Re: Citations by park rangers

Citations for what? Just saying 'citations' is a rather broad generalization.

Don't worry, 95% of the harassment, ahem, citations, are for DNC employees and/or climbers.

Though there was an interesting/ sad case involving the removal of pounds
and pounds(like, a lot) of moss from the park to be used at some shrine.
They were fined big time.

Obliviously you shouldn't speed in the park... but it seems that they are
really cracking down at Crane Flat 25 Zone. So good luck not getting
a ticket if you normally zip thru there. My flippers always take it easy
thru der. If some clown behind u is on ur butt in that area... just move ova
and let them feel the pain. I've seen the "speed trap" a few times already
this year... complete with ranger saying hello to someone pulled over.
I wave as I glide on thru.
Drive to Stay Alive

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Interesting that visitors are increasing but citations are decreasing. Does that mean Yosemite is getting more law abiding citizens, or.... ?
Warnings were really high in '09 but really low in '10. I don't know what that means...

Taking dogs on trails, letting bears get food, speeding, and failing to park off the pavement are things that will get you fined. So will crossing the railing on the Merced and needing rescue (that's what the sign says).

Total numbers mean little unless they are broken down. The main problem within our parks has always been a matter of budgeting. If the difference is mostly traffic citations then it means little without explanation. Large numbers of drivers are always annoyingly speeding whenver I'm in the park, impatiently tailgating anyone in front of them. Thus simply increasing or decreasing that enforcement would make all the difference. One could also expect if backcountry rangers were increased, there would be a direct corresponding increase in citations.

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http://www.davidsenesac.com

What is a difference between a citation and a warning?

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Yury
What is a difference between a citation and a warning?

A citation means you have to pay a fine; warnings just mean you get yelled at.

Do the rangers keep a record of these warnings with the driver/car information? I got yelled at last month near curry village (license, registration and insurance please,,... verified over radio,.. and after a while, please drive carefully, have a nice day)..

Citation: A nasty yellow piece of carbon paper that you can't read with some amount you gotta pay or some date you gotta appear.
Warning: I'm gonna let you go this time but.................Have a nice day maa'm/sir

Once I saw a citation on a windshield for a parked car at Yosemite Lodge. The citation was for having "cleaning fluids" in clear view, with the explanation that they were possible bear attractants. And I did see what they were - bottles of household cleaners. I'm not sure if they were really going to be an attractant by smell, but certainly bears see bottles in plain view and think they might be something worth breaking in to consume.

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y_p_w

Once I saw a citation on a windshield for a parked car at Yosemite Lodge. The citation was for having "cleaning fluids" in clear view, with the explanation that they were possible bear attractants. And I did see what they were - bottles of household cleaners. I'm not sure if they were really going to be an attractant by smell, but certainly bears see bottles in plain view and think they might be something worth breaking in to consume.

And yet all the candy bars inside the candy vending machine next to the Yosemite Lodge Bike Rental Shop are in clear view and the bears never touch those.

Go figure.

.

Bears have been known to break into a car just to get at a spare can of engine oil on the floor. They don't know it's not food; it just looks like a container that might have food in it.

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plawrence

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y_p_w

Once I saw a citation on a windshield for a parked car at Yosemite Lodge. The citation was for having "cleaning fluids" in clear view, with the explanation that they were possible bear attractants. And I did see what they were - bottles of household cleaners. I'm not sure if they were really going to be an attractant by smell, but certainly bears see bottles in plain view and think they might be something worth breaking in to consume.

And yet all the candy bars inside the candy vending machine next to the Yosemite Lodge Bike Rental Shop are in clear view and the bears never touch those.

Go figure.

.

Maybe they are on a chocolate free diet? LOL Kidding aside, maybe it is because they learned that vehicles have food before the vending machines were put in. It is probably just a matter of time before some bear breaks into a vending machine and the behavior is passed on.

In March we went to dinner at the Mountain Room and there was a DNC person putting big yellow notes on vehicles that had food or other bear attractants in them. Many of them were because there were child car seats left in the car. Bears have learned that car seats = finger foods such as Cheerios. When my son was still in a car seat we used to take the car seat out and put it in the room and then sweep out and dispose of any finger foods that he dropped in the back seat area.

Trouble in paradise? Drug busts are on rise at Yosemite

http://www.petethomasoutdoors.com/2013/04/trouble-in-paradise-drug-busts-are-on-rise-at-yosemite.html

That brings up the question of whether or not it's more drugs or more enforcement in the park.

I would guess that it is because of more enforcement. i remember fresno making the news a while back for having the most DUI's in the US - but that was because of the fresno police force making it a big goal to target it.

Am I reading that graph wrong? Are there more visitors now and less citations/warnings? Also, how do they count visitors? Is it every pass sold or every car that goes through the park. Am I counted as one person, or ten people because I made ten trips into Yosemite last year. When I pick up a permit from the groveland ranger to go in towards Kibbie lake am I counted? Guess I never really considered how they get their numbers.

They count the number of vehicles and then multiply it by a factor that is the average amount of people in a vehicle. I can't remember what it is but it is something like 2.5 people/car. I am not sure how they take into consideration when people hike into the park. In the masses of information the NPS puts out, there is a explanation of how the parks figure out attendance. It would be near impossible to count individual people coming into parks so attendance is a "guestimate". In counting there is no differentiation between multiple people that visit once a year or a person visits multiple times a year, the number is the total amount of visitation. If you went ten times then you are counted ten times.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2013 10:19AM by parklover.

One phenomenon that I have wondered about for years is whether Yosemite black bear are taught by their mothers to be more accomplished at car clouting than bear in other parks. I recall bears entering locked cars in Bridalveil Creek Campground in 1970, but you seldom encountered such a problem in Yellowstone or outside the park.

As Yogi might say, Yosemite bears are smarter than the average bear.

,

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plawrence
As Yogi might say, Yosemite bears are smarter than the average bear.

They are certainly smarter than Sequoia bears.

The cubs see what their mother's do to get food and they learn it from her.

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parklover
The cubs see what their mother's do to get food and they learn it from her.

And that results in the tragic circumstance of the Rangers sometimes having to put down both the mother AND the cub(s). . .

( a fed bear is a dead bear )
( don't feed the wildlife! )
( be bear aware! )

Thanks for the info parklover