by Marissa | Oct 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
At this year’s Annual Dinner, held at the historic Berkeley City Club, we were thrilled to be joined by our supporters to share an inspiring evening with keynote speaker Kim Stanley Robinson. We’re grateful to everyone who made this event a success and came together for the sake of our continued mission towards the restoration of Hetch Hetchy.
Kim Stanley Robinson, celebrated author and speaker, gave a thought-provoking and poetic speech on the future of a restored Hetch Hetchy Valley. He was also joined in conversation by our board members Roger Williams and Mecia Serafino, and took a few audience questions. Robinson shared that restoring Hetch Hetchy is the right thing to do for wildlife, for the study of habitat restoration, and for the future of our national parks and the Sierra Nevada as a whole.
“It (San Francisco’s water storage) always could have been Cherry Lake, Lake Eleanor, or Don Pedro, and that is still true today.” – Kim Stanley Robinson
The funds raised from the Annual Dinner play a vital role in allowing us to continue our work. We are currently petitioning the National Park Service to improve recreational access to Hetch Hetchy, and we continue to seek solutions for restoration. The dinner’s success ensures that we can keep making progress towards a better future for Hetch Hetchy and for Yosemite National Park.
To all who attended, sponsored or participated in our silent auction, and pledged their support, we are grateful for your commitment and contributions. Thank you for making our Annual Dinner memorable, and for being an essential part of our mission. We hope to see you next year!
by Marissa | Jul 8, 2023 | Uncategorized
Image: George Rose/Getty Images/San Francisco Gate
During the July 4th holiday this past week, Yosemite National Park experienced unprecedented crowds. The San Francisco Gate published a story detailing the 4-hour wait at the entrance gates of the park over the weekend. Cars parked and idled for miles, hoping to get into Yosemite Valley.
The long line of cars didn’t even have a guarantee that they would be able to enter the Valley after waiting for hours. Yosemite Valley closed to vehicular traffic when parking filled, and cars were turned around at El Capitan over and over for most hours of the day.
In response to the massive crowds, the National Park Service is piloting a new “traffic alert” system both through their social media and via text alerts. According to this system, all parking in Yosemite Valley has been full by around 9 AM over the weekends and including some weekdays.
Following the end of a few years of operating under a reservation system, which has been implemented by nearly all major national parks in the country, Yosemite Valley is seeing the most unmanageable crowds it has ever seen. The National Park Service dropped the reservation system for Yosemite this summer, and is now attempting to control an overwhelming influx of tourism without limiting numbers at the gates.
Yosemite National Park currently receives between 3 and 5 million visitors per year, the majority of which visit in the summer months. In light of the uptick in park tourism post-pandemic, and the visitation it is currently receiving, Yosemite is on track to have its busiest year ever.
Most of these visitors never explore beyond the 5-square miles of Yosemite Valley. The few that do usually visit the high country, but with the opening date for Tioga Pass still unclear, traffic is now diverted nearly entirely to the Valley. Meanwhile, Hetch Hetchy remains underutilized.
Hetch Hetchy was never included in the park’s reservation system, because it has been largely neglected by both the National Park Service and the city of San Francisco since the construction of the dam and is visited less often. This spring, however, as the record breaking snowpack turns into thunderous waterfalls, Hetch Hetchy has seen a marked increase in visitors, as well. We see this as a good thing. We need more people to visit, to learn Hetch Hetchy’s story and to join the campaign for restoration.
Restore Hetch Hetchy continues to work with the National Park Service to find solutions to improve the visitor experience at Hetch Hetchy, including recently expanding the entrance gate hours. We are also pursuing steps to improve the campground and allow visitors to camp overnight at Hetch Hetchy (without a backcountry permit, which is currently required).
Hetch Hetchy offers an alternative to park visitors when Yosemite is packed beyond its capacity, even with the dam in place. Solutions to divert traffic out of Yosemite Valley are sorely needed, and this summer is making that abundantly clear.
On July 6th, the National Park Service launched its second round of public comment for its Visitor Access Management Plan. During the last public comment period, NPS received comments joining our call for better access at Hetch Hetchy. Since then, progress has been made with expanded gate hours, but there is still much more to be done. Please comment and let the National Park Service know that expanding recreational access to Hetch Hetchy can and will help manage the crowds that overwhelm Yosemite Valley.
We are also still collecting signatures in support of improving access and recreation at Hetch Hetchy for our letter to Superintendent Muldoon. We’d like to resend it when we get to 1,000 signatures (we’re close), so please sign if you have not already.
by Marissa | May 23, 2023 | Uncategorized
As featured in our Spring 2023 Newsletter, a new set of Hetch Hetchy notecards with art by Lesley Goren is available. The art is an expansion on the letterhead she created for us. Click on each of the images below to zoom in on the artwork.
On the front of the notecards is a beautiful image of California wildflowers. Inside each notecard is Lesley’s imagining of wildlife in a restored Hetch Hetchy Valley. A set of notecards includes five different designs.
Please email admin@hetchhetchy.org if you’d like to order a set.
They are available at a donation of $15 per box.
by Marissa | Apr 23, 2023 | Uncategorized
Our Spring 2023 newsletter has begun arriving in mailboxes! Read it online here.
If you’d like to sign up to receive a hard copy, please send your name and address to admin@hetchhetchy.org.
The newsletter includes updates and articles such as…
- This year’s record-breaking winter promises an exciting waterfall season in Hetch Hetchy.
- Groundwater recharge policies can and should be improved in California, a fact highlighted by a winter of flooding.
- Yosemite’s Best Kept Secret – Hetch Hetchy receives only 1% of park visitors. For the sake of restoration, we have to change that.
- Updates on our Keeping Promises campaign: how Restore Hetch Hetchy is working to increase access to the area.
- Congressman McClintock reintroduces the Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act: legislation that would increase SF’s “rent” and improve recreational opportunities in Hetch Hetchy.
- Restore Hetch Hetchy remembers our longtime board member Rex Hime, and our lifelong supporters, Dorothy Jean Bobbitt and Marilyn Brown, who joined our Legacy Circle this past year.
- Our Annual Dinner will be held in Berkeley on October 7th, with keynote speaker Kim Stanley Robinson.
- Joining our team are Marissa Leonard, Engagement & Development Director, and Carlos Antunez, Community Outreach Liaison.
- Available for order are a new set of notecards by artist Lesley Goran, who designed our letterhead.
by Marissa | Mar 1, 2023 | Uncategorized
Last week, I paid a visit to Hetch Hetchy. I recently joined the team with Restore Hetch Hetchy as Engagement & Development Director. Feeling I needed to speak to the Valley before I could truly begin this work, I drove up from the Bay Area for the day to say hello. I’ve shared the vision of restoration for quite some time, and I’m honored to be on board making it a reality. It was important to me to spend some time with Hetch Hetchy as I step into this new position.
I visited on President’s Day, one of the busiest times for Yosemite National Park. The drive up from the Bay Area was crowded. I was in a line of cars from the moment I got on Highway 120 – up until the moment I pulled off onto the road to Hetch Hetchy.
I anticipated this area of the park to be quiet. It usually is. It was a pleasant surprise that the day-use parking lot had a few more cars than I anticipated. Despite the draw of Yosemite Valley, others shared my desire to spend at least part of their holiday in this underappreciated area of the park! I was encouraged as I began my hike, which would only be a short 5-mile roundtrip to Wapama Falls. Though I would have loved to spend more time with Hetch Hetchy, I was constrained by the limited access hours. I needed to be out of the area before the gate was closed at 5 PM.
The small crowd would dwindle the further out I walked. Many of these visitors would walk onto O’Shaughnessy Dam, gaze out into the reservoir, and leave. A few walked through the tunnel and out to what is considered the trailhead. Fewer still would continue on to Wapama Falls.
There is no trailhead signage or hiking information until you walk through a rather long, dimly lit tunnel at the opposite end of the dam. I wondered how many people were even aware that the hike to Wapama Falls would only take a couple of hours of their time. From the viewpoint of the dam, it seems far away. How would you know otherwise, when there is no obvious trail information in the small part of this area that most visitors stop?
Restore Hetch Hetchy believes that improving the limited recreational access to the area will inspire others to embrace the vision of restoration. By building deeper connection with Hetch Hetchy for people, we are confident that more will understand that a reservoir should not exist in this special place.
We can imagine what Hetch Hetchy used to look like. There are a few photos and paintings from a time before O’Shaughnessy Dam. It was much like its southern twin. The Tuolumne River ran through like the Merced River runs through Yosemite Valley. Its meadows were full of wildlife. The granite walls would have seemed to tower even higher above.
With these things in mind, I walked the trail that lines the reservoir. The effects of the storms that touched California in early January were still evident. Even weeks later, unnamed waterfalls cascaded down the walls of Hetch Hetchy. Streams crossed the trail, flowing down the granite before tumbling off the rocks into the water below.
Before the flooding of Hetch Hetchy, this water would have flowed down to the valley floor. It may have met with the Tuolumne River as it ran through. Instead, I watched it quietly disappear into the reservoir.
After a bit of time, I reached Wapama Falls, where I was only joined by a handful of other hikers. Wapama is as beautiful as the more highly visited waterfalls in the park, such as Yosemite, Vernal, and Nevada Falls. Despite that, it was quiet; enjoyed by just a few even on a holiday. I hope that this can change; that many more people will come to realize an incredible valley much like Yosemite Valley has been lost for a century; that even still, pieces of its beauty remain and can be enjoyed.
At the time of writing this blog, Yosemite National Park is closed due to a winter storm. The 4000 ft. elevation Yosemite Valley is anticipating 55 to 84 inches of snow between today and Wednesday. Hetch Hetchy is forecast to receive only slightly less. This adds onto the above-average snow year the Sierra Nevada has experienced so far.
As I watch the weather forecast for Yosemite, my mind can’t help but wander to the Tuolumne River. My heart has a familiarity with the river, knowing it from much time spent in the high country of the Sierra. It begins with the snow on some of the highest peaks in the park and crosses down through Tuolumne Meadows. Thousands of hikers have come to meet it as the Pacific Crest Trail winds around its path. Many – maybe most – have never seen where it is dammed.
Restore Hetch Hetchy continues towards our goal of increasing access to Hetch Hetchy, encouraging people to discover, re-discover, and enjoy the area. We hope that visitors will imagine the valley restored. Hetch Hetchy can be brought back to its natural state. There are other options for San Francisco’s water storage outside of Yosemite National Park. The Tuolumne River can flow unimpeded if we work for change. It will certainly be an incredible future.
If you’d like to get involved to improve recreational access to Hetch Hetchy, you can sign our letter to Yosemite National Park’s Superintendent here. To learn more, check out Keeping Promises, our document outlining this need for change. Read about recently introduced legislation to improve access here. Hetch Hetchy is currently accessible from 8 AM to 5 PM. Overnight camping is only allowed with a wilderness permit. Boating and swimming in the reservoir are prohibited.
Photos by Marissa Leonard.
