March 1982

YOSEMITE MARCH, 1982 VOLUME FORTY-SEVEN, NUMBER 13

Published for members of the Yosemite Natural History Association, Lennie Roberts Robert Griffin Richard Martyr WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE the results of the election of four new members to the Association Board of Trustees. They are: Ms. Lennie Roberts, Robert Griffin, E.H. McLaughlin, and Richard Martyr. Thirteen hundred twenty-eight ballots were mailed to the membership, five hundred forty-one were returned. Board Chairman Tom Shephard states "We welcome these good people to our Board, and will look forward to working with them. Also, we thank candidates Neil Tuthill and Barbara DeWitt for their interest." The YNHA Board, at its January 9 meeting, unanimously appointed Mr. Ed Hardy, President of Yosemite Park and Curry Co., to a one-year term on the Board. Mr. Hardy will stand for re-election December 31, 1982. The Board felt that it was important to have one of the Park concessioners represented. Further, the guidelines written for cooperating associations by the National Park Service recommend the presence of a Park concessioner. EH. (Skip) McLaughlin Ed Hardy

A BOOK OF Yosemite POEMS. Pictured is the cover of our newest publication, The Discipline of Crevices. It contains a collection of poems written by an Englishwoman, June Dwyer. Ms. Dwyer's poems are, we think, unique among poems about Yosemite, as they avoid the typical pompous attitude of somber earnestness and the grand cliches. June Dwyer is awed by Yosemite, but not overawed, finding it a real, if special, place. To us, virtually all of the poetry inspired by Yosemite has been overinflated and dull — until June Dwyer. When we first read the poems, we found them a little difficult, but the second reading really paid off. We never felt cheated — substance, understanding and respect emerge. Ms. Dwyer's exposure to Yosemite's charms — intimate and grand — happened while she nursed Mary Curry Tresidder during the waning days of that great lady's life. We're proud to have published Ms. Dwyer's work, and we think you'd enjoy it. We'll send you a copy for $4.95, including tax and shipping. A PRELIMINARY OPERATING BUDGET and requests for aid to National Park Service for 1981-1982 were proposed to the YNHA Board of Trustees at its November 7 meeting. The total amount was $109,000. The Board approved certain items for which an immediate commitment was needed, but chose to consider others at the next, or February, meeting. Meanwhile, the outlook for income for the current year dimmed somewhat, as sales have taken a disappointing drop. On the basis of a new revenue estimate, the aid-to-NPS budget was trimmed to $84,000. This amount was approved by the Board on February 6. Trimmed or not, this amount still is sizeable and we'll have to hustle to meet it. Below are shown the items for which we'll pay the bills.

VALLEY DISTRICT GENERAL SUPPORT

Fabricate exhibits for Village Mall and Mall shuttlebus stops 5 7,500 Fund development of new Wayside Exhibit Plan for Yosemite.... 515,000 Produce self-contained slide program One Day In Yosemite in English and four foreign languages 2,000 Purchase support materials and equipment for interpretive Produce leaflet for Indian Cultural Museum 1,000 programs, including new national parks film ($600), large type Purchase programmer/decoder to improve multimedia lettering machine ($1,100), two four-channel independent orientation program in Valley visitor Center 1,700 control cassette tape decks (51,400 total), wireless microphones for visitor Center auditoriums ($800), and Acquire additional taxidermic mounts and materials for additional binoculars (5400) 4,300 children's activity corner at Happy Isles Nature Center 1,500 Subtotal $13,700 Complete fire ecology taped slide program 1,000 MATHER DISTRICT (northern Park area) Purchase fifty rare and important Yosemite books and ephemera 2,500 Install interpretive signs along route from Lembert Dome to Soda Springs 1,000 Produce interpretive signs about feeding Park wildlife 1,000 Develop informational displays at Tuolumne Meadows Ranger Station and campground entrance. Big Oak Flat Print brochure on the lodgepole needleminer 2,000 Information Station, and White Wolf Campground entrance 1,300 Print tire management brochure

2,000 Complete three new exhibits for Tuolumne Meadows visitor Center; install track lighting in book sales area 1,100 Complete Glen Aulin obsidian analysis 1,000 Develop interpretive exhibits for Big Oak Flat Print foreign language folders and other informational materials 5,000 Information Station 1,000 Subtotal $ 4,400 Continue printing informational materials for disabled visitors 1,000

WAWONA DISTRICT

Fund performing arts programs 1,000 Continue seasonal blacksmith operation as part of Pioneer Yosemite History Center living history program $ 1,500 Reprint bird checklist

Purchase materials needed to relocate blacksmith shop to Print expanded version of the One Day In Yosemite brochure 2.000 main Pioneer Yosemite History Center

Fund "Cultural Heritage Week " during Fourth of July week 1,500 Continue acquisition program for Research Library 4,000 Construct four spare wagon wheels and wagon tongue Provide Coordinator's discretionary fund for for use as replacement parts on Pioneer Yosemite miscellaneous expenditures 2.000 History Center coaches 1,200 Purchase 15 pairs of new snowshoes and repair 30 pairs Provide discretionary fund for Park Superintendent 1.000 of existing snowshoes 2,500 Provide fund for selective professional development of Reprint Pioneer Chronicle 1,000 interpretive staff 3,000 Develop French and German editions of Mariposa Grove tram tape and self-guiding pamphlet.... _ 1,000 Administrative aid (YNHA staff salaries) 7,000 Continue support of living history program at Pioneer Subtotal $55,300 Yosemite History Center, including imprest fund to cover incidental expenses ($400), additional period costumes ($600), publicity posters ($300), and interpretive sign for Degnan's Bakery ($200) 1,500 Subtotal $10,700

TOTAL

$84,100 the discipline of crevices poems of yosemite by June Dwyer

ON RARE BUT PLEASANT OCCASIONS we get to meet our members face-to-face when they drop into our office in the Valley. At the annual meetings, we get to talk to many, and we've concluded that affection for Yosemite is the most common reason for their belonging to YNHA. And, that by being a member, an individual can make his interest tangible. We also have a somewhat uneasy feeling that we may have been remiss in explaining what YNHA's really all about — the sort of grass-roots reasons for its being. Len Mc Kenzie, the Association Coordinator, set down in clear terms, we think, the essence of YNHA. The mission of the Yosemite Natural History Association is well-defined in several keystone documents. YNHA and its sister associations were organized to aid and support the National Park Service; their basic legislative authority generally is acknowledged to be rooted in P.L. 633 (August 7, 1946). several associations, including YNHA, predated that enabling act, and their stated purposes served as the benchmark for this subsequent legal framework. YNHA's original purposes, delineated when the Yosemite Museum Association was reconstituted in 1924, were couched in eight definitive statements. These objectives established the organization's educational context, charging it to "gather and disseminate park-related information, develop the Yosemite Museum, promote the Nature Guide Service, maintain a research library, further scientific investigation, and 'strictly limit the activities of the Association to purposes which shall be scientific and educational'... " When YNHA was incorporated in 1947, its Articles of Incorporation reconfirmed its role and objectives: First: The name of this corporation is the Yosemite NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION. Second: The purposes for which this Corporation is formed are: To stimulate interest in the National Park System. To cooperate with the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior in the development of the interpretive and research programs in the National Park System for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. To encourage scientific investigation and research upon matters relating to the areas embraced by the National Park System, and To engage in the commercial activities desirable and appropriate to attaining the foregoing purposes. The Association's Cooperative Agreement with the National Park Service, signed in 1979, stipulates both operational functions that are approved and some applicable restrictions. Our Board of Trustees scrutinized and discussed that document in some depth before agreeing to its terms. Finally, the National Park Service recently issued a comprehensive set of operating standards and governing criteria for associations. In this series of "Guidelines" that now direct the management of virtually all NPS functions. NPS-32 is the Guideline pertinent to association functions. This voluminous document Specifies in detail the scope of association operations, i.e., what is appropriate for associations to do in each area of program involvement. Over the years YNHA's Board of Trustees and its managers have followed these principles and mandates, and we generally have stayed on track. Fortunately, the Association has grown and prospered. Consequently, it has been able to increase both its range of activities and its assistance to the National Park Service. However, the essence of each new endeavor has fallen within the organization's objectives, and each

proposed undertaking is carefully evaluated before it is implemented to avert any breach of concept. Publishing is a primary YNHA function — and will remain one — and publication sales are our principal source of revenue. We are an interpretive support organization that publishes and sells relevant literature. The financial base that sales generate provides the means — the bread and butter — to develop and sustain other programs that fall within the Association's defined purposes or directly benefit the National Park Service. THOSE OF YOU who were YNHA members in 1976 may recall that we sponsored a "member-get-a-member" program, aimed at increasing our membership. The results were rewarding, and a lot of good people enrolled a lot of other good people in the Association. Our membership now stands at about 1,300; it flutters up or down a bit, but stays right around that number. We'd like to reach 2,000 by the end of summer, and again are seeking the aid of our loyal members. There are a number of sophisticated ways to solicit members. But, as we think most YNHA members belong because they have a deep affection for Yosemite and support what YNHA does for and in the Park, a "shotgun" approach to membership solicitation seems a little out of character for us. So we're Stephanie Austin, of the polishing up the member-get-a-member approach, and setting it YNHA staff, models one in motion. Here's how it works: of the rewards for If you enroll one to four new members, your reward will be a getting members. copy of Ardeth Huntington's fine winter ecology book A Winter Dixon photo Day in Yosemite, which records facts and thoughts about winter in the Valley as expressed by Dr. Carl Sharsmith. The books will be autographed by Ms. Huntington and Dr. Sharsmith. For enrolling five to nine new members, you have a choice between a white porcelain coffee mug with the YNHA logo or a white kitchen apron with a pileated woodpecker screened thereon. And ten or more new members will get you a lithographed print of one of Jane Gyer's fine Yosemite watercolors.

BUT, WAIT — THERE' S MORE!! WE HAVE A GRAND PRIZE!

Dixon photo One night for two at two of the High Sierra Camps — May Lake and Glen Aulin — all expenses paid, including meals. We've booked the space at Glen Aulin for August 27 and at May Lake for August 28...or we'll arrange for you and three others to make a three-day pack trip out of Tuolumne Meadows. We'll supply a naturalist/guide, the food and the pack animal. The GRAND PRIZE drawing will be by lottery : Those who have signed up one to four members have one chance in the drawing; for five to nine new members, two chances; those who bring in ten or more new members get three chances in the drawing. We hope you'll give this some serious thought. Elsewhere in this Member's Bulletin we've told you about our financial commitments for aid to the interpretive activities of the National Park Service in Yosemite. It's a sizeable sum, and we intend to meet the obligation. But we will need your help. We've assembled packets of membership material which will explain YNHA's role, our aidto-N PS efforts, etc. These should help you recruit new members. We realize that each of you are not going up your block ringing doorbells, so we're

enclosing a postcard on which you may indicate that you'll join the effort. We'll send the membership material to those responding and in the quantity indicated. As we have confirmed reservation dates at the two High Sierra Camps for late August, entries in our member-get-a-member contest will close on July 15. YNHA'S PROGRAM of sponsoring intern/trainees for summer duty with the Park's interpretive staff will be implemented again. As last year, this group will be from UC Davis. Over the years, it has been found that Park visitors arrive in considerable numbers before the summer interpretive staff is here and ready to roll. So the interpretive programming doesn't meet the demands. The interns' The 1982 UC Davis interns: Seated, David assistance helps greatly in bridging the Dahler, Susan Kemper, Marguerite Paras, Katie gap. They will spend training weekends Maguire. Standing, Kathryn Yee, Carla Britton, in the Park during April and May. In Elizabeth Harris. early June, they report here for full-time training and duty. Their contributions to last year's interpretive programs were outstanding, and from all reports, the work here added substantially to their personal goals. In November, 1981, we interviewed about 40 applicants at Davis (last year there were 24) and, after much anguish, selected 17 whom we judged to have the greatest potential. A second round of interviews was held in December, and the list was reduced to seven. We look forward to the arrival and help of Carla Britton, Dave Dahler, Elizabeth Harris, Susan Kemper, Katie Maguire, Marguerite Paras and Kathryn Yee. From talking to the permanent interpretive staff members, we've concluded that this program has provided very substantial assistance in keeping the Yosemite programs at a high level of quality. It would not have been possible without the support of the membership. By careful planning and a no-frills budget, we will be able to keep the costs for the intern program to $6,000. This amount covers a modest subsistence allowance ($6.50 per day), transportation from UCD, publications, housing rental, uniforms, etc. If you read the story on page 2, you know how we are planning our aid to the National Park Service. The total amount allocated exceeds $80,000, and you'll recognize our concern about meeting that figure. We would welcome any financial aid members would like to provide toward the cost of the intern program. We would carry the donations in a special identified account; the funds would be used for no other purpose. Please give this request serious thought; it is not made lightly, and your contribution couldn't be put to a better use. As you know, donations to YNHA are tax deductible. OUR SEVENTH ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING is scheduled for September 25 and 26 at Wawona, with the revels planned for the Pioneer Yosemite History Center. District Naturalist Dan Card and his people promise a weekend replete with events and activities reminiscent of Sierra pioneer days. These will include rides on the famed California Mountain Stage drawn by Burrel Maier's team of horses. In earlier times, the stage was known by a less attractive name — "mudwagon." The evening event will be a barn dance, complete with a string band, caller, cider and popcorn. There will be naturalist walks along historic trails and a day hike into the depths of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The hour-by-hour program is coming together. Along with the name of our great speaker, details will be sent to you by late spring. Meanwhile : we have reserved all the available rooms at the Wawona Hotel for September

24 and 25. The room rates to be in effect in September have not yet been fixed by the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. However, it is most likely that cottage rooms and hotel annex rooms with bath facilities will be $47 per night, single or double occupancy; hotel annex rooms without bath, $25, single or double. You may direct your reservation request to Ms. Molli Holser, The Pioneer History Center stage rolls again! Group Reservation Department, Yosemite Park and Curry Co., Yosemite National Park, CA 95389. Ms. Holser's phone is (209) 372-1047. In the Wawona area are a number of other hotels/ motels : The Redwoods, Wawona (209) 375-6256; Chilnualna Cabins, Wawona (209) 375-6295. In Fish Camp, two to three miles outside the South Entrance (Highway 41) are : Mile High Chalets (209) 683-5111, White Chief Lodge (209) 683-5444, and the Narrow Gauge Inn, (209) 683-7720. You may communicate directly with the proprietors for accommodations. MARY VOCELKA, A FRIEND AND CO-WORKER, is in charge of the Park's rather extensive Research Library. Mary keeps an eye open for articles of greater than passing interest in conservation-oriented publications. Her latest picks are : Living Wilderness, Winter, 1981; this is a publication of the Wilderness Society. Much of this issue, 33 pages out of the total 46, is devoted to articles and photos dealing with threats of one sort or another to wilderness areas of the US. Interior Secretary James Watt comes in for an examination in the lead story, A Gross Exaggeration, which is made up of excerpts of an address by former Senator Gaylord Nelson before the San Francisco Commonwealth Club. The Senator, who has an exemplary record in the politics of conservation, is quite direct in his assessment of Secretary Watt's publicly controversial attitude toward conservation of our natural resources. Nelson's article quotes an old and respected friend, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent John Townsley. "The longterm effects created by the impact of energy development in the Washakie Wilderness Area [which abuts Yellowstone] would destroy the wilderness values in this wild and incredibly scenic area adjoining Yellowstone National Park." A large number of lease applications for oil and gas exploration in the Washakie have been filed. Mr. Watt, it appears, would like to approve them, according to Senator Nelson. Keeping Warm : A Special Issue on Surviving Winter's Worst, Natural History Magazine, October, 1981; pages 32 - 117. Twelve articles explore the diverse ways that people, plants and animals sustain life at low temperatures. Some samples : Plants in High Places, Flowers that Make Heat While the Sun Shines, Hearth and Horne in the Old Stone Age, Enduring Cold the Japanese Way, A Bear in Its Lair. The Battle for Hetch Hetchy, by Eric Seaborg, Sierra Magazine; pages 61 - 65. "Hetch Hetchy — Yosemite on a slightly smaller scale, with similar granite walls and streams cascading from hanging valleys. Some travellers felt that the valley floor's great oaks and luxurious meadows outshone even Yosemite's. Ironically what made it so beautiful, made it ideal as the site for a reservoir to supply water to the city of San Francisco. The ensuing battle split the fledgling conservation movement led by John Muir, into two parts that have never reconciled." National Parks : A Plan for the Future, by Michael Frome, National Parks magazine, November/December, 1981; pages 10-13. "The sanctuaries we call national parks play their most important role as an antidote to pessimism. Primeval nature has been a factor in the search for happiness since mankind began...yet national parks have more to offer than physical recreation and release from cares. They provide a source of learning the laws of nature that extend above and beyond the laws of men." If you don't have access to these publications, we will be pleased to send you photo copies of the articles mentioned. No charge.

YOU MAY ALREADY have received your 1982 Summer Seminar catalog. We think the program is the best we've pulled together and want to call your attention to several new classes. Each class is described in detail in the catalog; the following may serve as a suggestion for you to read more about them. Miwok Basketry — July 16 - 18, Craig Bates Participants will gain an understanding of Sierra Miwok coiled basketry. It will emphasize the technology involved in gathering and preparing native plant materials for use in basketry as practiced by Sierra Miwok groups. Instruction will include a study of the styles and designs of coiled basketry forms, and the differences which exist between those produced by the Sierra Miwok. Class members will prepare materials and will share in the weaving of a basket. The class will meet and stay at the Crane Flat Campus of the Yosemite Institute. Wilderness Photography Backpack — August 2 - 6, Howard Weamer This five-day backpack seminar will take the photographer/backpacker into an alpine environment for detailed photographic exploration. The area is both accessible to those carrying tripods, view camera gear, etc., yet rarely visited; a group of west-facing canyons with spectacular flower-covered plateaus, glacial polish and vegetation ranging from talus fields through whitebark pines into lakeside lodgepole pines. Field Study of the Ostrander Lake Area — August 2 - 5, 7 - 10, 12 - 15, Dr. Carl Sharsmith This program will provide participants an opportunity to examine, study, and enjoy the Ostrander Lake area with Dr. Sharsmith. The group will stay in the Ostrander Lake Ski Hut; meals are provided. The Hut is equipped with bunk beds, water, toilets, cooking equipment, etc. Managing Natural Resources on Parklands — April 5 - 9 With the cooperation of several National Park Service staff people, YNHA has arranged a new seminar which deals with the management of the natural, aesthetic and archeological resources of Yosemite National Park. The class offers an unusual opportunity for participants to learn the management position of the Park Service, and its responsibilities as manager of this classic example of a National Park. Because the instructors will be on their regular government salaries, there are no staffing costs to YNHA; so all enrollment fees will go into a special Yosemite research account to be used for notable Park research projects. The Forests of Yosemite — July 19 - 23, Robert L. Fry There are six major forest ecosystems in Yosemite National Park, at elevations ranging from 4,000' to 11,000'. Each system will be studied, beginning on the first day at 4,000' with the yellow pine/white fir/incense-cedar complex, followed by one day each in the sugar pine forest of the Rockefeller Grove, red fir and western white pine forests, the mountain hemlock and lodgepole pine forests; and finally the forests of lodgepole and whitebark pine near treeline. People as Park Animals — July 28 - July 2, David Wilson, David Robertson Yosemite's most conspicuous animal is Homo sapiens Yosemitensis — Yosemite people. The Park has become, in the last hundred years, a favorite ecological niche for migratory human beings. Yosemite naturalists have identified birds and prepared field guides, they have examined bears and formulated a bear management policy. The purpose of this course is to study Park people the way naturalists have studied its birds and beasts, to begin preparation of a field guide to Park people, and to draft a "people policy :' THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE'S INTERPRETIVE STAFF is aided each summer by several Volunteers-In-Parks (VIPs). These volunteers, new each summer, spend eleven to twelve weeks assisting the interpretive staff with presentation of Junior/Senior Ranger programs, reception of visitors at Happy Isles Nature Center, exhibit preparation, presentation of river float trips, and living history demonstration at the Wawona Pioneer History Center. Volunteers are compensated with housing (a very rustic tent cabin), and a stipend of $4 per day to help defray the cost of meals. The pay is poor, the camaraderie is high, and the opportunity to make a genuine contribution to National Park Service efforts is great.

Anyone with the appropriate skills and an interest in such an undertaking should contact Karen Stoll in the Interpretive division to request an application. The National Park Service address is P.O. Box 577, Yosemite, California 95389. NEW MEMBERS. We welcome to membership in YNHA the following good people. John D. Andrews Karen Horn Dr. William L. Preston Orinda, California Los Angeles, California San Luis Obispo, California Judith A. Baker James C. Johnson, Jr. Julie A. Roller Berkeley, California Yosemite, California Santa Cruz, California The Bodine Family Dr. and Mrs. Robert Johnson Mrs. Henry M. Roth Berkeley, California Chico, California Bishop, California Bill Bowie Harold and Colleen Jones Leigh Anne Russell Merced, California Soulsbryville, California South San Francisco, California Dr. Hal C. Browder Jean Kameon Margaret Sanborn Coarsegold, California Los Angeles, California Mill Valley, California Beatrice Chaney Barbara Lachelt Richard D. Santos Lafayette, California (PL) San Anselmo, California Hayward, California Mr. and Mrs. Donald W. Chapin Bob Latimer Mr. Jules Schindler Visalia, California Long Beach, California Novato, California Earl Cilley Larry Lauderdale Esther Smith Portola Valley, California Encinitas, California Los Angeles, California Susan Debra Cohn Jamie Lopes Rod J. Smith La Mesa, California San Luis Obispo, California Markleville, California Rob Crawford and Sarah Stockwell Carolyn Lynch (L) Tory Smith Yosemite, California Lone Pine, California Petaluma, California Wesley C. Dahl Virginia R. Lyon Glenn M. Spindell Pleasant Hill, California Carmel, California Woodland Hills, California Herbert E. Davis Marilyn Mason Arthur W. Stade Woodside, California Calabasas, California San Juan Capistrano, California Warren G. Davis Robert W. Mason Gloria J. Stockton Concord, California Marina Del Rey, California Palo Alto, California Joanne Deady William B. Mcllwaine Hedy Z. Sutherland Novato, California Millersville, Pennsylvania Hillsborough, California Michael Deal John D. McLean (PL) Bennett K. Tow Redwood City, California La Jolla, California El Cerrito, California David M. and Susan DeVoe Larry E. Millard Robert D. Vessels Danville, California Yosemite, California Scotia, New York Diane Dorfman Karen Moneta Sylvia Walker San Jose, California Oakland, California Calimesa, California Rita Ecleston Larry Naegeli Robert Warren North Hollywood, California Tuolumne, California Madera, California Donald R. Floyd Eliza Nevin Dr. Mary Westerback San Luis Obispo, California Sewickley, Pennsylvania Glen Head, New York Frank and Ruby Fortino Dr. and Mrs. Ralph W. Newton Mrs. Julianne Williams Gilroy, California Livermore, California Winton, California Kathleen Gann (L) Paul Nichols John W. Working San Luis Obispo, California Sacramento, California Palo Alto, California Ed Hardy Mr. and Mrs. W.M. O' Brien Virginia Yankauskes Yosemite, California Orinda, California Monterey, California Carol Hawkins Bud and Sammie Owens Yosemite Park and Curry Co. (PL) Santa Barbara, California Canoga Park, California Yosemite, California Chester and Brenda Heater Alan Palisca Kevin Zemlinghaus Bakersfield, California Yosemite, California San Jose, California Mary Beth Hennessy Mr. and Mrs. Robert Potts (PL) El Portal, California Coarsegold, California Marcia Hiraski Douglass R. Powell San Francisco, California Berkeley, California Robert Hoffman Stan Praisewater Oregon City, Oregon Campbell, California Leonard Holmes Preston Reese Lafayette, California Culver City, California (PL) Participating Life (L) Life Member

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