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Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

latimes.com

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Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#191

Post by burtonator »

gamblor956 wrote: post #176
jungletime wrote: post #161

I visited Yosemite, while beautiful, it is so commercialized. It feels like disney world for nature. It did not seem wild at all in the valley. More like a hippy tent city, with a pioneer village. I saw some deer, wanted to take a photo from maybe 200 feet away. And I literally could take photo with two other photographers in my line sight with the deer. It was a little ridiculous. 3 in one head shot. And a little mo…

Yosemite Valley is about 2% of the total area of Yosemite National Park. It's deliberately concentrated so that most of Yosemite can remain wilderness.

I've hiked the entire park. Literally ever trail except for maybe 1-2 miles.

The park is massive. It would take about 2 weeks doing 10-15 miles a day to cover the entire thing.

The VAST majority of the park is empty. If you go more than 2 miles in you have the entire place to yourself.

There are places in the back country that would be ENTIRE national parks if they were anywhere else. Maybe of the waterfalls don't even have names.

I want wolves and grizzlies reintroduced.

The upside of grizzlies and wolves is that all the slow and sick tourists would be eaten thereby strengthening our species.

Jokes aside... We did it in Yellowstone and it's time we let wolves back into CA

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#192

Post by savoyard »

williamscales wrote: post #164

I hope we keep it closed, more or less. They could restrict visitors using a lottery system. No motorized vehicles within the park boundaries. The valley would have a chance in that scenario. Otherwise it will just be swamped by even greater crowds rushing in to "enjoy" (really destroy) the beautiful nature. I visited Yosemite valley proper for the first time last year after living in California for five years. I was…

From “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin [1]:

“The National Parks present another instance of the working out of the tragedy of the commons. At present, they are open to all, without limit. The parks themselves are limited in extent—there is only one Yosemite Valley—whereas population seems to grow without limit. The values that visitors seek in the parks are steadily eroded. Plainly, we must soon cease to treat the parks as commons or they will be of no value to anyone.”

He includes a lottery in his list of possible solutions.

[1] https://doi.org/10.1126/science.162.3859.1243

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#193

Post by gilrain »

lorenzfx wrote: post #177
Gibbon1 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem I have with Parks. There is a conflicting mandate. They 'protect' but they also 'promote'. My parents took us up to Yosemite on weekend trips in the summer growing up. 50 years ago they tended to studiously avoid the valley proper. The farther you're willing to hike the fewer people and more bears and Germans.

Germans?

It's a stereotype with a grain of truth. In general, European tourists seem to be more accomplished or more enthusiastic hikers. You come across a lot of German-speaking people. But also Scandinavian and various others. Like all stereotypes, it breaks down on close inspection.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#194

Post by WalterBright »

williamscales wrote: post #164

I hope we keep it closed, more or less. They could restrict visitors using a lottery system. No motorized vehicles within the park boundaries. The valley would have a chance in that scenario. Otherwise it will just be swamped by even greater crowds rushing in to "enjoy" (really destroy) the beautiful nature. I visited Yosemite valley proper for the first time last year after living in California for five years. I was…

I would like to see these national parks massively expanded, especially with an eye towards connecting them with wildlife corridors.

Some offshore areas should also become marine national parks, with no motorized boats allowed in their boundaries.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#195

Post by WalterBright »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #3
throwaway888abc wrote: post #2

That's so nice to read. Coral reefs, glaciers, many species ... https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059061

It’s happening all around the world. Places like India has seen a remarkable drop in pollution levels. People are able to see Himalayas for the first time from their homes near by. Everest gets a break from the climbers. And even Ganges is showing levels of purity never seen before : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/gang... [..] When the ancient Yamuna River in Delhi has reached a remarkable le…

> Everest gets a break from the climbers.

As there's no wildlife to damage on Everest, I don't see a big problem with it being crushed by tourists.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#196

Post by tren-hard »

mrfusion wrote: post #180

I never understood why no animal has emerged to fill the niche of hunting squirrels in the suburbs? They’re everywhere. (Same question for pigeons)

> The best available research indicates 95% of an average rural fox’s diet consists of meat, both hunted and scavenged, and mainly rabbits, rats, birds and small mammals. Insects and worms may constitute another 4% and the remaining 1% may consist of fruit. http://foxproject.org.uk/fox-facts/red-fox-diet/

Probably because they would also not discriminate against taking a swipe at small dogs and pets. So people complain and now your suburb is free from foxes and coyotes

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#197

Post by souprock »

williamscales wrote: post #164

I hope we keep it closed, more or less. They could restrict visitors using a lottery system. No motorized vehicles within the park boundaries. The valley would have a chance in that scenario. Otherwise it will just be swamped by even greater crowds rushing in to "enjoy" (really destroy) the beautiful nature. I visited Yosemite valley proper for the first time last year after living in California for five years. I was…

All I ever want to do is use the road. There aren't enough mountain passes. For me, Yosemite is basically a toll road.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#198

Post by platypii »

bsimpson wrote: post #43

> This month is typically a busy month in Yosemite: Of the almost 4.6 million tourists that visited the valley in 2019, about 308,000 came during April. "This month is typically a busy one: less than 1/12th of the number of annual visitors." ️

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/visitation.htm

April is when visits ramp up.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#199

Post by dntrkv »

wkyle wrote: post #188
williamscales wrote: post #164

I hope we keep it closed, more or less. They could restrict visitors using a lottery system. No motorized vehicles within the park boundaries. The valley would have a chance in that scenario. Otherwise it will just be swamped by even greater crowds rushing in to "enjoy" (really destroy) the beautiful nature. I visited Yosemite valley proper for the first time last year after living in California for five years. I was…

The goal of a park (particularly the valley) is to allow as many people as possible to see and appreciate it. There are hundreds of thousands of square miles of empty wilderness in the Sierra (including in Yosemite) , with much of it similar in scale to Yosemite. Your story is a good example for one of the goals of parks, but you seem to have missed the point. If you've never been to the Yosemite after living in CA f…

Not hundreds of thousands, the Sierras are about 23,000 square miles, but the point still stands. The Sierras are massive and the majority of it is desolate. I spend about 10-20 days each year (for over 15 years now) exploring these areas and have barely made a dent in covering them.

Even if you just consider Yosemite National Park, the main valley where you mostly see overcrowding, is a relatively small portion of the park. Most of the Sierras are inaccessible to your average weekend camper. Having a few of these hotspots with high tourist activity, in my mind, is a good tradeoff to preserving the vast majority of the Sierra's.

I think if we made it even less accessible to your average Joe, we wouldn't have as much support for preserving these places.

If you really want to see untouched nature, there are many places in the Sierra's where you can drive for hours without seeing another car or hike for days without seeing any trace of humans.

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