May 1972

VOLUME FORTY-TWO, NUMBER 1 MAY 1972

More Space For People Members who have not yet visited the park this spring have ahead an experience more pleasant than usual. On April 3, a new traffic flow pattern was initiated, large parking areas designated, additional shuttle bus service provided and autos eliminated from the greater part of the Village. Visitors are responding favorably to the broad purpose: to get the visitor to leave his car and do his valley touring, shopping or whatever, via the free shuttle buses. The most remarkable improvement to result from this program has been the complete absence of cars in the visitor Center Mall. Replacing the tangle of cars, moving and parked, there now is a broad area, clean and open, with room to move, to see and hear, to sit and contemplate the surroundings; an informal amphitheater has been arranged, the scene of day and evening naturalist programs. An appraisal of the first two months of this innovative program clearly indicates that Yosemite Valley, rather suddenly, is becoming a place for people rather than cars. More room for people in the Village! No more ducking around cars... space to walk at will, to stop and watch the waterfalls, to visit with friends. Farewell And Thanks It's time for me to leave Yosemite. Through it, park enthusiasts can and I'll be gone by the time you support innovative programs that read this. There will be new directors then, and they'll need your support just as much as I have. They'll be in a little better position to use it, too, because the Association, with its bigger staff and new offices and membership is stronger now, because of your support, than it was just two years ago, and so can respond more vigorously to new ideas. That's what the Association is for - to help start new activities in Yosemite that some of the more traditional channels of government seem to have difficulty with. (continued on page three)

to contemplate that wonder from the veranda of their hotel. Opening Whitney's Guide-Book, by far the most popular, they read: "Absolute height and quantity of water are undoubtedly the two important elements (in waterfalls) but all the accessories have a share in producing the general effect. The fall is the picture, but the value of it is wonderfully heightened or diminished, according to the more or less picturesque character of the frame in which it is set."

Whitney and his well-bred tourist audience shared the view that nature was most pleasing when seen like a landscape painting, and most powerful when it was most feared. Yosemite Falls was an object to criticize and compare with similar wonders — always based on canons of aesthetic taste and always from a comfortable distance.

To Muir, Yosemite Falls, enclosed within a frame, bounded by an artificial aesthetic, denied nature for the control of man, nature was in motion, a continuously unfolding creation, all parts interpenetrating, permeated with divinity. Judging nature was an act of separation from it, an assumption of superiority on the part of man which denied the equality and interdependence of all life forms.

Muir preached the dissolution of the boundaries between ourselves and nature, and our emergence into the flow and oneness of the surrounding creation. The falls were an experience in motion, flux, process, in the harmonies of creation, not an object to stand apart from and criticize and contemplate.

"Today the falls were in terrible power," Muir wrote in his journal. "I shouted until I was exhausted and sore with excitement. Down came the infuriate waters chafed among combative buttresses of unflinching granite until they roared like ten thousand furies, screaming, hissing, surging... a perfect hell of conflicting demons.

" But I speak after the manner of men, for there was no look nor syllable of fury among all the songs and gestures of these living waters. No thought of war, no complaining discord, not the faintest breath of confusion. One stupendous unit of light and song, perfect and harmonious as any in heaven."

Muir was unique among those who wrote about Yosemite Valley in the 19th century. He alone was close enough to feel the pulse of life; he alone recognized that nature's ways need not be man's, and he alone called that divine.

Howard Weamer The Two YosemiteS of Whitney and Muir The following piece on John Muir was written for us by Howard Weamer, who not only is an authority on John Muir, he looks like Muir. Howard is a candidate at Claremont College for his doctoral degree in American literature with his thesis on Muir. He was involved with the Muir Week Observance in Yosemite and is a staff member with the Yosemite Institute. In his five years in Yosemite, John Muir met hundreds of tourists and avoided meeting hundreds more. Tourists in the 1870's entered the Valley well rehearsed in aesthetic emotion by manuals of taste, which told them the most correct perspective and the proper emotional response for each view. From Inspiration Point, tourists uniformly experienced the sublime, the height of aesthetic emotion, which consisted of fear and terror. The cataclysmic theory of the Valley's origin, that the bottom had fallen out in "the wreck and crash of worlds", was calculated to enhance the sublime by instilling fear. "All stern sublimity... all geological terribleness" intoned Clarence King, a member of Whitney's survey. By the time Yosemite Falls was reached, most tourists were ready Members' Trips As you read in our last communication, we sponsored a ski touring trip to Ostrander Lake Ski Hut in mid-March. Fourteen members joined the party and report a grand time. Will Neely was the group leader, assisted by Warren White of the National Park Service.

Coming up is the July 1, 2, 3 trip, with Neely to the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp and Waterwheels Falls. All the High Sierra will open early this year with the somewhat less than normal snow pack (about 70% of the 30-year average). So, those who enjoy the waters of the Yosemite will find this trip rewarding. And Neely, who knows the country intimately, will make it especially interesting with his interpretive information about the geology of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, the plant and animal life encountered between Tuolumne Meadows and Glen Aulin and on the hike to the Waterwheels. Total costs for the trip are $46 per person; this includes the two nights' lodgings, two dinners and breakfasts in camp. Lunches may be ordered as desired ($2). Let us know soon if you'd like to join the group which is limited to 20 members.

(continued from page one) Farewell And Thanks sublime setting, and the single aesthetic appreciation of the great Half Dome or a lunar rainbow. The interpretive program, more than naturalist programs, then, can help visitors discover these meanings with new events — camera walks, stagecoach rides, night prowls, Indian basket weaving classes, backpacking demonstrations, forums, etc. Are these things really new? Probably not. John Muir, Thomas Hill and Ansel Adams have said through their work that Yosemite is more than an academic experience. The best of our naturalists, Carl Sharsmith and Will Neely, for instance, have known it and expressed it, too. Through the Association we can add new ways of knowing Yosemite while still enhancing existing ways. Leaving a place as magnificent as Yosemite is a shock, of course. Perhaps as great a trauma though, is leaving the people who tend it. Government employees and concessioners are paid to work here, of course, but they work harder than they have to. Volunteers give their time just to help. Visitors and park friends (some of whom have never been here) send contributions to sustain the Yosemite idea. There are few activities in America that inspire people so, and you cannot know until you have been Director of the Yosemite Natural History Association how wonderful working with such a group is. While we haven't yet gotten everything done we'd hoped, we're in a much better position to get caught up and perhaps even get a little ahead! We apologize for our delays. Thanks for putting up with them. Take care of Yosemite. I'll be back to visit. I thank you for your help and hope that I have been able to help you in your support of

YOSEMITE.

Goodbye. William R. Jones William R. Jones

SUMMER SEMINARS

You have by now received our mailer on the Summer, 1972 Field Seminar program. If you recall the program last year, you recognize that this year's is quite ambitious. We were sufficiently encouraged by the 1971 response to attempt the additional courses. It is essential that we fill, or nearly fill, each class to recoup our investment. Therefore, we will appreciate your help in spreading the word about the Seminars among your non-member friends. We will be glad to mail Seminar programs to anyone you suggest. Thanks. Bulletin of the

YOSEMITE

Natural History Association Copyright December 1971. P.O. Box 545, Yosemite National Park, CA 95389 Director David Karraker Managing Editor Henry Berrey Production Manager Jack L. Gyer Treasurer Roland G. Elwell Board of Trustees Dana Morgenson, Chairman Virginia Adams Sterling Cramer James W. Johnson John Good A non-profit, educational association dedicated to the interpretation of the natural and human history of Yosemite National Park, in cooperation with the National Park Service. Contributions and donations are tax deductible.

LEGAL COUNSEL FOR ASSOCIATION

In the edition of the January, 1971, Quarterly, Director Jones asked, if among the membership, there was an attorney willing to provide legal aid to the Association. Stockton attorney Tom Shephard responded. A member of the law firm Neumiller, Beardslee, Siegert, Glahn, Shephard and Greene, attorney Shephard has been most helpful in drafting a new set of by-laws and a more formal authors' contract. Attorney Shephard was born in Modesto, graduated in political science from U.C. Berkeley in 1955. He obtained his J.D. from Berkeley in 1958 and was admitted to the California Bar in 1959. He worked in the office of the state's Legislative Counsel for two years before becoming Deputy County Counsel for San Joaquin County. He joined his present firm as a partner in 1964. Mr. and Mrs. Shephard have four youngsters ages seven down to two; Mr. Shephard says all members of the family are avid backpackers except the two year old, and she will be soon. The Association thanks Tom Shephard for his assistance.

Tom Shephard and youngster on high country pack trip.

Bullfrogs And The Environment Harold Basey, author of "Sierra Nevada Amphibians", is an instructor at Modesto City College. Red-legged Frogs, Rana aurora, are shy amphibians and even in Mark Twain's day they were found in limited numbers. Still, the original celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County must have been a Red-legged Frog — if indeed there really was such a contest. The Red-legged Frog population in the Sierra has declined markedly over the years. Dr. Peter Moyle, of Fresno State College, recently completed an ecological survey of 95 aquatic sites in the Sierra foothills and he did not find a single Red-legged Frog at any of the locations. This decline has largely been due to the introduction of the Bullfrog into the Sierra in the 1920's. The exotic Bullfrog seems to be better adapted to foothill streams and ponds than the native species that evolved there. Bullfrogs compete with YNHA Membership At 1234 The YNHA membership now numbers 1234, up 213 from December's tally. By type of membership : 233 student, 670 individual, 235 family, 69 sustaining, 3 supporting, 34 life, Life members new since December are: Mr. & Mrs. John D. Speck Hollywood, Florida Mr. & Mrs. Thomas J. Alexander Bakersfield, California Mrs. Charles Franklin Fresno, California James M. Gere Stanford, California Mr. & Mrs. Tom Kennels El Portal, California W. Farmer Fuller

III

San Francisco, California Jean C. Witter Piedmont, California Red-legged Frogs for food and large Bullfrogs eat almost anything, including young and adult Red-legged Frogs. The Bullfrog has been extending its range ever since its introduction into the foothills and is now found in Yosemite Valley. Red-legged Frogs are not recorded from Yosemite Valley, but they have been observed in other parts of the park. If the Bullfrog's range expansion is not halted it may wipe out the native Red-legged Frog from Yosemite, as it has done throughout most of the central Sierra. Yosemite National Park is managed as a natural ecosystem, where shy unspectacular animals, like Red-legged Frogs, have a legal right to protection from nonnative competitors, such as Bullfrogs.

MEMBER PROFILE

In January, the Y.N.H.A. mailed a survey to the membership; of the approximately 1100 mailed, there were 237 responses. The Yosemite Park and Curry Co.'s electronic data processing people very generously tabulated the results for us. As the questionnaire had some twenty-five parts, the recapitulation would have been a tedious chore if done otherwise. Of the 237 members who responded: 117 visit Yosemite more than twice a year. 71 would serve on an Association committee (141 wouldn't) Of the 71, 47, the largest number, would serve on an activities committee. 194 members have no children, followed by 23 with 2. Most children are over 16. Most incomes (50) in $10,000 to 15,000 range; 28, $15-20,000; 11 over $30,000. Of the principal interests : history — 35, geology 31, botany 25. Of the principal activities : hiking 105, backpacking 56, photography 26. 155 camp, 77 stay in hotels. (35 didn't answer) 105 would be interested in environmentally-oriented trip to foreign countries (129 would not). Of the affirmative, Switzerland/France/Austria 60, Britain/Scotland/Wales 48, North America 48. Now that we know what our members seem to prefer, we will work toward gratifying those interests.

SUSTAINING ADVERTISERS

Organizations and firms who are contributing toward the publication of this bulletin

BEST'S STUDIO, INC.

P.O. Box 455 Yosemite National Park, CA 95389

CROWN PRINTING & LITHOGRAPHING

P.O. Box 487 Fresno, CA 93709 (209) 233-4177

DEGNAN'S

In Yosemite Valley Since 1884

DUMONT PRINTING

Color Lithography & Printing 502 No. Abby Fresno, CA 93701 233-8646

ASSOCIATES FALK

Publishers-Ansel Adams Books & Postcards 1021 Edgewood Rd. — Redwood City, CA

FLYING SPUR PRESS

Yosemite Publications P.O. Box 278 — Yosemite

SAFARI WORLD

The Zoo of the Future 32601 Hiway 41 — Coarsegold, CA 93644

YOSEMITE PARK & CURRY CO.

Yosemite National Park, CA 95389 Reservations (209) 372-4671

THE MOORE'S REDWOODS

Fireplace Cottages — Dining Room, Coffee Shop Wawona, Calif. 95389 — (209) 375-6256

THE SIERRA STAR PRESS

P.O. Box 305 Highway 41 Oakhurst, CA 93644 (209) 683-4464

YOSEMITE INN — WAWONA VILLAGE

P.O. Box 58 (209) 375-6286 Yosemite National Park, CA 95389

YOSEMITE MOUNTAIN & SUGAR PINE RR

Historic Steam Train Route On Yosemite Highway 41, 2 mi. south of Fish Camp 49'er Super Market Highways 140 and 49 Mariposa, California

Digitized by Yosemite Online Library Dan Anderson