Yosemite Valley, CA– This year Yosemite National Park received $9.3 million from the Yosemite Conservancy.

“People are incredibly passionate about providing for Yosemite’s future,” said Mike Tollefson, Conservancy president. “Support for the park makes a lasting difference in improving people’s experiences and protecting it for future generations.”

More than 50 projects and programs received funding. Youth In Yosemite programs received $1.3 million for education, mentoring, wilderness exploration and park restoration.

At Tenaya Lake, one of Yosemite’s most popular summer destinations, $850,000 in contributions is restoring wetlands and improving beach access.

The 90-year-old fountain in front of the WawonaHotel was also rehabilitated thanks in part to Conservancy supporters.

Dozens of artists reach more than 2,000 park visitors annually through Yosemite Conservancy’s Art in the Park programs. Yosemite Theater performances at the Valley Visitors Center also entertain and educate more than 10,000 visitors each year.

Yosemite Conservancy is the only philanthropic organization dedicated exclusively to the protection and preservation of Yosemite National Park and enhancement of the visitor experience.

Written by tina.falco@mlode.com

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — An era ended at midnight Wednesday when military operations ceased at Vancouver Barracks.

After 162 years as a U.S. Army base during some defining periods of American history, the barracks site is preparing for a new role. It is destined to become part of the National Park Service, which operates the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

The midnight transition was another step in that process, as well as part of an initiative to restructure the nation’s military facilities.

Soldiers doing some final clean-up chores provided the only Army presence Wednesday at Vancouver Barracks.

“We will no longer be occupying Vancouver Barracks. Today, we’re clearing the buildings, making sure the Army Reserve units have moved out and left the buildings in good condition,” Scott McKean said Wednesday morning.

McKean, a civilian employee of the U.S. Army Reserves, is coordinator for the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program in Washington, Oregon and Montana.

Army Reserve and National Guard units that were based at the historic site have set up operations in a new military center in Sifton, 15005 N.E. 65th Ave., just south of Fourth Plain Boulevard.

“About 1,000 soldiers moved from the barracks to the new Armed Forces Reserve Center,” McKean said. “The move has been gradual over the last month and a half.”

After several previous reductions, the Vancouver Barracks site consists of 33 acres and 28 buildings, including 20 that are categorized as historic buildings, he said.

Tracy Fortmann, superintendent of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, said the park service recognizes the responsibility — as well as the opportunity — that comes with the transition.

“For us, it’s an honor,” Fortmann said. “For our veterans and military retirees, it’s the loss of a post that’s been here their entire lives. Even so, Vancouver Barracks is not lost. It’s our role to keep that story alive.”

One of those veterans recognizes the reality of the transition because he’s been part of it. Bob Knight, now president of Clark College, was the final commander of Vancouver Barracks.

When Knight arrived as a lieutenant colonel in February 1997, “the active duty presence had gone down to a dozen people,” he said.

“We knew the day was coming. I started the closure when I deactivated the barracks in August 2000. We allowed the Reserves to take it, and turned the West Barracks over to the city,” said Knight, whose 3½-year command ended in October 2000.

“The departure of the U.S. Army from the Fort Vancouver National Site after more than 160 years is an outcome we have come to accept with regret,” Elson Strahan, president and CEO of the Fort Vancouver National Trust, said in an email. The national trust is a partner in the transition.

“Clearly, the historical importance of the site is rooted deeply in the Army’s presence for more than a century and a half. When the site was congressionally chartered in 1996, it was envisioned that the Army would remain an active partner, but world events and the required flexibility of our U.S. military changed that assumption,” Strahan wrote.

There still are a few steps — and several other agencies — in the transition, McKean said.

For the immediate future, “it goes into a caretaker status,” said McKean, who also is coordinating a dozen other base closures in Washington, Oregon and Montana.

The Army has a target date of Nov. 1 for relinquishing the Vancouver Barracks property to the Bureau of Land Management, which eventually will transfer it to the National Park Service, McKean said.

There also is another partner in the process.

“The Army Corps of Engineers is the real estate agent for the Army, and works with transfers and ownership of land,” McKean said.

People who want some fresh air or a place for a stroll will continue to have access to the barracks grounds, said Bill Schell, who oversees operations.

“People will be able to walk through,” Schell said. “We will keep an eye on homeless activity, and we will be vigilant until it is transferred.

“We still have some projects to complete, like redoing the gutter system at the auditorium,” Schell said. “We are trying to get the buildings ready to be turned over in good shape.”

Other resources linked to the site are less tangible: the stories of the people who served there. Some historical figures — Ulysses S. Grant, O.O. Howard and George Marshall — have buildings bearing their names. But they’re not the only ones who contributed.

“From the many iconic leaders such as Marshall, Grant and Howard who were posted here, to the thousands of troops who served our nation as they were stationed at and deployed from this site, we owe a true debt of gratitude,” Strahan said.

Knight ran into plenty of those folks as barracks commander.

“People would come by all the time and tell me stories,” Knight said.

Some represented more than one era of history, including Nez Perce elder Horace Axtell. Axtell is a tribal spiritual leader who participates in an annual reconciliation ceremony at Fort Vancouver, commemorating the 1878 death of a Nez Perce child at the fort.

“Horace told me that as a young soldier, he deployed through Vancouver Barracks on his way to the Pacific,” Knight said. “There was a tremendous amount of history that went through Vancouver Barracks.”

Information from: The Columbian, http://www.columbian.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.

Cannons at Wilson's Creek-NPS Photo

News-Leader.com

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield will once again participate in “National Public Lands Day” on Saturday, Sept. 24. The National Park Service will join other Department of Interior agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service to waive entrance fees as an opportunity for citizens to experience public-owned lands.

A variety of cleanup projects are planned around the battlefield. Some of the areas needing attention include the picnic area, hiking trails and trash clean up along State Highway ZZ bordering the battlefield.

Volunteers are asked to arrive at 8:30 a.m. in order to organize into work groups. Volunteers should wear appropriate outdoor work clothes including sturdy shoes, a hat and work gloves. Work would last from 9 a.m. until early afternoon. Anyone who volunteers on National Public Lands Day will receive a free one-day pass valid for a future use at a National Park site.

Additional information on National Public Lands Day can be found at www.publiclandsday.org.

Administered by the National Park Service, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield preserves the site of the first major engagement of the Civil War in the West. The site is considered to be one of the best-preserved battlefields in the National Park System. The battlefield is located 10-miles southwest of Springfield, at the intersection of Highway ZZ and Farm Road 182.

For more information, call 417-732-2662.

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Fri Sep 9, 2011 6:20pm EDT

(Reuters) – Four decorated clay disks have been discovered at a prehistoric site in Alaska, apparently the first artifacts of their type discovered in the state, the University of Alaska Museum of the North said.

The disks were found during a summer expedition in Noatak National Preserve, at a site where archeologists have for decades been studying lakefront pit dwellings that date back 1,000 years, officials at the Fairbanks museum said.

The disks are etched, and two of them have holes in the center.

They were discovered when a team from the museum and the National Park Service traveled to the site in northwestern Alaska to make records of previously discovered prehistoric petroglyphs on boulders.

Such prehistoric rock art is extremely rare in interior and northern Alaska, though common in the southwestern part of the United States and other regions, museum and Park Service officials said.

The accidental discovery of the disks may lead to more such finds, said Scott Shirar, a research archeologist at the museum.

“One of the exciting things is that we’ve only opened up a really small amount of ground at the site. So the fact that we’ve … found four of these items, that indicates that there’s probably a lot more there and there’s something really significant happening at the site,” Shirar said in a video interview posted on the museum’s website.

The site is located about 100 miles northeast of the Inupiat Eskimo community of Kotzebue.

The age of the disks has yet to be determined, museum officials said. The artifacts are currently held at the museum for labeling and further study, museum spokeswoman Theresa Bakker said Friday.

The archeologists will return to the lakeside site next summer, Bakker said.

The Noatak National Preserve comprises 6.5 million acres of Arctic territory on the southern slope of the Brooks Range. The preserve is known for the 400-mile Noatak River, a designated wild and scenic river.

Despite its harsh climate, the area has been inhabited for 11,000 years, according to the National Park Service.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — When the force of 1,200 British redcoats, loyalists and American Indians finally made a stand against the 5,000-strong Continental Army pushing its way into Iroquois country in the summer of 1779, the two sides fought a running battle along the Chemung River Valley near present-day Elmira.

Today, a state park occupies the hill where much of the fighting occurred on Aug. 29, 1779. But Newtown Battlefield State Park only covers some 300 acres of the rolling, wooded landscape where the two forces fought, and there’s a proposal in Congress to look into whether neighboring land needs to be protected for its historical significance and possibly wrapped into a new national park.

The proposal was included in legislation introduced earlier this month by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY. Her measure would authorize the federal government to conduct a study into the benefits of having the Newtown Battlefield and parcels bordering the state park included in the national park system. Gillibrand said such a move would protect areas outside the state park that were part of the original battleground, which covered about 2,100 acres spread over what is now mostly private property in the towns of Elmira, Chemung and Ashland, along the Pennsylvania border 160 miles southwest of Albany.

“New York is known for her history, and this designation would attract more tourism for the area and strengthen our commitment to preserving our landmarks,” Gillibrand said in a news release announcing introduction of her legislation on Aug. 2.

Paul Perine and his fellow history buffs gathered last weekend at the Newtown Battlefield for their annual Revolutionary War battle re-enactment. While Perine and other re-enactors say they favor protecting the land outside the park where the battle was fought, they don’t necessarily want to see the state site taken over by the National Parks Service.

That’s because federal rules forbid battle re-enactments from being staged on NPS property. Musket and canon firing demonstrations and encampments of re-enactors are allowed, but massed ranks of people blazing away at one another with blank cartridges is prohibited, NPS officials said.

“We would probably lose the ability to do what our mission is,” said Perine, the acting president of the Chemung Valley Living History Society.

While the Battle of Newtown resulted in just a few dozen casualties on each side, it was the major engagement of what’s known as the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign, named after the American generals in command of the expedition. In 1779, Gen. George Washington ordered two armies to advance into the heart of the Iroquois Confederacy and punish the four tribes — Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca — who remained allied with the British and participated in bloody raids along the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers.

After defeating the British, loyalists and Iroquois along the Chemung River, the American forces marched north into the Finger Lakes region before heading west to the Genesee Valley. When the campaign ended in the fall, Washington’s troops had burned dozens of Indian villages, their thriving orchards and fields, and sent thousands of Iroquois fleeing to British protection at Fort Niagara.

A parks advocacy group said it isn’t opposed to the Newtown site being handed over to the feds, given New York state’s continued cost-cutting in a parks system desperately needing more than $1 billion in capital projects.

“We all know the state parks system is stretched so thin,” said Robin Dropkin, executive director of Parks & Trails New York. “The National Parks Service offers a kind of the uber-protection. If NPS thought something was worthy enough, it’s like, yeah, let them protect it.”

While such moves are rare, working arrangements between state and federal parks aren’t uncommon. In New York, the NPS has been operating the Oriskany Battlefield and Steuben Memorial state historic sites outside Utica on behalf of the state parks department for the past three years. Employees from the NPS-run Fort Stanwix National Monument in nearby Rome staff the two state properties, an arrangement that provides visitors with knowledgeable guides who are well-versed in the history of all three Revolutionary War sites.

In addition, the state pays for a ranger and two maintenance employees to work at the New York-owned sites, according to Debbie Conway, the NPS superintendent at Fort Stanwix.

“It made a lot of sense,” she said.

As for the Newtown Battlefield, a state parks official said it cost the agency $47,000 a year to operate the site, while its projected annual revenue is about $27,000.

“We would be happy to take part in any study or discussion with the National Park Service to improve Newtown Battlefield,” parks spokesman Dan Keefe said.

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.

The July 31 event will include speakers, dedication of the rehabilitated Grotto Museum building, Paiute dancers and an evening chamber music concert.

The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. Entrance into the park will be free that day.

The park was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft on July 31, 1909. It was rededicated as Zion National Park a decade later.

The Associated Press

A wildfire burning in Zion Natural Park that forced the closure of a hiking trail has spread over 450 acres, but was reported to be 25 percent contained Wednesday.

The lightning-sparked Horse fire was discovered on July 7 and is located about 1½ miles southeast of Lava Point, in the northern part of the park.

On Wednesday, park officials said the northern part of the fire, which is most worrisome to fire officials, was slowed by a lack of fuel when it reached an area that was burned last fall.

The southern and eastern parts of the fire continued moderate growth Tuesday. The West Rim Trail from Lava Point to Potato Hollow was temporarily closed to protect visitors.

Smoke from the fire may settle into canyons at night, especially Zion Canyon, but canyon winds should blow it away by mid-morning, park fire spokesman David Eaker said in a news release.