Yosemite 66(2)
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A JOURNAL FOR MEMBERS OF THE YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION Spring 2004 Volume 66 Number 2 Public Land Management and Yosemite in 1897 2003 ANNUAL REPORT INSIDE A Message from the President ew YA board member Keith Alley and I hiked yesterday to a point in Yosemite Valley from which we could see five different waterfalls at once. The spring conditions were remarkable, with brilliant blue skies, a brisk breeze slinging violet green swallows over our heads, and the constant roar of water. As it has for years, Yosemite keeps renewing itself and the spirits of those of us lucky enough to spend time here. N Speaking of renewal, our plans to complete the remodel of the Visitor Center lobby and book- store were put on hold due to a delay in the approval process in Washington, DC. Because we had completely dismantled our old bookstore, we were forced to “renew” the old space before the Easter vacation rush with fixtures that we quickly assembled from a variety of sources.We will operate in the old space until this fall, when the remodel project is now expected to get underway. The YA bookstore will enjoy a major upgrade, with custom-built fixtures, a new point-of-sale computer system to expedite transactions, better lighting, and added display space. Raising funds to help pay for these Cover: improvements is the goal of our annual campaign this year. You can help us with the move to the new facility The Highway by making a donation in the envelope that is included in this journal. Our members will be hearing more Commission about the project throughout the year, and information is available at www.yosemite.org/newyabookstore. packs up for its survey of an I wanted to extend special thanks to our friends at The Ansel Adams Gallery for hosting YA’s special extension of the donors reception on March 26, the night before our Spring Forum (see page 20). It was great to see over 400 Tioga Road through Bloody of you at the forum, and we encourage everyone to start making plans for our Annual Fall Meeting on Canyon over September 18 in Wawona, where our guest speaker will be Royal Robbins. More information about the Fall Mono Pass, Meeting will appear in the next issue of Yosemite. a well-used route for sheep We’re pleased to announce that the generosity of our members (who donated to our 80-for-80 campgain in Yosemite last year) has allowed us to re-establish the YA Student Intern program after a several-year hiatus. We will be National Park. bringing four university students to the park for the summer season, during which they will have the oppor- PHOTO FROM CALIFORNIA tunity to learn about Yosemite while supplementing the National Park Service interpretive program in DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS BIENNIAL Wawona and the Mariposa Grove. Thanks for making it possible for us to bring back this important program! REPORT FOR 1900. The membership staff has noticed that many of you have upgraded your membership to a higher level this year. These upgrades are enormously helpful to us in accomplishing our work. Not only will your becoming a member at the Supporting, Contributing, Sustaining, Patron, or Benefactor level benefit Yosemite, but you also can take advantage of a number of new premiums, including special events for the highest levels, this year. See the back cover of this journal for gift descriptions. Finally, I’d like to congratulate Pat Wight, YA’s Director of Sales and Marketing, who celebrated 20 years of service to our organization in April. Pat has been a dedi- cated and productive employee for over two decades now, and has worked full time for the association longer than any other staff person. I encourage members to let Pat know how much she is appreciated, and with everyone else in the organization I applaud her for her hard work over the years. Sending spring greetings and thanks for your continuing support, Steven P. Medley, President 2 YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SPRING 2004 BY JIM SNYDER AND ELLIS YOCHELSON PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT AND YOSEMITE IN 1897 n interesting event in Yosemite history was the aside until protection was provided. Eastern scientists meeting of Capt. Alex Rodgers, Acting promoted a study to develop a policy for national forests. ASuperintendent of Yosemite National Park, and The Secretary of the Interior asked the National Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Director of the US Geological Academy of Science to conduct such a study in 1896. Survey, in Yosemite in September, 1897, to review the The draft of the National Forest Commission’s report status and needs of the national park. Their discussions that reached Cleveland recommended thirteen new for- and the problems they addressed provide insight into the est reserves as laid out by the young commission secre- unsettled and slowly developing state of management tary, Gifford Pinchot. Cleveland’s subsequent reservation policy for our nation’s public lands at the time. of twenty-one million acres was met with a storm of Yosemite National Park was established in 1890, dur- western opposition because there was no provision in ing a period when there was growing national concern law for any use to be made of them until regulations about the welfare and future of forests and the rapid rate were established. In response, Congress set out to nullify of sale of federal forested lands. The 1891 Forest Reserve Act allowed the president to reserve forested lands by executive order. Presidents Harrison and Cleveland set aside nearly 17.5 million acres, including the vast Sierra National Forest in 1893.1 About the same time, there were sev- eral proposals to reduce the size of Yosemite to accom- modate private lands and development. In 1894 paleontologist Charles D. Walcott replaced John Wesley Powell as direc- CHARLES WALCOTT COURTESY PHOTO THE USGS. OF tor of the U.S. Geological Above: As Acting Survey (USGS) – the agency Superintendent, Capt. Alex created to consolidate sev- Rodgers sought more help to eral federal scientific surveys control fire in Yosemite of western lands.2 Director National Park; he used pho- tographs like this one to Walcott noted that the first make his point. forest reservations were rel- CHARLES WALCOTT COURTESY PHOTO THE USGS. OF atively uncontroversial, Right: USGS Director “since no real protection Charles D.Walcott, standing was afforded to areas in the stump of a fallen tree, reserved, and the cutting of hoped parks and forest reserves would be managed timber and destruction by to prevent destructive fires fires went on within their that destroy trees like this limits as elsewhere.”3 one. Mindful of this problem, President Cleveland was unwilling to set more land YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SPRING 2004 3 Cleveland’s proclamation. With the intercession of sev- Sept. 12, rode up the Yosemite Falls Trail and took the eral congressmen, the cooperation of new President Tioga Road to Tenaya Lake, camping at Murphy’s McKinley, and the political savvy of USGS director cabin. Walcott, a compromise was written into the Forest Sept. 13, rode to Tuolumne Meadows and camped two Management Act of June 4, 1897. miles above Tuolumne on the Mt. Conness trail, from The act suspended Cleveland’s proclamation for one which he and field geologist F. B. Weeks ascended year in every state but California (which supported the Conness and returned to camp. reserves), and provided for the use of the forests and for their management. The act also funded examination and Sept. 14, met Capt. Rodgers in Tuolumne Meadows and survey of the reserves by the USGS. That agency under rode out of Yosemite by Mono Pass, camping on the road Walcott mapped the forests in many reserves and pro- to Benton. duced long reports on their forest resources. Sept. 15, caught the Carson & Colorado Railroad at Wanting a forester’s evaluation, Walcott arranged for Benton for Big Pine, where he wrote his report to the Pinchot to be hired by the Secretary of the Interior as an Secretary of the Interior before riding into the Inyo agent to examine the forests. Pinchot visited Yosemite Range to continue paleontological research begun in and the Sierra, as well as many other forests, in 1897. He 1894.6 examined fire, grazing, trespassing, mining, and logging on each forest, and his report recommended policies for Rodgers later wrote the Secretary, explaining that the management of these activities on reserved forest there had not been time enough to show Walcott much lands. The next year Pinchot was named forester in of the park. But they had been able to discuss “its most charge of the Department of Interior’s Forestry Division, urgent needs.”7 Topics included forest fires, illegal water from which he began to build the base, both political and diversions, trespass by sheep, road development, and scientific, for the establishment of the Forest Service in patrol trails with telephone lines for communication. 1905.4 Each issue came up graphically during Walcott’s trip, and Decisions about federal lands tended to favor the Walcott reported back to the Secretary on them all, as public rather than private interest as the government did Rodgers. began a slow change toward more active regulation of There had been numerous fires in the dry year of the economic practices of the nation. Differences 1897. Several additional fires were set in the park even between forest reserves and parks were being defined as as Walcott took the stage to Wawona. The separate fires were management policies and practices for such reser- joined and spread until they could be stopped only by vations.