by Spreck | Dec 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
Melting snow on the north rim at Hetch Hetchy can create a dozen simultaneous waterfalls – a site to behold.
After two very dry years, it’s especially nice to enter 2022 with one of the wettest autumns ever.
How wet has it really been? It’s too soon to be definitive about how much snow has fallen as the State of California has not yet completed its first snow survey – an operation that requires measuring both the depth and density of snow at standardized locations.
Rainfall, however, is easier to measure. Throughout the Central Valley we have already surpassed last year’s total and, in the north, we are on pace for the wettest year in more than a century. California’s Data Exchange Center shows cumulative rainfall totals on a daily basis for the Northern Sierra, San Joaquin and Tulare Basin, and compares them to values in prior years.
From a scientific perspective, our case for restoring Hetch Hetchy is not affected by drought. After all, we are advocating that San Francisco invest in system improvements that would fully replace, at a minimum, the water supply function of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (storing Tuolumne River supplies in groundwater basins in Stanislaus County or an enlarged Calaveras Reservoir in Alameda County, or recycling wastewater in the Bay Area, are all viable options).
Adequate water supply is such an emotional issue, however, that it is much easier to talk to people, especially elected officials, when drought is not on the front page. So we are happy about the wet weather – both because we need the rain AND because it makes it easier to advocate for restoration.
We are grateful to all our supporters and thank all who have already made year-end contributions. If you haven’t contributed in 2021 but would like to, send a check (dated today) to Restore Hetch Hetchy, 3286 Adeline St. Suite 7, Berkeley, California 94703, or contribute online.
by Spreck | Dec 28, 2021 | Uncategorized
There will be many benefits to realizing our vision of returning Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its original splendor, without the traffic and congestion that too often diminishes the visitor experience in Yosemite Valley.
There are only three days left in 2021 to make a tax-deductible contribution to Restore Hetch Hetchy. Please help by sending a check to Restore Hetch Hetchy, 3286 Adeline St. Suite 7, Berkeley, California 94703, or contributing online.
Photos from 1913 and 2021 show how fire suppression in Yosemite Valley has allowed coniferous forests to overtake meadow habitat, interrupting the natural balance. We can do a better job when we restore Hetch Hetchy.
While it is essential to provide camping and lodging, our plan is to locate the vast majority of infrastructure adjacent to, but not within, Hetch Hetchy Valley. This plan will allow wildlife and the Tuolumne River to run free, and the meadows to flourish. Visitors will visit, but not overrun the valley.
Minimizing infrastructure within the valley will make it far easier to manage Hetch Hetchy during wildfires. Without structures to protect, occasional small fires can be allowed to burn – maintaining the natural balance between forest and meadow. (The photos above show how the balance between forest and meadow has changed over time in Yosemite Valley. In 1913, Yosemite Valley included more expansive meadows than it does today. Due in large part to a century of fire suppression, much of Yosemite Valley is now dominated by young conifers. We all love trees, but it is important to achieve the right balance between saplings, mature trees and open meadows.)
by Spreck | Dec 27, 2021 | Uncategorized
Harvard biologist Edward Osborne Wilson, sometimes described as the “father of biodiversity”, passed away yesterday. He will be missed.
Wilson was a groundbreaking biologist, initially recognized for his study of ants. He authored 30 books and 430 academic papers, held 40 honorary doctorates, and was an engaging speaker. Wilson became an advocate for restoration of vast landscapes in an effort to protect the earth for future generations, opining on the value of “reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still survives around us.”
We arranged to meet Wilson in 2016, when he came to Berkeley for a conference on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. He asked when “that damn dam was coming out?”. We asked if he might help. Wilson did not specifically decline but, like many academics, did not seem willing to engage in a political effort like ours.
E.O. Wilson also served as the inspiration for EDF’s Paradise Regained: SOLUTIONS FOR RESTORING YOSEMITE’S HETCH HETCHY VALLEY. EDF, like Restore Hetch Hetchy, is staunchly nonpartisan, and recruited two former California Resource Secretaries, Republican Doug Wheeler and Democrat Huey Johnson, to draft a foreword for the report. They did do, drawing on Wilson for inspiration – see below.
Foreword
More than a decade ago, the renowned Harvard biologist, E.O.Wilson, spoke of the need of repairing, where possible, the environmental damage which is an unfortunate legacy of heedless development in sensitive areas. In his seminal book, The Diversity of Life, Wilson urges that we now “go beyond mere salvage to begin the restoration of natural environments, in order to enlarge wild populations and stanch the hemorrhaging of biological wealth.”
To a remarkable extent, 21st-century Americans have taken Wilson’s updated definition of the public trust to heart, and are everywhere engaged in restoration projects small and large. Some are audacious indeed, striving to reweave and restore entire habitats on a scale as large as Florida’s Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay, and San Francisco’s Bay- Delta Estuary; others are as small as the watersheds of local, but nonetheless productive, creeks and tributaries. These projects result from the growing conviction that we have the capability, if not the obligation, to make amends for past mistakes, using newfound scientific knowledge and advanced technologies.
We think of Wilson’s words as we read this report on the development of feasible alternatives to the water supply and hydroelectricity, which are currently provided by the O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Almost from the time of its construction early in the last century, visionaries have argued for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy to its splendid natural condition. Perhaps they can be excused for having given short shrift to the social and economic consequences of so bold a vision: millions of northern Californians have come to depend on the water and power of the Hetch Hetchy system. Whatever one’s opinion of the merits of the original decision or of federal and state water policies as they evolved over the last century, however, no plan for the restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, no matter how felicitous, can be considered without addressing this dependency on the current system.
Indeed, restoration advocates bear the burden of proving that alternatives can be made to work. In accepting this challenge, Environmental Defense, with the help of three distinguished consulting firms, has produced an extraordinarily thorough and thought-provoking assessment. As veterans of many an environmental controversy, we know that a lengthy dialog must precede any decision as momentous as the proposal to restore Hetch Hetchy and that the legitimate concerns of all stakeholders must be addressed. We welcome the publication of this report as an essential element of that dialog, coming at a time when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission must make costly long term decisions about upgrades to its Hetch Hetchy infrastructure. It is also time, as E.O.Wilson suggests, to begin “reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still survives around us.”
Douglas P. Wheeler and Huey D. Johnson both served as Secretary for Resources, State of California, in 1991–99 and 1978–82, respectively. Doug Wheeler presently chairs the National Park System Advisory Board and was formerly Executive Director of the Sierra Club and co-founder and President of American Farmland Trust. Huey Johnson was formerly the Western Regional Director of The Nature Conservancy and founder and President of the Trust for Public Land. He presently leads the Resource Renewal Institute.
by Spreck | Dec 23, 2021 | Uncategorized
Hetch Hetchy, like the rest of Yosemite, is beautiful year-round.
At a time when our national parks are more popular than ever, Hetch Hetchy can be a new model. We can create a place where natural and cultural resources are truly honored, but without the congestion that too often diminishes the visitor experience in nearby Yosemite Valley.
We have asked the National Park Service to expand gate hours, in winter as well as summer, so visitors can savor THEIR national park. We need more people to visit during all seasons to build support for relocation of the reservoir and return of the valley to all people.
Please help return Hetch Hetchy to its natural splendor and make Yosemite whole. To make a contribution:
- Send a check to Restore Hetch Hetchy, 3286 Adeline St. Suite 7, Berkeley, California 94703, or
- Pay by credit card online , or
- For other options, including appreciated stock, see our other other ways to give page.
Thank you for your consideration.
Even Michael O’Shaughnessy, San Francisco’s Chief Engineer, appreciated the beauty of Hetch Hetchy. O’Shaughnessy sent this postcard to his wife in 1919, 4 years before the dam that would be named in his honor was completed.
by Spreck | Dec 17, 2021 | Uncategorized
Photo: Jessica Christian, San Francisco Chronicle
The front page of Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle posed a question: “Can a Rock Climber Help Restore Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley?”
The clear answer is yes. Climbers can help. So can fishermen, hikers, backpackers, picnickers and anyone who cares about Yosemite and our national parks.
It’s a very nice article, primarily featuring Restore Hetch Hetchy’s newest board members – Lucho Rivera and Mecia Serafino. Our mission is, of course, to restore the valley for everyone – picnickers, hikers, wanderers, fishermen et al. as well as rock climbers.
(Yes, we have a few nitpicks about the article, starting with a headline that confuses a storage tank with a water “source”, but let’s focus on the positive. It is a great story about one of many the reasons Hetch Hetchy should be restored.)
The article is posted on the Chronicle’s website (a subscription may be required) and as well as here on our website. Have a look and let us know what you think.
Also, if you haven’t had a chance to make a year-end contribution, you can do so online or by sending a check to Restore Hetch Hetchy, 3286 Adeline St. Suite 7, Berkeley, California 94703. Please help us return Hetch Hetchy to its natural splendor.
Photo: Greg Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle
by Spreck | Dec 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
In his Pulitzer Prize winning series, Sacramento Bee editor Tom Philp opined “Californians don’t have to be prisoners of a 90-year-old debate. Change is coming to the river.”
Looking to the future, not dwelling on the past, is what Restore Hetch Hetchy is about. Water agencies through California have made investments to assure reliable supplies while lessening impact on rivers and wetlands (e.g. Mono Lake, the Bay-Delta, Central Valley wildlife refuges and Trinity River).
With a sense of the past but without a vision for the future, on December 3 the San Francisco Chronicle published archival photos in a short article titled “How Hetch Hetchy Valley Went from Natural Paradise to Concrete Basin“.
“…the scenic canyon was often compared to nearby Yosemite Valley. Rare photos show the transformation of Hetch Hetchy Valley from untouched paradise …”
It’s great to have the Chronicle acknowledge the spectacular landscape that Hetch Hetchy once was. We invite the Chron, and all San Franciscans, to think about Hetch Hetchy’s future as a valley once more.
We’d also love other newspapers endorse restoration as the Sacramento Bee has. The Los Angeles Times has not (yet) but they did publish the following letter last Friday:
Letters to the Editor: Relieve the strain on Yosemite Valley. Drain Hetch Hetchy
To the editor: Yosemite Valley is too crowded? Then create a second Yosemite Valley. (“Yosemite has been at its best under pandemic restrictions. Keep the cap on crowds,” Opinion, Dec. 6)
Amazingly, it already exists at Hetch Hetchy, John Muir’s preferred valley in the national park. But it currently serves as a reservoir for San Francisco and is full of water.
Now is the time to empty it. There is more than enough unused reservoir space in California to accommodate all of that water and continue to serve San Francisco without any problem.
Just pull the plug and get to work restoring Hetch Hetchy to what it should be — another Yosemite Valley full of wonders.
William Bergmann, Hollywood
Thanks to Mr. Bergman for writing a great letter and to the Los Angeles Times for publishing. Let’s not be prisoners of the past.
