|
|
|
|
|
| |
|||
by Matt Leedy
Fresno Bee, April 16, 2002
Project leaders and volunteers unveiled a 500-foot boardwalk Monday to connect
park visitors with a recently restored meadow beneath the towering landmarks
of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and Sentinel Rock.
During a four-year project to revive Cook's Meadow, hundreds of volunteers and about $200,000 from ChevronTexaco were used to remove a 500-foot-long asphalt trail and 400-foot gravel road, refill four ditches and uproot acres of Himalayan blackberry bushes that choked out native plants.
(Illustration by The Fresno Bee)
Thanks to the restoration efforts, water from the Merced River can now flow across the 35-acre meadow in the Yosemite Valley, where ecologists say aquatic insects, azaleas and sedges, a grasslike plant, will thrive again.
"The principle for us is to let the natural process prevail," said Sam Livermore, board chairman of the Yosemite Fund, a nonprofit agency that uses private donations and finds corporations to help restore the national park.
Meadows absorb water and create nutrient-rich soil that supports a wide range of vegetation and wildlife.
The boardwalk
was built with tan, plastic planks designed to look like wood and donated
by Unilever.
Water can flow under the slightly elevated boardwalk, and tourists can stand in the middle of the wetlands without trampling an ecosystem.
"Putting in the boardwalk allows this to be a meadow and allows people to see how meadows work," said Sue Fritzke, a Yosemite vegetation ecologist. "We are expanding this meadow and wetland and keeping people from damaging it."
Yosemite Assistant Superintendent Chip Jenkins called the meadow project a "microcosm" of the Yosemite Valley Plan that is meant "to allow people to come here with their friends and families and provide the infrastructure so they're not doing any harm."
Since 1990, ChevronTexaco has donated $1.3 million for projects in Yosemite.
During that time about 3,000 volunteers from the company have worked on weekends to help improve Yosemite.
"And the waiting list to volunteer goes on for days," said Grace Freasier, an administrative assistant with ChevronTexaco. "The people who come up say it's really, really hard work but that it's really good work."
Volunteers and park employees leveled an elevated road and trail, which were built around 1880. The man-made path and roadway trapped water in the meadow.
Drainage ditches, constructed nearly 150 years ago, also disturbed the natural flow of water.
"When we saw the proposal we had no idea a meadow in Yosemite could be so compromised," said Bob Hansen, Yosemite Fund president.
"We knew we had to do something to fix this meadow."
Every summer, park officials pitch between 50 and 60 projects it would like the Yosemite Fund to sponsor. About half of them make the cut every year.
The Yosemite
Fund avoids projects that continue indefinitely and involve the purchase of
equipment, Hansen said.
The Cook's Meadow restoration was chosen for funding because it includes ecological improvements to the park and provides better public access.
Former Sunset magazine publisher Laurence "Bill" Lane Jr. of Portola Valley, an honorary park ranger, marveled at the majestic views seen from the meadow.
"I think it is one of the most magnificent things I've seen, when the sun comes out and you can see Half Dome in the distance," said Lane, 82, a member of the Yosemite Fund.
"There is probably no other place where you can see so many natural phenomenons known throughout the world. This meadow is central to the whole [Yosemite] Valley."
Yosemite resident Marc Combs walked across the boardwalk Monday, long after dignitaries crowded the area for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and found several benefits of the new walkway.
"I think it's definitely a positive addition for the [disabled] and so people won't trample the meadows," Combs said. "When you have a pathway like this people tend to stay on it."
Jeff and Stephanie Shelton from Fresno rode their bikes across the boardwalk with their 3-year-old son Nathaniel in tow on a sunny but cold day while snow fell at higher elevations in the park.
"It's our first time across the boardwalk, and it's a wonderful ride," Jeff Shelton said. "What a great place to enjoy the day."
|
|
|
|