1949

YOSEMITE

Nature Notes

Figure

Photo of Bridalveil Fall, by Watkins 1866 from a point not far east of Valley View

Figure 2 Photo by Anderson 1943, from same spot as in Figure 1. Arrow points to Bridalveil Fall.

THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DIVISION AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION, INC.

C. P. Russell, Superintendent D. E. McHenry, Park Naturalist H. C. Parker, Assoc. Park Naturalist R. N. McIntyre, Asst. Park Naturalist

VOL. XXVIII MAY, 1949 NO. 5 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

(No. 4) By Carl P. Russell, Park Superintendent On May 7, 1924, there arrived in The work was not noteworthy for the office of Superintendent W. B. its magnitude alone; it proved to be Lewis a book of such portent and accurate as to facts and reliable in significance in the history of its interpretation. It was presented in interpretive work in Yosemite National Park a manner as understandable to the as to place it for all time among the layman as to the scientist. David important instruments of the Naturalist Department. I refer to Animal David Starr Jordan described the printed Life in the Yosemite, by Joseph Grinnell report as the best original work on and Tracy I. Storer, University life histories published in the West. Because of its influence upon park of California Press, Berkeley, Calif. naturalists, ranger-naturalists, and 1924. Pp. XVIII—752. To refer to this students of the Yosemite School of publication as a book is hardly adeField Natural History, the book is quate, for it became an institution. highly deserving of a place in the In 1914, Joseph Grinnell, who conpresent series of articles. Actually, ceived the idea of the enterprise, it also extended far into the realm of made the reconnaissance prelimipopular education in nature study nary to actual field work which and it has long been out of print bestarted in November, of that year cause of the interest shown by the and continued into 1920. Eight difgeneral public. From a National ferent persons participated in the Park Service standpoint, however, I field investigations at one time or think it may be regarded as primaranother, and 40 collecting stations ily important because of its effect in were occupied. The area surveyed, crystallizing the wildlife policy for some 1,500 square miles, extended the entire Service. from the eastern margin of the Great George M. Wright, one of GrinBasin, around Mono Lake,—a rec.- nell's students at the Museum of rectangular belt of country 89¼ miles Vertebrate Zoology, University of long and 17-1/3 miles wide lying California, fell under the spell of the across Yosemite National Park in a Yosemite book. Later he sought and location to include Mt. Lyell near obtained a permanent position in the southern edge of the strip and the Yosemite Park Naturalist organMt. Conness on the north. Yosemite ization. He soon sensed the dangers Valley in its entirety was embraced of the then ill-defined wildlife policy by the work. The altitudes of the and determined that there should be study ranged from 250 feet at Snellbetter administrative understanding ring to slightly over 13,000 feet on of the normal biotic complex of YoMt. Lyell. semite and all other national parks. Cover Photo: Woodland Mosaic, By Ansel Adams

Out of this determination grew a that wildlife policy. That his reasonprogram of preliminary studies carried was good as he wrote the prescription fed on in several national parks at for wildlife work in na the personal expense of Mr. Wright. tional parks is evident, for there has In the small staff which he organized been no important change in his was a principal assistant, Joseph S. wording in the years during which Dixon, a one-time staff member at the policy has been put into practice. the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology National Park Service policy stateand participant in the Grinnell Surments will not be found in the Grinvey of the Yosemite animal life. nell book, but the reasons why there Their work demonstrated that a should be a wildlife policy for YoWildlife division was an important semite National Park are there, and administrative adjunct in the Directhe existing well-established wildlife tor's organization, and that a coordinated wildlife program and policy program may be regarded as some should guide each Park Superintendthing of a monument to Joseph Grinent in handling biological problems. nell as well as a memorial to George Mr. Wright went further and defined Wright.

VANISHING MEADOWS IN YOSEMITE VALLEY

By Emil F. Ernst, Park Forester Editor's Note: This interesting article in no wise constitutes an official recommendation on the part of the staff of Yosemite National Park. Today 's visitor to Yosemite NaThe Indian Mode of Life tional Park, and to Yosemite Valley Until March 1851, the Indians of in particular, unconsciously accepts conditions as he sees them, little Yosemite had managed the Valley realizing that profound vegetal in a primitive but, to them, effective changes have occurred since the way. They utilized the game and white man came to Yosemite. fish therein and over a hundred Whether these changes have been kinds of native plants. Their dwell for the better or for worse the reader ings and sweat houses were fashioned can decide for himself. However, from products of the trees. that these changes have occurred, Their utensils were made from reeds and how and why they have oc and willow wands. Their bows and curred, make an interesting story. arrow shafts were made of selected Discovery by the White Man woods. Their arrow tips were of ob The Yosemite Valley first became sidian from east of the range. It is of effectively known to white men in record that this primitive people March 1851 when members of the practiced various forms of agriculMariposa Battalion, led by Major ture, including a form of silvicultural James Savage, beheld it from Old treatment of the oaks which supplied Inspiration Point. The name then de their principal vegetative food staple cided upon and still in use is a cor- —acorns. ruption of the local Indian word The management of the lands of "usumati" meaning "terrible" or the Valley, in addition to the agri- "grizzly bear." The Indian inhabitants, themselves, called the valley mentioned, involved processes of plant "Ahwahnee," meaning "deep, control for several objectives includgrassy place." ing: (1) Clearings for the hunting of

game; (2) Clearings to aid the proforests had encroached upon and curement of roots, rhizomes and taken over more than 56% of the tubers at the end of the growing seameadow area in existence at the son; and (3) Clearings to eliminate time of Whitney ' s survey. And, in lurking places for their enemies. the same years, the open, park-like, These clearings were accomplished land commented upon many times mainly through the use of fire and in old writings and reports has bethrough the imposed clearing activcome more densely tenanted with ities of children in the vicinities of trees, brush and debris due to this their camping places which are now white man's protection. called "rancherias." The loss in area of meadow land The Old Order Changeth is, in itself, not serious when considered in the light of the basic prinWith the coming of the white man, ciples and objectives of the National also came a drastic change in the Park Service for no agricultural usmanagement of the lands of Yoages can be permitted. However, semite Valley. The Indian wished to along with this loss has come the retain the open, meadow-like charloss of numerous sublime views of acter of the Valley while the white the falls, the cliffs, and broad, open, man wished to protect his investpark-like vistas stretching on through ments and to utilize the natural rethe Valley. Only through comparasources in a far different manner tive photographs can one realize the from the original inhabitant. As a extensive vegetative changes that result of the white man's protective have occurred in the Valley since endeavors, he has brought about the coming of white man. profound changes in the vegetative ground cover of the Valley. The Photographic Record Except for old time observers and An example of the loss of a pleasstudents interested in the problems ing view is demonstrated in Figures wrought through the activities of the 1 and 2. Who would deny that the well intentioned but ill-advised conservationists, no recognition has the 1866 view is far more pleasing than servationists, no recognition has the scene that now greets one today been taken of the fact that the meadfrom the same place? The modern ows and meadow-like areas of Yotraveler crosses a spot shown in the Yosemite Valley are far less in size foreground of the 1943 picture, yet than they were many years ago. As has not the slightest idea of the view one keen observer and student remarked in 1882 in a report to the tected tree growth of the years. In Governor of California, "protection the 1866 photograph, even a portion has worked destruction." of the Merced River is clearly dis By 1937, when the last estimate while the 1943 view shows was made, the aggregate area of the practically nothing but a wall of meadows of Yosemite Valley had interlaced tree branches. After declined to a total of 327 acres. In 1866, or 15 years after the coming of the white man, the total area of meadow land in the Valley was computed by State Geologist J. D. Figure 3 is also taken from the Whitney to be 750 acres. In the inseries made by Watkins in 1866. It rvening years—1866 to 1937—the clearly shows the open park-like

FIGURE 3.

Photo by Watkins 1866, from spot near Union Point on the present Four Mile Trail. forests and the more extensive meadwere beginning to have their apparows of the time. The 1943 photo from ent effects even at this time. the same vicinity shows what seventy-seven years and the protection of The Written and the Spoken Record the white man have accomplished in changing the vegetative character In 1866 a geological survey of the of the floor of the Valley. The former Yosemite region was made by a open park-like areas have been covparty headed by John D. Whitney. ered with dense stands of trees; the As part of the work a map was meadows have been reduced in size; made of the floor of Yosemite Valley and extensive vistas have been which showed a total of 750 literated. That the Black 's Spring uation was not a localized one is acres of meadow land. In 1937, only uation was not a localized one is 327 acres could be so classified. Not well demonstrated in these two so methodical and analytical are photographs from near Union Point. the numerous references, written and Figures 5 and 6 are from near Coquoted, by other observers. However, lumbia Point on the north rim of Yothe story remains the same, i.e., the semite Valley. The 1890 photograph Valley is not the same to successive shows the open character of the Valreturning visitors. ley so often spoken about by the Dr. L. H. Bunnell, a member of the early visitors. Spots of low reproduction, which in the 1943 picture are tall trees, are barely discernible. A little more than forty years, 1854-1890's, of white man's management were beginning to have their apparent effects even at this time.

Dr. L. H. Bunnell, a member of the 1851 discovery party, many years later in an article apparently prepared for but not published by the Century Magazine, states:

FIGURE 4.

Photo by Anderson 1943, from same vicinity as Figure 3. The Valley at the time of discovery presented the appearance of a well kept park. There was little undergrowth in the park-like valley, and a half day's work in lopping branches along the course enabled us to speed our horses uninterrupted through the groves.

Galen Clark was for many years Guardian of the Valley during the period of trusteeship by the State of California. In 1894 he wrote to the Board of Commissioners of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove:

My first visit to Yosemite was in the summer of 1855. At that time there was no undergrowth of young trees to obstruct clear, open views in any part of the Valley from one side of the Merced River across to the base of the opposite wall. The area of clear open ground, with abundance of luxuriant native grasses and flowering plants, was at least three times as large as at the present time. And the windings of the beautiful clear Merced River could be traced for miles up the valley until lost sight of at the base of the "Cathedral Rocks," at that time, where graceful bends nestled beautiful meadows. Outside of the meadows noble pines, Douglas firs, and cedar dotted the valley. No underbrush, cottonwood nor second growth pines and fir to obstruct the view of the marvelous walls of the valley.

I visited the valley again... a lapse of twenty-four years since I had first seen it. The contrast between things then and now is something remarkable... another thing that struck me forcibly in the contrast with 1866 was the immense increase of trees and small undergrowth everywhere visible in the valley while the majestic Giant Trees of primeval growth seemed to be as numerous as in former days. The valley, as I saw it in 1866, was more in the condition that the aborigines had left it... In consequence, also, of the openness then existing, much better views existed of the waterfalls and cliffs, from the floor of the valley, in any direction.

H. J. Ostrander was a cattleman who, in his day, ran herds of cattle on lands now in the park. In one of the October, 1897 issues of the "San Francisco Call" he is quoted as saying of the Yosemite which he had first seen a third of a century before:

William H. Stoy, Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at San Rafael, has stated in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior dated December —

Another of the well known State Guardians, James M. Hutchings, as early as 1881 in a report to the State Commission complains:

A dense growth of underbrush, almost from one end of the valley to the other, not only offends the eye and shuts out its magnificent views, but monopolizes and appropriates its best land, to the exclusion of valuable forage plants and wild flowers.

Hutchings was a confirmed nature lover and the unwarranted destruction of a tree or a flower was a disgraceful thing in his eyes. The situation must have been serious and its potentialities apparent to Hutchings who had settled in the Valley as early as 1861.

Many of the Army officer Acting Superintendents of the park lands surrounding Yosemite Valley repeatedly referred to the great areas of dense brush and the potential fire hazards existing in the forests. In their annual reports the majority blamed the thickets on the suppression of fires. What had happened on the floor of the Valley was also occurring on adjoining protected areas. Dense thickets of brush and forest reproduction were coming in on areas where they had formerly been absent.

and the views of numerous responsible individuals who have visited and recorded their reactions and findings.

Recent students advance the theory that encroachment of the forests upon the meadows is tied in with a probable lowering of the water table throughout the floor of the Valley. The only activities of white man on record tending to effect such a lowering occurred in 1879 when several large boulders were blasted out of the river near the old El Capitan Meadows. It was reported that as a result the rate of speed of the river current was increased and also there was an increase in the amount of bank erosion. The only other obvious and apparent activity was one of nature itself, i.e., the breaching of the terminal moraine at the same point where the boulders were removed and the gradually deepening of the stream bed over the ages. The forest encroachment problem was considered in all its seriousness but two years after the boulder removing project when, in 1881, Hutchings was complaining to the Board of Commissioners.

Reference has previously been made that the Indians of Yosemite Valley practiced clearing of the meadows and the adjacent forests. The Indians did not have any labor saving mechanical devices. It was natural for them to use fire. Carl O. Sauer, speaking of all or most tribes in America, states, "Fire and smoke became labor saving devices for overpowering, trapping, and driving game... Fire aided the collection of fallen fruits... The earlier economies collectively may be called fire economies." Later he says, "Recurrent fires sweeping across surfaces of low relief, are

Indian Methods of Brush Control?

At this point, the reader naturally will wonder what caused the pronounced decrease in the acreage of meadow in Yosemite Valley and also why it was possible for the trees to become so numerous and so tall that they have obliterated many of the views and open vistas existing in the earlier days. The explanation may be found in the observations

1. Vegetation Climax, Fire and Man. Paper presented at Annual Meeting, Northern California Section, Society of American Foresters, December 4, 1948.

competent to suppress woody vegetation. Suppression of fire results in gradual recolonization by woody species in every grassland known to me.'

At least in one instance the Indian inhabitants of Yosemite Valley were observed to be using fire to clear the ground. H. Willis Baxley, recorded this observation in the fall of 1861:

A fire-glow in the distance, and then the heavy line of burning grass, gave notice that Indians were in the Valley clearing ground, the more readily to obtain their winter supply of acorns and wild sweet potato root (huckhau).

Speaking of the Miwoks, of which the Indians of Yosemite were a branch, Barrett and Gifford state, "The only other control of vegetation which they attempted was burning of dry brush about August. This was said to have been done to get a better growth the following year. Underbrush was less abundant and less prominent than now, so informants said, and perhaps was due to this periodic burning."

When in 1928 Carl P. Russell talked to Maria Lebrado, a member of the Yosemite band taken into custody by Captain Boling's party of 1851, she expressed a good deal of concern because the Valley is now brushy.

The Miwoks also used fire for hunting. Fires were set around meadows which deer frequented. New fires were built from time to time and deer approached out of curiosity were noiselessly shot with arrows by the Indians from their places of ambush.

Bunnell, in the unpublished Century Magazine article, further describes the discovery expedition:

There was a great variety of evergreen and deciduous trees, planted by Nature's landscape gardeners and, as the undergrowth was kept down by annual fires while the ground was yet moist, to facilitate the search for game, the Valley at the time of discovery presented the appearance of a well kept park.

Galen Clark in 1894 also wrote:

The Valley had then been exclusively under the care and the management of the Indians, probably for many centuries. Their policy of management for their own protection and self-interests, as told by some of the survivors who were boys when the Valley was first visited by Whites in 1851, was to annually start fires in the dry season of the year and let them spread over the whole Valley to kill young trees just sprouted and keep the forest groves open and clear of all underbrush, so as to have no obscure thickets invading as a hiding place for hostile foes, or an ambush for enemies, and to have clear grounds for hunting and gathering acorns. When the forest did not thoroughly burn over the moist meadows, all the young willows and cottonwoods were pulled up by hand.

M. C. Briggs, December 18, 1882, complains rather bitterly of the underbrush:

While the Indians held possession, the annual fires kept the whole floor of the valley free from underbrush, leaving only the majestic oaks and pines to adorn the most beautiful of parks. In this one respect, protection has worked destruction.

A year previously, State Engineer William H. Hall made an extended professional visit to the valley after which he submitted a report to the Commissioners, dated May 20, 1882. In part, the report says:

The area is decreasing, while young thickets of forest or shrub growth are springing up instead. Members of your Board have observed this change: it is very marked, and may be regarded as in a degree alarming, sufficiently so, at least to prompt measures calculated to check it.

2. What I Saw on the West Coast of South and North America and in the Hawaiian Islands. D. Appleton, New York, 1865. 3. Miwok Material Culture. Bulletin of the Public Museum of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1933. 4. His report to the State Commission for Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Trees Grove.

The cause is alleged to be the abolition of the old practice of burning off the thickets, which practice formerly made new clearings almost every year for grass growth.

The Record on the Ground

If the statements recorded here have any truth in them, then evidence supporting them should be available in the forests of the Valley and elsewhere. Study of those trees on the floor of the Yosemite Valley which are obviously over one hundred years old, reveals that large numbers of them have signs of severe or repeated fires. Those trees less than 100 years old are remarkably free of signs of fire. The evidence on the ground indicates that fires were, whether deliberately set or not, common enough to leave clear indications on trees existing before the coming of the white man. Although many more trees invaded the Valley since the coming of the white man, there is little or no evidence of fire on the younger trees.

On lands in the adjoining Stanislaus National Forest, E. I. Kotok, formerly of the California Region Forest and Range Experiment Station, made a study of fire scars on trees which showed that fires had swept the 74 acres investigated 221 times between 1454 and 1912. This averaged one fire every two years. It is doubted that Nature could be so regular with fire for such a long period of time.

The Immediate Future of the Valley

The past is the mirror of the future. As long as the Indians had control of the Valley, the evidence indicates that they kept it clear of brush and reproduction. This evidence also strongly points to the use of fire as being the main instrument used in clearing. Whatever they did ceased soon after the coming of the white man in 1851. In 1881, thirty years after the first white man, and twenty years after the first white settler, appear the complaints against the brush and the reproduction.

Until the National Park Service assumed administration of the area in 1916, these complaints were numerous and came from the responsible officials in charge at the time. Clearing by fire was prohibited and the suppression of fire has been the rule since the white man became dominant in Yosemite Valley. The forests of the Valley continue to encroach on the meadows. Is Galen Clark's plaint of August 13, 1896 still valid today when, as he said, "All the open meadow ground in Yosemite is being covered with young cottonwoods and willows and drier portions of the Valley overrun with dense thickets of young pines and cedars. The great work of reclamation should be commenced as soon as possible and prosecuted from year to year until the whole Valley is again restored to its original, superior beauty."

FIGURE 5.

Photo by Fiske in the 1890 's, taken near Columbia Point. FIGURE 6. Photo by Anderson 1943, from same spot as Figure 5.

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