Adventure-Crew.com

Yosemite Trail, yourcaliforniashow.com

YourCaliforniashow.com

Yosemite National Park, Calif. — Nearly 75 miles of hiking trails and habitat in Yosemite National Park have been restored in the largest ever trail repair project undertaken in the park.

“Our goal was elegant in its simplicity – improve the condition of Yosemite’s most treasured, high-profile trails in order to protect irreplaceable natural resources,” said Mike Tollefson, president of Yosemite Conservancy. “Yosemite’s spectacular trails are a mirror of the democratic notion of the National Park Service’s founding – they exist for all people for all time.”

Repairs were done to 33 miles of the John Muir Trail, from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley.  The improvements include new stone walls, rock staircases, drainage structures and habitat restoration.  Repairs were also made to the John Muir Trailhead in Yosemite Valley and to the east and west ends of the Yosemite Valley Loop Trail.  Repairs were made to foot bridges and new signage was added.

Along Tioga Road, improvements were made to trailheads at Tamarack Flat, May Lake, Yosemite Creek/Ten Lakes, Snow Creek and Gaylor Lakes.  Safer parking was added to some of the trailheads, as well as food storage lockers and wilderness education exhibits.

“Yosemite’s trails are pathways to discovery and inspiration. Some of the park’s most important trails were improved to reverse years of degradation to benefit visitors for decades,” said Superintendent Don Neubacher. “The result is better trails, restored habitats and greater education opportunities for visitors.”

The $13.5 million restoration campaign was a collaboration between Yosemite Conservancy and the park, with Conservancy donors contributing $10.5 million.

“Improvements were made to trails for every type of visitor from families with small children to ardent backcountry enthusiasts,” said John Dorman, Yosemite Conservancy board chairman. “These arteries provide access to unimaginable beauty and a life-time of memories.”

Royal Robbins, a climber and a Yosemite Conservancy council member, said, “Yosemite’s landscape harbors an unforgettable grand collection of peaks, domes, high waterfalls and alpine meadows. The best way to see these natural wonders is by trail.”

The completion of the six-year Campaign for Yosemite Trails was celebrated last week with a ceremonial dedication of the East Valley Loop Trail and recognition of the donors and Yosemite trail crews.

Petrified Forest National Park

Boston.com

PHOENIX – The federal government is gaining control over an even larger expanse of rainbow-colored petrified wood, fossils from the dawning age of dinosaurs and petroglyphs left by American Indian tribes who once lived in eastern Arizona.

The National Park Service secured the first major private ranch within the Petrified Forest National Park boundaries yesterday, capping off negotiations that began years ago with the help of a conservation group. Scientists say they are eager to explore the more than 26,000 acres that have remained largely untouched and discover even more treasures.

“The opportunity to actually go out into an area that hasn’t been worked before by other researchers, the opportunity to find things that are truly new to science – there’s a very good chance of that, so it’s pretty exciting,’’ said Bill Parker, a paleontologist at the park. “I think we’re definitely going to be able to find some things that are new out there that are really going to enhance the story of the park.’’

Congress expanded the boundaries of the park in 2004 from 93,500 acres to about 218,500 acres but did not immediately appropriate any money to buy the private holdings. The funding for land purchases came years later through a federal land protection program. The Park Service now has acquired about a third of the 120,000 acres it wants, with the most significant acreage coming from a transfer of US Bureau of Land Management land and yesterday’s $8 million purchase of the Paulsell Ranch within the park boundaries.

Mike Ford, the Southwest director for the Conservation Fund, said he began a quest to acquire the land for the Park Service in 1999 at the request of Bruce Babbitt, a former interior secretary. Ford recalled driving around in a pickup with the landowner, Marvin Hatch, surveying the land and trying to strike a deal that the two never quite agreed on. Hatch’s family contacted Ford after Hatch died to continue the talks.

The Park Service expects to spend a few years doing inventory on the land before it decides how the public can best enjoy it, Parker said. Some 630,000 people visit the park each year.

LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Calif.—A 13-year-old Red Bluff girl who was caught in a rock slide at Lassen Volcanic National Park has been upgraded from serious to fair condition.
Katrina Botell suffered extensive facial injuries Wednesday when she was hit by falling rocks while hiking a steep trail with her family. Her younger brother, 9-year-old Thomas Botell, was killed.

The children’s parents were not injured, and their 6-year-old sister suffered minor scrapes.

Officials still don’t know what caused the slide on the 2.5-mile Lassen Peak trail. They say the trail isn’t normally susceptible to rock slides.

The trail, which draws as many as 30,000 hikers each year, has been closed while officials investigate the incident.

MercuryNews.com

Written by Tessa Schweigert
Powell Tribune     

It may be a few months before snowdrifts settle in at Yellowstone National Park, but flurries of litigation over its winter-use policy are in the current forecast.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced plans to reduce the number of snowmobiles allowed in the park to 318 per day — less than half of the previous daily limit of 720. The announcement was followed on Friday by Gov. Dave Freudenthal and other state officials seeking to keep the cap at 720. The state’s congressional delegation also voiced its opposition to this latest development in a decade-long saga.

The number of snowmobiles has been under scrutiny and debate since the Clinton administration set to ban the machines altogether in 2000.

Since then, the figures 318, 540, 720 and zero all have been tossed around in a tug-of-war to determine exactly how many snowmobiles can enter the park’s gates on any given winter day.

Those who live in the Yellowstone area are justifiably annoyed that people thousands of miles away have a sway in the park’s governance. Yet, since it is a national park, it is up to Americans — whether in Wyoming or Washington — to decide.

With the 318-per-day proposal last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar also announced a 45-day public comment period, which ends Sept. 8.

This is an opportunity for those living at Yellowstone’s threshold to denounce or praise the newest snowmobile cap.

As Freudenthal said in an Associated Press article: “It would be nice if they sat down and said, ‘What really works for the folks who are wanting to visit, and the folks who are making a living up in Yellowstone?’”

Eventually, a permanent limit will be reached. Until then, speak up.