Yosemite National Park Essay Research Paper Yosemite

Yosemite National Park Essay, Research Paper

Yosemite National Park Salvatore DePoala 107-58-8435 Final Paper History 390 Ronald Helfrich The alpine Yosemite Valley is located within California s Sierra Nevada mountain range. Yosemite was carved by glacial ice. The valley s towering granite walls and rushing waterfalls provide for some unique scenery. This natural beauty has long been recognized as worthy of preservation. The exact form that this preservation should take has also been a source of ongoing controversy. The National Park Service s mission is to conserve the parks natural and historic resources, but the service must allow public use of this land. This split agenda has often been a source of conflict public access versus preservation. Yosemite National Park has begun to suffer from overuse. Environmental deterioration caused by overcrowding and pollution inspired the 1980 Yosemite General Management Plan (GMP). However, the Plan s recommendations have been largely ignored. Only in more recent years have the problems of America s National Parks begun to receive revived attention. Yosemite Valley is located at an elevation of 4,000 feet and is approximately 7 miles in length and 1 mile wide. It is the nation s seventh largest federal park outside of Alaska. In 1864, an act of congress ceded the valley, and also the nearby Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, to the state of California. Congress original intent was to let California “have and hold (the park) for all time as a public trust.” That same year, Frederick Law Olmstead delineated the state s responsibilities in a report to the park commission. Olmstead emphasized the “preservation and maintenance” of resource “as exactly as possible.” These actions eventually made Yosemite the United States first protected park. The need to preserve wilderness areas was first recognized by early conservationists such as John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt towards the end of the 1800 s. These leaders sought to set aside lands that were “splendid and unique.” The Organic Act of 1916 incorporated their ideals. This legislation created the National Park Service. The Organic Act outlined the Park Service s mission toward the nation s parks. It s mission is to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Congress has never been able to clearly define the way in which the national parks should be enjoyed while still preserving their natural resources. In many parks this vague policy has created heated debate. The conflict between preservation and public use has overshadowed much of Yosemite s history. In 1956, Congress approved a 10-year, $725 million improvement program called “Mission 66.” This project built new roads and parking lots on the site. This in turn, attracted an increasing number of visitors with automobiles to the park. Most conservationists felt that Mission 66 encouraged massive park use at the expense of Yosemite s natural attributes. The environmentalist agenda was not clearly recognized until about the early 1960 s. In 1963, a study undertaken by zoologist, A. Starker Leopold, recommended that the National Parks be managed with “as little interference with natural systems as possible.” Leopold insisted that the parks should represent a “vignette of primitive America.” The report eventually led to renewed ecological awareness. It also initiated numerous environmentally oriented policies. The policies included the following: the termination of pesticide use, the elimination of exotic plants and animals, and the restoration of former will predator populations. In the Yosemite Valley preservationists began to rethink the park s policy. They struggled to define the park s primary purpose. It soon became obvious that unlimited access was not a good idea for the park s preservation. So in 1970 motor vehicles were banned from the eastern portion of the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove. Instead the plan for these areas provided public transportation. This transportation was in the form of propane powered trains and shuttle buses. Despite these reforms the problems related with overcrowding at the park continued to grow. Even though many of the early conservationists might have thought that they had preserved the nation s parks forever, in reality they had only just begun the process. Yosemite remains a perfect example of a national park “under siege.” The park happens to be at the center of an entire ecosystem threatened by urban development. More than 30 million people from California live within a day s drive from the park boundaries. During the last several decades, visitation has increase dramatically. In the past ten years annual visits have risen by more than 37 percent. In 1991, the total number of visitors amounted to roughly 3.5 million persons. The degradation of the Yosemite Valley s environment has practical become an established custom. According to the Yosemite National Park General Management Plan (GMP), “the valley is congested with more than a thousand buildings stores, homes, garages, apartments, lodging facilities, and restaurants that are reflections of our society; the Valley floor is bisected by approximately 30 miles of roadway with now can accommodate a million cars, trucks, and buses a year.” During the park s peak times like Memor