University, Park Service Join in Research

by Jim Steinberg
Fresno Bee - June 18, 2004

A new Yosemite Field Station conceived for study of the Sierra was celebrated Thursday by UC Merced and National Park Service officials.

The field station will be used by scientists to track the effects of water, climate change and pollution on the mountains.

"Some scientific research has already been done" at UC Merced's Sierra Nevada Research Institute, said the school's chancellor, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey. "and it just portends what will take place in the next five years."

A handful of students already are working with the Sierra institute, Tomlinson-Keasey said, "and in coming years we will have dozens, and in a little while, hundreds."

Officials from University of California at Merced and the National Park Service celebrate the opening of Yosemite Field Station in Yosemite National Park. Park personnel Niki Stephanie Nicholas, right, and Roger Garza chat after speeches were delivered and a station tour began. Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee

The Sierra institute is not only studying the mountain range, but also its relationship with the San Joaquin Valley and the rest of California, Tomlinson-Keasey said. She was joined at the celebration by park superintendents Michael Tollefson and Dick Martin of Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks.

Professor Samuel J. Traina, director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, said the field station, just beyond the Wawona Hotel, and the institute itself on the UC Merced campus will be used by universities around the country and beyond.

A central focus will be the ways that people and the environment coexist, Traina said. The national parks are the areas of the least human impact on the Sierra. Beyond the protected park lands, the Sierra range is more open to commercial use such as mining and timber.