It’s hard not to think about public lands and our national parks as we celebrate our nation’s sesquicentennial. They are an essential and special part of who we are. The words of author Wallace Stegner come to mind:
“National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
Stegner is right. We, the people, cherish all 63 of our national parks, from sea to shining sea.
Yosemite’s towering granite cliffs and thundering waterfalls. Paddling a canoe past flamingos in the Everglades. Sandstone collected over the eons, carved to perfection by a mighty Colorado River into the Grand Canyon. Yellowstone, teeming with Buffalo, Elk, and Moose amid geysers spewing steam from underground volcanos. Lush forests and perennial wildflowers in the Great Smoky Mountains atop Appalachia’s crest.
As we know it today, our National Park System emerged from the ashes of a nationwide debate over whether to preserve Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley or allow San Francisco to dam and flood the valley as part of an improved water system.
By the early 20th century, Congress had created a handful of national parks. They were run separately with no common vision. There was no such thing as a Ranger; parks were often patrolled by the U.S. Army. Early advocates proposed the creation of a single agency to manage and protect our national parks. Pro-development forces, including forester Gifford Pinchot, opposed the idea, fearing harm would befall the timber industry.
Conflict over Hetch Hetchy, and by extension all of America’s national parks, came to a head in 1913. After being rebuffed by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, San Francisco saw an opportunity with the newly elected Woodrow Wilson
The City was determined. The City pushed hard in Congress, and labeled opponents “nature lovers and fakers … who wage a sentimental campaign”. A local newspaper ridiculed naturalist John Muir by dressing him in women’s clothes, trying in vain to sweep away the Hetch Hetchy “flood”.
The “nature lovers” pushed back, generating more than 200 editorials in newspapers across the land which opposed the destruction Yosemite National Park for “parochial” interests. Debate captivated the U.S. Senate for 6 days in early December. San Francisco prevailed in the end, and built the O’Shaughnessy Dam. Our national consciousness, however, had been raised forever.
Less than three years later, a remorseful Congress passed the “Organic” Act, creating the National Park Service and ensuring that our parks would be managed as a national system. Subsequent proposals to build dams in Yellowstone in the 1930s and the Grand Canyon in the 1950s were defeated. No significant development has been allowed in any of our national parks over the last 100 years.
America’s model of preserving spectacular landscapes has been copied around the world, and now includes places like Tanzania’s Serengeti, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. Since 1916, National Park Service Rangers have protected our own parks for us, for our children, and for generations to come.
Moreover, Muir’s activism gave birth to the modern environmental movement. Today, we recycle. We conserve water. We support public transportation. We regulate forestry and commercial fishing to keep industries sustainable. And we are investing heavily in alternative energy sources as we try to keep global temperatures from rising. We do these things hoping that the world our grandchildren inherit will look like the one we know now – or perhaps even a bit better.
Even as the conservation movement has become so many different things, our national parks are more popular than ever. Visit them and you will not only find your own countrymen, but citizens from countries around the world, many of which did not have the foresight to preserve some of their own very special places.
Hetch Hetchy’s legacy in American history is undeniable. Author Robert Righter got it right in the subtitle of his 2006 book, The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism.
From day one, Restore Hetch Hetchy has always understood that returning Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural splendor requires a plan that continues to meet the water and power needs of all communities which rely on the Tuolumne. Restore Hetch Hetchy and others have completed extensive analyses of what changes to the water system would be necessary. We are confident that not one drop of water supply need be lost.
Today, demand is down and the City’s other reservoirs obviate the need to store water in Hetch Hetchy Valley. Moreover, San Francisco has eschewed investments in groundwater banking, recycling and local reservoirs that other California water agencies have successfully pursued in recent decades. The City simply remains opposed to restoration.
Restore Hetch Hetchy has long sought to work cooperatively with San Francisco – to no avail. We are asking therefore Congress to engage the City – to initiate substantive discussion of the opportunity for restoration. After all, Congress permitted Hetch Hetchy Valley to be flooded before we really understood the importance of our national parks and when water supply options were fewer. Times have changed. There is a plethora of options for replacing the dam and reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Imagine another Yosemite Valley – perhaps one with fewer roads and shops. Families picnicking along the river as they watch a valley return to life. Restoration inspiring communities across America and around the world. We do not need to live with mistakes of the past.
What better way to celebrate our nation’s natural heritage than to undo the destruction done to Yosemite and to return Hetch Hetchy Valley to the American people?
Happy 4th of July to all. If you have not had the opportunity to sign our petition, please do so. Showing support is important.
Spreck Rosekrans, Executive Director