Decades After An NPS Internship, Returning To Yosemite

[hatrack]

I recently visited Yosemite National Park after decades away. In 1993, I spent a summer there as a park ranger intern, and came to know and love the park deeply. On this trip, I saw its transformation at the hands of climate change. It was devastating.

Coming into the park from the south, up California 41, I looked out onto mountains that appeared studded with giant charred toothpicks. The 2018 Ferguson fire had decimated this once magnificent forest. Other trees were dying off, victims of bug infestations abetted by warming temperatures and milder winters. The waterfalls were pathetic wisps in the wind, shadows of the lush, white horse-tails that spilled down the summer I lived there. Wildfire, tree-death, and dwindling waterfalls are natural occurrences. But these problems are exacerbated by climate change, according to the National Park Service.

With the worsening heat — it hit 104 degrees in the valley this month — you can’t enjoy being there as much. The West Coast is being battered by those three awful cousins, drought, heat and wildfire. When will the hot weather leave certain unforgettable, vertical hikes, like to the top of Half Dome, out of reach?

Yosemite’s last two glaciers are rapidly retreating. They will most likely disappear in a few decades, threatening the summer and autumn water supply in these mountains. By the time I visited in the first week of July, some of the streams in the high country — relied upon by animals and backpackers alike — were already dry. The river that threads through the valley, the Merced, was low and listless. When I lived alongside it years ago, it was so swollen with melted snow and the rapids so loud, I would have to close my window before making a phone call.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/opinion/yosemite-west-coast-smoke.html

[texasfiddler]

1. I just visited Yosemite two weeks ago for the first time

It was so hot and large swaths of forest were burned. Driving up from Coarsegold on 41 the smoke was thick from the river fire. We could only hike in the morning due to the heat. I would be more optimistic if society as a whole had the will and morality to do something about it. It was awe inspiring to walk through the redwoods, sequoias and Yosemite on this trip. I had my John Muir moments, but I couldn't stop thinking about our warming planet and the frustration and sadness that comes along with that. Even the old sequoias are threatened by taller fires, cedar bark beetle, drought, etc.

[2naSalit]

2. Similar is happening...

To Yellowstone but you forgot to mention the impact of unruly tourists. Much like the Karens and Kevins in airports, they are the same when in a national park only worse because the authorities are not readily available. And many are all about that selfie that says, "Look what I got away with". They do as much, if not more, damage than climate change.