Category Archives: Public Lands

National Parks

Yosemite Ranger Notes: Stewards of Stone – Stabilizing Yosemite Cemetery

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

There’s a place in Yosemite that I’ve only ever been to once in all my trips to Yosemite: the Yosemite Cemetery.  For whatever reason, I didn’t expect to find a cemetery here.  Yet, at the west end of Yosemite Village, past the museum and across the street, there is a quiet place where many of Yosemite’s earliest residents found their final rest – including many who added to the rich history of the valley.

The Yosemite Conservancy has put up a grant this year to help repair and refurbish the cemetery’s gravestones and monuments that have been neglected for year years.

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National Parks

150 Years of Yosemite – focus on the Yosemite Museum

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The Yosemite Museum was completed in 1925, and opened to the public on May 29, 1926. Architect Herbert Maier designed the building in a very specific “National Park Service Rustic Style,” which became the standard throughout all national parks throughout the United States.

The Yosemite Museum was the first building constructed specifically as a museum for the national park system.

From the NPS website:

“…The National Park Service Rustic Style became a cornerstone of the National Park Service’s belief that buildings should blend in with their natural surroundings and that natural settings could influence architecture. Indigenous building material, such as native rocks, logs, and shakes (wood shingles), were utilized for all visible exterior parts. The architectural philosophy was that “(rustic style) gives the feeling of having been executed by pioneer craftsmen with limited hand tools. It thus achieves sympathy with natural surroundings and with the past.” The Yosemite Museum is exemplary of rustic style. It was constructed in the heart of an emerging village center, in which all buildings were to have a unified architectural theme. Museum architect Herbert Maier described the relationship between the Museum and its natural surroundings by saying, “The elevation of the museum stresses the horizontal—that seemed the logic of the situation…to attempt altitudinal impressiveness here in a building would have meant entering into a competition with the cliffs.” Maier went on to design many structures that are considered exemplary rustic style. In 1933, Maier was hired by the National Park Service as the regional director for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work in state parks. In this capacity, Maier helped develop guidebooks to assist state park designers in using rustic design principles. These books were widely distributed and influenced design of park structures nationwide at a time when hundreds of new parks were developed with CCC labor…”

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National Parks, News, Wildfire

State Route 120 (Tioga Pass) Reopens

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Tioga Pass opens to through traffic at Noon on Saturday, September 14

From the NPS: SR-120 (Tioga Road) which had been closed from Crane Flat to White Wolf, within Yosemite National Park, will reopen to all vehicular traffic at noon, Saturday, September 14, 2013.

 
Visitors will have access to Yosemite Valley from Highway 395 via SR-120. However, due to continued fire activity in the area, stopping along the roadway is strictly prohibited. The public is advised to use extreme caution as firefighting activities continue in the area and visibility may be reduced due to smoke.
 
National Forests, Wildfire

Help California National Forests Recover

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

What happens after a forest fire like the HUGE Rim Fire burning near Yosemite?

Vance Russell, the National Forest Foundation’s Director of Programs for California has sent out an email to everyone who, I guess, supports the National Forest Foundation, and I thought now might be a good time to share it with you:

As I write this morning there are 22 fires burning in California that have scorched nearly 343,000 acres of National Forest lands – a size that could encompass the city of Los Angeles. While I was in South Lake Tahoe last weekend, the visibility barely allowed views of the lake, let alone the famous mountains surrounding it. While I felt sorry for travelers who had come there with high hopes only to be disappointed, smoke-impeded views are among the least important concerns for those who treasure California’s public lands.

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National Forests, National Parks, News

Environmentalism, Budget Cuts to blame for Rim Fire

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

As the Rim fire continues to burn closer and into Yosemite, nobody seems to want to point out why this fire is burning so well, or so fast.

The answer is environmentalism, and budget cuts that have prohibited proper forest conservation.

Environmentalism is the idiotic belief that man knows what’s best for the forest, and can bend mother nature to his will.  In this particular arm-wrestling match, nature will always win.  It was here before man, it will be here after man.  The current wave of environmentalism culminated in huge budget cuts, which has allowed undergrowth to grow unchecked.   Controlled burns were cut out of budgets, as was undergrowth removal.

Supposedly, this stupidity was to allow the forest to ‘return to the wild.’  Yet, in the wild, fires started by nature – by lightning strikes, for instance – occur regularly.  Man, compounding the errors of environmentalism, promptly stopped any wildfires. Not a bad plan, but one that runs contrary to the whole ‘return to the wild’ idea.  Environmentalists seem to think that they can have it both ways; control mother nature, and let mother nature run wild.

It doesn’t work that way.

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