Yosemite projects
Nonprofit group touts 44 grants worth $11.5 million for 2021
The nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy is touting 44 grants worth $11.5 Million to be spent in Yosemite National Park this year. An eight-page brochure sent to donors leads with descriptions of a $10.4 million capital project for a new Yosemite Valley Welcome Center in Yosemite Village; trail rehabilitation projects for Half Dome, Tenaya Lake and Yosemite Valley; and wildlife management.
Construction on the new welcome center is planned to begin this fall, with the new facility expected to open by the end of 2022 or early 2023, Peter Bartelme, a public affairs representative for the conservancy, said Wednesday.
Projects funded by the conservancy this year will also include efforts to understand why giant sequoias and sugar pines are perishing throughout the Sierra Nevada; to protect endangered Pacific fishers; and to document African American history in Yosemite, including the all-black Buffalo Soldiers units who helped keep watch over the park in the late 19th century.
Grant funding provided by the nonprofit also includes restoration slated for Ackerson Meadow and Lower Cathedral Meadow. High alpine meadows of Yosemite and the rest of the Sierra Nevada range are vital to hydrology. They are sensitive and biologically rich habitat for up to one-third of Yosemite’s plant species, covering about 3% of the land in the park.
Scientists say Yosemite meadows are like sponges, absorbing water as snowpack melts, then holding that water like underground water towers. Insects, birds, amphibians and mammals rely on Yosemite meadows. Scientists say a large portion of the park’s animal populations, including willow flycatchers, mule deer, marmots,
Belding’s ground squirrels, and pocket gophers depend on meadow habitat to feed or breed.
Most of San Francisco’s water is filtered by Yosemite’s meadows, including Tuolumne Meadows below 13,060-foot Mount Dana and above Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Ecological studies of the park’s meadows began in the mid-1960s, and other studies continue today.
“Yosemite captures people’s imagination in good and in difficult times,” Frank Dean, the conservancy’s president, said in an announcement distributed Wednesday. “We’ve kept moving forward with our projects to restore trails and habitat, protect wildlife, and inspire young people to take care of the natural world, thanks to the generosity of our donors and our productive partnership with the National Park Service.”
There’s a lot in the Yosemite Conservancy plans for the year that will benefit Tuolumne County, John Buckley, with the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center based in Twain Harte, said Wednesday.
Because so many visitors travel through Tuolumne County to reach the iconic destination, “the many projects that the conservancy will be funding this year are obviously highly beneficial for tourism and economic ripple effects here in our county,” Buckley said.
The conservancy provides important funds that enhance the ability of the park to serve as a tourism destination that boosts income for gateway communities, Buckley said. It also provides critically needed dollars for natural resource studies, habitat restoration projects, and other pivotal needs to ensure that the park’s environment gets needed attention and support.
“The Yosemite Conservancy is amazing and highly deserving of public praise for its exceptional partnership with park service staff in planning and implementing projects that benefit the park,” Buckley said.
The donors brochure includes information about Yosemite Conservancy efforts this year to fund research of mountain lions and Sierra Nevada red foxes; songbird science; peregrine falcon protection, nest monitoring, and targeted climbing-route closures to protect young falcons; saving Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and protecting three Yosemitearea herds of wild sheep; minimizing modern human impacts on wilderness ecosystems; protecting the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias; collaborating with Yosemite tribes to promote tribal stewardship of California black oaks in Yosemite Valley; researching John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail backpackers and their impacts on Yosemite wilderness; digitizing more than 3,000 historical maps, plans and drawings in park archives; support park pack animal operations by purchasing at least four new horses and mules to replace retiring animals; celebrating the legacy of Japanese American artist Chiura Obata and his early 20thcentury Yosemite art, immigrant experiences, and perspectives on nature; install educational signs and reroute the Valley Loop Trail to urge safe, respectful learning about the ongoing project to create an Indian Cultural Center at the Wahhoga site west of Camp 4; funding to rejuvenate the 95-yearold Yosemite Museum that first opened in 1926; improving the Yosemite Leadership Program and Wilderness Education Center, as well as junior ranger and volunteer programs; a stewardship program for big wall climbers; expanding the park’s network of electric-vehicle charging equipment in Yosemite Valley and Wawona, for use by visitors, regional transit and park shuttles; art programs; upgrading entrance stations; adventure challenges for teens from underserved California communities; improving resources for the Ask a Climber rangerled programs; expanding the existing, free Yosemite Bike Share program; upgrading signs at Tenaya Lake; enhance YOSAR preventive search and rescue resources; urging diverse California high schoolers to learn about and champion the environment; and improving the Yosemite History Center to “go beyond the center’s traditional focus on AngloAmerican history.”
The exhaustive list highlights how the park’s revenues and congressional budgets consistently fall short of funding multiple priorities the park service has for preserving and managing one of the planet’s most popular and unique wilderness destinations.
For more information about Yosemite Conservancy visit https://yosemite. org/ online.