National Park Service centennial; and a new memoir remembers rock-climbing’s golden age. 31 DONOR EVENTS 10 RESTORATION IN Join a community of like-minded individuals PICTURES: A BEFORE to connect to Yosemite. & AFTER STORY 32 WHY I GIVE Side-by-side pictures reveal the hidden Conservancy donors share their stories of story of wilderness restoration, from inspiration and passion. trails to meadows to illegal campfires. 34 READER PHOTOS Yosemite Conservancy supporters share their special Yosemite memories. YOSEMITECONSERVANCY.ORG :: SPRING.SUMMER 2016 03 KEEPING THE “WILD” IN WILDERNESS PROJECTS PRESERVE YOSEMITE’S WILDERNESS hat is wilderness? That seemingly simple noun conjures up a host of images and associated adjectives: undeveloped, rugged, wild. The 1964 Wilderness Act, which established a national network of places “protected and managed so as to preserve [their] natural conditions,” definedWilderness , with a capital W, as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Where that definition stops, our relationship with wilderness begins. We, the human visitors who do not remain, embrace the recreational experiences wilderness offers, prize pristine landscapes as havens for plants and animals, and connect with the symbolic value of primeval spaces as reminders that we are relative newcomers on a shared, biodiverse and ancient earth. All these human–nature relationships find a home in Yosemite. Every year, thousands venture into the park’s 704,624-acre designated Wilderness to experience a remarkable landscape of smooth granite domes and jagged peaks, still lakes and crashing waterfalls, ephemeral wildflowers and age-old trees. And every year, our donors help ensure those wild acres are preserved and managed, so they remain untrammeled for generations to come. This August marks 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service. The idea for LEFT The Cathedral Range’s jagged Echo Peaks, rising out of a lush meadow above the still, clear Echo Lake, epitomize the Yosemite Wilderness: pristine, diverse, wild. PHOTO: © ALICIA MARTINEZ. YOSEMITECONSERVANCY.ORG :: SPRING.SUMMER 2016 05 “Wilderness is a place to calm the mind, clear the lungs and rejuvenate the spirit, but it is also a place to strengthen one’s mental, emotional and physical traits.” — LAURIE STOWE Wilderness Program Manager establishing that federal agency, which today oversees nearly resiliency of Yosemite’s Wilderness to human-induced change.” 44 million acres of the nation’s designated Wilderness, has roots in Yosemite. A century before the Wilderness Act, the The major goals of wilderness restoration, including restoring Valley’s majestic features and Mariposa Grove’s towering natural processes, slowing erosion, improving water quality sequoias helped inspire the 1864 Yosemite Grant Act — and reconnecting fragmented habitat, feature prominently groundbreaking legislation that spurred a movement to set in Conservancy-funded projects. This year, for example, aside protected areas as national parks. Much later, in 1984, donors are funding efforts to remove invasive plants in Congress officially designated the Yosemite Wilderness, which high-elevation meadows, to reestablish sequoia habitat and now accounts for nearly 95 percent of Yosemite National Park. natural water flow in Yosemite’s three sequoia groves, and to restore wilderness character by removing informal campsites Designating land as Wilderness, however, does not ensure it and restoring trails through the Keep it Wild program. Such will remain undeveloped and wild. According to Elissa Kretsch, restoration activities also encourage prevention. Since the Yosemite’s wilderness education coordinator, Conservancy Conservancy started funding Keep it Wild in the 1980s, the donors play a big part in protecting the park’s Wilderness and park has seen a steady downward trend in the number and ensuring everyone can appreciate the remarkable, rare experience size of inappropriately located campsites. of being a guest in a place where nature is allowed to prevail. In many cases, wilderness-preservation projects start with “Our love of wild places is the biggest threat to Wilderness areas,” understanding human nature. By looking at numerous social Kretsch says, noting that hikers can inadvertently affect their paths created around Cathedral Peak, crews identified and surroundings in many ways, such as by transporting invasive stabilized the most heavily used, durable trail, which helped plant seeds on their boots, creating social paths or building consolidate