by Spreck | May 17, 2025 | Uncategorized
Federal lands across the United States, colored by managing agency – click map to enlarge.
The damming and flooding of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park looms large in American history as arguably the most infamous loss of public land ever. Returning that spectacular landscape to its natural splendor will not only undo a historic injustice, it will inspire a new generation to cherish, protect and restore public lands everywhere.
Hetch Hetchy, as a glacier carved valley with waterfalls cascading from granite monoliths onto a meadowy valley floor, is special indeed. It is not, however, large. At 1400 acres, it is only about 2/10 of 1 percent of Yosemite (though the reservoir effectively reduces access to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.)
Moreover, national parks cover some 85,000,000 acres. Together with lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, federal lands comprise more than 588 million acres – or about 1/4 of all land in the United States.
These public lands are important to all of us. As citizens we own them. No one is making any more. Any decision to sell public lands should be considered with the utmost care and deliberation.
As Secretary of Interior in 2018, now Congressman Zinke (center) visited Hetch Hetchy with, from left, RHH board member Mark Palley, Executive Director Spreck Rosekrans, and board members Mark Cederborg and Virginia Johannessen. (Sadly Hetch Hetchy was largely obscured by smoke that day.)
Earlier this month, however, Congress members from Utah and Nevada proposed and the House Natural Resources Committee passed an amendment to sell federal land in their states. The amendment is part of the larger budget reconciliation bill, so there is danger that the public lands could be sold without any real debate.
Fortunately, a bipartisan group of Congress members, led by Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) and Gabe Vasquez (D-New Mexico) has launched Public Lands Caucus, a bipartisan congressional coalition focused on conserving America’s public lands and expanding access for all Americans. As Rep. Zinke notes, “Public lands aren’t red or blue issues, it’s red, white and blue. The bipartisan Public Lands Caucus brings together lawmakers who don’t agree on much, but we agree on and are ready to work together to promote policies that advance conservation and public access … so future generations can enjoy the same opportunities to hunt, hike, fish, make a living and enjoy our uniquely American heritage.”
It’s refreshing to see any bipartisan cooperation these days. As an organization deeply connected and committed to improving America’s natural heritage, Restore Hetch Hetchy applauds this effort.
Cross our fingers, but also write your representative to oppose the sale of federal lands.
by Spreck | May 4, 2025 | Uncategorized
Last weekend the Restore Hetch Hetchy Board and numerous supporters celebrated Earth Day with a short trip to (where else?) Hetch Hetchy. On Saturday, after a morning board meeting, we toured the newly restored Ackerson Meadow and enjoyed an evening reception at the Evergreen Lodge. On Sunday, we went to Hetch Hetchy and out to Wapama Falls.
The weather was a bit dicey, but the cold rain and snow held off (mostly) as we explored Ackerson and sauntered along the trail at Hetch Hetchy. (‘Twas John Muir who preferred “saunter” in replace of “hike” as a reminder that our time in these spectacular landscapes in to be cherished, not endured.)
John Muir leading an outing to Hetch Hetchy in 1909: “Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.” Photo: University of the Pacific
Simply put, our weekend at Hetch Hetchy was wonderful. A beautiful trip in the mountains, time for political strategizing with the board, and being inspired by long-time supporters and new friends alike. If you haven’t been to Hetch Hetchy, please go. It is spectacular year-round, but it is kind of special when you can avoid the crowds.
Restoration Superintendent Frank Perez and board member Mark Cederborg explained the restoration process at nearby Ackerson meadow which had been destroyed by cattle grazing. Similar expertise will be employed when Hetch Hetchy Valley is restored – much of which will again be a meadow.
New and old friends joined us for a yummy buffet at the Evergreen Lodge.
Great to be sauntering along the trail with friends.
The only this wrong with this picture? That darned reservoir where a serene valley is supposed to be!
by Spreck | Apr 21, 2025 | Uncategorized
Yosemite. Yellowstone. The Grand Canyon. The Great Smoky Mountains, and so many more.
It’s hard to imagine the United States of America without our national parks. But in the late 19th century, preserving public land in its natural state was a new and provocative idea. It was also too late for many European countries, whose lands had already been fully developed.
It all started when President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to preserve Yosemite Valley in faraway California for “public use, resort and recreation … inalienable for all time.” Shortly afterward, Yellowstone National Park was created — our nation’s, and the world’s, first wilderness park. Yosemite, Sequoia, Mesa Verde, and Mount Rainier came soon after.
In the early 20th century, we took one huge step backward. San Francisco, in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire that devastated the city, campaigned to build a dam in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, one of two iconic glacier carved valleys in the park. More than 200 newspapers nationwide rose in opposition to the idea that a single municipality could take over land that had been “preserved in perpetuity” for all Americans. After extensive and contentious deliberation, however, Congress passed and President Woodrow Wilson signed the Raker Act allowing the dam to be built and Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley to buried beneath a reservoir.
In 1916, Congress, reflecting on the unprecedented groundswell of public opposition that had taken place during the debate over the Raker Act, passed the National Park Service Act — a law intended to prevent, in large part, any more such intrusions. Subsequent proposals to build dams in Yellowstone in the 1920s and the Grand Canyon in the 1950s were defeated. And while threats to and controversies within our national parks continue, no destruction approaching the scale of damming Hetch Hetchy has since been allowed.
Since that time, the conservation movement has evolved and grown enormously –- fighting ever wider battles to protect the natural world and create a sustainable economy. Today, conflicts over public land extend far beyond our national park system and are often fought over urban parks as well as wilderness areas.
In the 1960s, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted us to the fact that “better living through chemistry” was very often not so. Shortly thereafter, environmentalists joined forces to effect a nationwide ban on DDT.
In 1969, a horrified nation watched Ohio’s Cuyahoga River catch fire, and political pressure persuaded President Richard Nixon to sign the Clean Water Act. Nixon also signed the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Today, much of the conservation movement is consumed with local, national, and international efforts to stop Earth’s atmosphere from warming due to the combustion of fossil fuels.
Conservation is now integrated in virtually every aspect of our lives. We recycle, and conserve energy and water. We subsidize public transportation and dedicate highway lanes to carpools. We regulate forestry and commercial fishing so that the world our grandchildren will 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 still the envy of the world. Visit them and you will find not only a plethora of 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.
Still, Hetch Hetchy remains the greatest blemish in our national parks. In 1913, our nation’s lawmakers made a grave mistake. But it can be reversed. Restore Hetch Hetchy is resolved to undo that mistake, and we invite all our fellow citizens to join us in making Yosemite National Park whole again.
— This blog is adapted from a column RHH board Chair Roger Williams wrote on the centennial of the Raker Act’s passage. Restore Hetch Hetchy is celebrating Earth Day with a meeting and public retreat at Hetch Hetchy.
by Spreck | Apr 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Adventure Sports Journal
We were thrilled and honored to do a story with the Adventure Sports Journal (it starts on page 28 in their spring issue). Many thanks to Leonie Sherman for her fine writing and research and to the Journal staff for their support.
Board members Mecia Serafino and Lucho Rivera enjoy a moment high above Hetch Hetchy.
Leonie distills the Hetch Hetchy story into its key components: that Hetch Hetchy includes soaring granite walls, cascading waterfalls, alpine meadows, a roaring river, and miles of trails to ramble; that its damming was a singular insult to our national parks; and that Hetch Hetchy is an alternative to being in a snarl of traffic in often overcrowded Yosemite Valley.
Leonie interviewed both Executive Director Spreck Rosekrans and board member (and rock climber) Mecia Serafino.
Rosekrans provides some thoughts about Hetch Hetchy’s link to other conservation issues – “Yosemite is sort of a gateway drug; people learn about and start to care about the environment there. If we can restore this lost landscape, we will not only inspire a whole new generation of conservationists to care about parks, but also to have the courage to tackle bigger environmental issues wherever they are in the world.”
Serafino shares her own experience, often with partner Lucho Rivera, as a climber in Yosemite’s seldom-visited sister valley, “Once you go down, there are some established routes on different formations. Some friends and I have been putting up new multi-pitch routes at the base of this one formation. There’s just so much potential for sport climbing, trad climbing bouldering….”
Thanks so much to Leonie and the Adventure Sports Journal. Check out the article and the rest of the magazine as well.
Yosemite Reservations
A correction: the policy for reservations in 2025 is unresolved. Our March 30 post referenced a draft press release that has now been superseded with the following from the National Park Service:
Yosemite National Park anticipates sharing details about this year’s reservation system in the near future. We recognize the importance of providing clarity on that system as soon as possible to accommodate peak summer season travel planning. We are grateful for the robust public engagement in this process to shape an improved and sustainable visitor experience.
National Parks Week – Sign the Petition
In conjunction with National Park Week (April 19 to 27), the Yosemite Climbing Association is collecting signatures to ask California Senators to protect Yosemite, ensuring that the park has sufficient staff and funding for safety and essential services. We appreciate the YCA’s leadership and ask our supporters to sign its petition.
by Spreck | Apr 13, 2025 | Uncategorized
San Francisco’s greenwashing of “Hetch Hetchy Power” conveniently omits the spectacular landscape the City destroyed.
Baloney, i.e. nonsense: When someone says something completely ridiculous, call it a bunch of baloney.
Baloney is the most polite word that comes to mind after receiving the “Happy Earth Month from Hetch Hetchy Power!” notice from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission earlier this week.
“Earth Month is a time to take climate action and reflect on the progress we’ve made to create a more sustainable San Francisco. Here at Hetch Hetchy Power, every day is Earth Day. From generating clean, greenhouse gas-free hydropower to constructing solar installations throughout the City, we’re leading San Francisco to a greener tomorrow.”
It’s hard to take this hyperbole seriously. Earth Month / Earth Day is no time to celebrate the historic destruction of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, and San Francisco’s greenwashing of its water and power project is objectionable.
Hydropower generation may be greenhouse gas-free, but it destroys rivers, and the fish and wildlife that depend on them as well as recreation opportunities. The California legislature, when adopting its “Renewable Portfolio Standard”, determined that large hydropower plants do not count as “renewable” power.
Electricity production in California has changed remarkably over the last several years. As solar and wind projects have become prevalent, there has been a marked decline in gas-fired electricity accompanied by some relatively minor decreases in hydropower production (e.g. Klamath and Trinity Rivers). Continued improvements in battery technology will help further the transition to renewable power.
The California Independent System Operator provides daily detail showing how electricity is generated. The green is “renewable” – mostly solar and wind. The purple shows batteries – charged by solar power during the day and providing electricity to homes and businesses in the evening.
When San Francisco advocated to dam Hetch Hetchy in preference to other alternatives, it did so largely because the project would provide hydropower as well as water supply. Restoration requires a plan to keep the City whole with respect to both. Our greatest challenge lies in the politics and expense of making improvements to assure there is no loss of water supply.
With restoration, Holm and Moccasin will be little affected. Generation at Kirkwood will only be possible with “run-of-river” flows.
Restoration, however, will also require replacing about 20% of the total production of San Francisco’s three principal hydropower plants. Only generation at the Kirkwood Plant will be significantly reduced – by about 350 gWh per year (roughly 1/2 of the reduction experienced when the Klamath Dams were removed).
We recognize that no form of electricity is entirely without impact. Solar power, coupled with improvements in the cost and safety of batteries, appears to be the future in California and elsewhere. Hydropower will be an increasingly less important part of the mix.
by Spreck | Apr 6, 2025 | Uncategorized
Campaigning to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park means caring about San Francisco’s water system and ensuring no loss of reliability when the valley is returned to its natural splendor. The City’s opportunity to invest in groundwater banking would provide widespread benefits and save money for their customers.
Restore Hetch Hetchy’s letter to San Francisco officials urges the City to follow the lead of other California water agencies by investing in cost-effective groundwater recharge.
Too many people associate one storage tank, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, with San Francisco’s water. The City stores water in nine reservoirs. Restoring Hetch Hetchy would eliminate only one of these reservoirs, include some changes in conveyance and how the others are used, and require some investment to replace what would be lost. Restore Hetch Hetchy has recommended groundwater banking, recycling or enlarging Calaveras Reservoir – see Yosemite’s Opportunity for more information.
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir accounts for less than 25% of San Francisco’s storage.
San Francisco officials have shown little or no interest in restoring Hetch Hetchy, even though other water agencies throughout California have done far more to reduce the damage they’ve caused in other areas. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, like all water agencies, is always looking for additional supply – whether it be used as a hedge against drought, to accommodate growth or for environmental enhancement.
Restore Hetch Hetchy continues to ask San Francisco to invest in groundwater banking – by far the greatest cost-effective opportunity for water supply development in California over the last 30 years. We have written extensively, made presentations and met with staff and board members at the SFPUC, the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (San Francisco’s “suburban’ customers), the Eastside Water District (where depleted aquifers have been depleted and recharge is sorely needed) and the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts (who hold senior water rights on the Tuolumne River and operate Don Pedro Reservoir).
On Friday, April 4, after having watched a meeting of the East Turlock Groundwater Sustainability Agency in which they worried openly about State takeover of their groundwater if they did not make improvements, we wrote to the SFPUC again. San Francisco’s investment in groundwater recharge would provide substantial benefits for all parties and for the environment, but no one is taking this opportunity seriously (maybe there are ongoing private closed door discussions, but it seems unlikely).
Diverting the Tuolumne River flood flows in wet years for groundwater recharge would provide widespread benefits.
We understand that institutional cooperation is complicated and would need to involve San Francisco, Eastside, Turlock and Modesto. Everyone would need to see benefits. But institutional barriers have been overcome, again and again, elsewhere in California. There is every reason that a robust, cooperative groundwater recharge program should be developed and implemented in the Tuolumne River watershed.
