Re: Yosemite Wilderness Stewardship Plan: Public Involvement Workshops

From the National Park Service:

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Leave No Trace

I find it interesting that they schedule two workshops in two of the western gateway communities of Yosemite (Groveland and Oakhurst) but none in Southern California. In the past, they would have just scheduled a workshop at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center for those who live near Yosemite.

I don't understand why they leave those who live in Southern California out in the cold in regards to these workshops. A substantial number of Yosemite's visitors are from Southern California and are also from the Central Valley (in addition to the Bay Area). Why no workshops in Fresno or Los Angeles?

I feel fortunate that I live in the Bay Area and will be able to attend the workshop at Fort Mason in San Francisco. But I feel bad for those who care deeply about Yosemite but happen to live in Southern California who might have liked to attend a workshop too.

I wonder if there are going to be major restrictions imposed on stock use in the Yosemite wilderness areas, hence they're scheduling three of the workshops in Yosemite gateway communities to ensure that packers and others that might be economically impacted by the proposed changes can easily provide feedback back to the National Park Service.

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Leave No Trace

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plawrence
I feel fortunate that I live in the Bay Area and will be able to attend the workshop at Fort Mason in San Francisco. But I feel bad for those who care deeply about Yosemite but happen to live in Southern California who might have liked to attend a workshop too.

No feeling bad for southern CA folks from me. ;-) . They take our water, that makes up for everything else. In fact, they take everyone's water. Of course you SF folks take Yosemite's water. Not sure which is worse. :-)

Anyway, thanks to the person who posted the original notice.

Also, I have had an interesting email exchange recently with the range management specialist for Stanislaus National Forest re: grazing in the Carson/Iceberg Wilderness. Grazing is not going away anytime soon in those wilderness areas. 10 year leases and they can renew them.

There will be two webinars so that should be open to anyone. Granted probably not as helpful as being present but also more accessible as if they even did have a workshop in southern California I would guess most people couldn't attend it as physically getting to the location would be prohibitively time consuming.

The choice of locations seems to be with a few hours drive of the park and could be done in a day, ie not having to take two days for a 1 hour workshop. This is also for the preliminary alternatives, so I assume there will be additional workshops in the future that may be in more or distant locations.

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buster
There will be two webinars so that should be open to anyone. Granted probably not as helpful as being present but also more accessible as if they even did have a workshop in southern California I would guess most people couldn't attend it as physically getting to the location would be prohibitively time consuming.

The choice of locations seems to be with a few hours drive of the park and could be done in a day, ie not having to take two days for a 1 hour workshop. This is also for the preliminary alternatives, so I assume there will be additional workshops in the future that may be in more or distant locations.

I have no issue driving to seminars that have been in S. CA because I like to be able to talk to the presenters after the talks. There is a big contingency of people that live in the LA area that are long time visitors and supporters of Yosemite. When they have been here they have been packed with people even when they were during the week which is not a great time to have them. I am glad that there are two webinars to listen to.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2016 03:20PM by parklover.

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plawrence
<snip>
I wonder if there are going to be major restrictions imposed on stock use in the Yosemite wilderness areas, hence they're scheduling three of the workshops in Yosemite gateway communities to ensure that packers and others that might be economically impacted by the proposed changes can easily provide feedback back to the National Park Service.

Two years ago I stayed at (redacted) a HSC. The camp manager, as most that I've met, is very devoted to Yosemite. His family/life is crafted to allow his presence there. He is a school teacher; his children are involved; his wife is the camp cook; they took turns caring for their children away from the camp when the children were young, and now the children are also involved, participating and present in the camp. This is all from my recollection of what he shared and may not be 100% accurate but I think it paints a reasonable picture.

As is typical, after the dinner meal, he gave a talk. This night he happened to talk about the history of people using the Yosemite Valley and area, from the Mono Indians to ranchers/farmers to miners and present day. He spoke about the Tioga Road being present because of the Great Sierra Mine (and a bit about the original alignment). In closing, he also asked the audience to think deeply about the importance of Yosemite NP for them, and how they want to be able to use it in the future, and what they want for their children's opportunities for use. He didn't state his personal position. But he did implore people to learn about upcoming proposals for changing how the wilderness is managed. He vaguely mentioned the impact of some aspects of the proposal as he was aware that would have significant impact on the viability of the HSCamps. I was intrigued and later spoke a bit more with him. I thought there might be restrictions on the HSC because of use of water, or sanitary disposal. It was pretty clear that the issue was banning use of stock to transport supplies to the camps, in effect turning them into backpacking campsites.

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ags
He vaguely mentioned the impact of some aspects of the proposal as he was aware that would have significant impact on the viability of the HSCamps. I was intrigued and later spoke a bit more with him. I thought there might be restrictions on the HSC because of use of water, or sanitary disposal. It was pretty clear that the issue was banning use of stock to transport supplies to the camps, in effect turning them into backpacking campsites.

I suspect that the camps will not be closed outright, but rather the "amenities" will be restricted more and more over time to reduce their impacts--most of which are the impacts of the stocking runs on the trails leading to the camps, not the actual footprint of the camps themselves.

I wouldn't at all be surprised to see flush toilets, showers, stoves/firewood, and even the wool blankets disappear from the camps, and stocking restrictions would be used to reduce the amount of "heavy" food (think fresh fruit and vegetables) and propane carried in for meals, heating water, and keeping fresh food cold/frozen. Ultimately even these will probably be phased out. I don't think a camp where you reserve a bed and share a communal dining room, but otherwise bring in all your gear and food and do all your own cooking, is a bad thing, and such a camp could probably be run with two stocking trips per season: one for setup, one for teardown.

FWIW, JKW and I carried more on our packs when we visited the HSCs than we do now backpacking--we carried some luxuries then, but we also do now. And we can still have pancakes and bacon for breakfast!

As I understand it, there are chalets in Glacier National Park that have the cooking facilities there but require that people bring in their own food.