by Spreck | Apr 17, 2021 | Uncategorized
Yosemite National Park has announced that most visitors will require reservations to enter the park between May 21 and September 30 this year. Due to the pandemic, masks and socially distancing etc. will be required.
Just like the people who operate grocery stores, work in health care and provide so many other public services, staff in Yosemite will be working harder than ever under challenging conditions to ensure public safety.
So, if you go, be patient and courteous. Thank, but do not hug, a ranger.
It might also just be a good time to visit Hetch Hetchy. As Carmen George noted in her Fresno Bee article, reservations are not needed to enter Yosemite through the Hetch Hetchy entrance.
That’s good, or not so good, depending on how you look at it.
It’s good, because you can indeed go without a permit. Even with the reservoir covering the valley floor, Hetch Hetchy is a spectacular landscape.
The reason, however, that Hetch Hetchy is so uncrowded is that the National Park Service has never provided the opportunities for visitors that were widely dicussed when the Raker Act was passed and Congress expected would be available at Hetch Hetchy.
Camping, lodging, boating and fishing are not available. There are few trails and Hetch Hetchy’s most popular trail must often be closed for safety when waterfalls are at their most spectacular. The entrance gate is open only during limited daylight hours, so it’s the rare visitor who sees a sunrise or sunset. It’s no wonder Hetch Hetchy is the least-visited and most under-appreciated area of Yosemite and receives barely 1% of the park’s visitors.
Hetch Hetchy can accommodate more visitors in 2021 and in future years while protecting the area’s wilderness quality and wildlife, and without harming water quality in the reservoir. Restore Hetch Hetchy will be asking the National Park Service to provide improved public access. We believe people need to see the wonderful landscape and learn the story of the valley’s damming, so they will then support the opportunity to return Hetch Hetchy to its natural splendor.
More to come on this subject – soon.
by Spreck | Mar 13, 2021 | Uncategorized
An editorial opinion in last week’s Los Angeles Times has endorsed Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson’s proposal to restore salmon in his state by breeching 4 dams on the lower Snake River. Historically, sockeye salmon would make a 900 mile journey to spawn in places like Redfish Lake (shown at left) – swimming first up the Columbia River, then the Snake River and finally up Idaho’s eponymous Salmon River.
Removing the Snake River dams is a principal focus of Patagonia’s “Damnation” (released in 2015). Opponents point to the hydropower production that would be lost (about 8000 gWh per year) as well as dams’ role in making a waterway for barge traffic to transport agricultural products from farms in eastern Washington.
The successful emergence of solar and wind technology is helping to make the loss of hydropower more palatable. The removal of four dams on the Klamath River along the California-Oregon border is expected to result in a loss of about 900 gWh per year, a small fraction of the Snake River value. The Klamath dam removal project seems to be on track and will perhaps be completed by 2024.
Restoring Hetch Hetchy is likely to result in a loss of about 350 gWh per year, as San Francisco’s Kirkwood powerplant would be inoperable in summer and fall. That’s less than half of the Klamath value and a small fraction of the Snake River value.
Restore Hetch Hetchy remains committed to a plan that replaces every kilowatt of power and every drop of water that the O’Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir currently make possible. The Snake and Klamath examples underscore that power replacement is eminently doable. For us the water side is trickier, largely due to California’s cattywampus water rights system – but we are confident it can be solved as well.
Kudos to Congressman Simpson for his courage to step forward with a provocative proposal. Who’s going to step forward for Hetch Hetchy?
by Spreck | Mar 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
AdventureBound Interview: It was great to talk with Host Rob Roy about Hetch Hetchy. He has a very nice way of getting to the core of why places like Hetch Hetchy matter so much to all of us. Rob is a navy pilot and a relatively new father – which has inspired him to do in-depth interviews with professional athletes, thrill seekers, entrepreneurs and everyday people who continually make conscious decisions to spend more time outdoors.
Check out our interview on AdventureBound. You’ll enjoy it. And check out Rob’s other interviews as well.
Hetch Hetchy Hubris: Dennis Herrera, City Attorney of San Francisco, took on the State of Texas in the wake of the recent storm that left millions without power and water. In the course of writing “So you want to leave California for Texas? Think again” for the San Francisco Chronicle, Herrera does a little bragging about Hetch Hetchy.
It’s hard to blame Herrera for defending his city. That’s what politicians do, especially when the media has been filled with stories about businesses leaving California for friendlier and less costly environments. Moreover, public officials should take pride in the reliable delivery of water and power to their customers.
Herrera’s statement about San Francisco’s electricity, however, is rife with inaccuracies. Does he even know, for example, that only one of the City’s three hydroelectric powerplants is connected to the reservoir?
And bragging about San Francisco’s “ingenious gravity-fed system from Hetch Hetchy high in the Sierra” simply sticks in the craw of folks who love Yosemite and want to see Hetch Hetchy restored. Herrera leaves out the fact that the reservoir is the result of “
Someday, San Francisco politicians will be able to say they gave Hetch Hetchy back to Yosemite and the American people, while continuing to deliver reliable water and power. That will be something to brag about!
by Spreck | Dec 23, 2020 | Uncategorized
Friends,
I hope you are well and are able to celebrate the holidays, even though most of our traditional gatherings have been restricted or eliminated due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are better times ahead.
We are all looking forward to 2021. There’s still time, however, to make a tax-deductible donation in 2020 so that we can continue our campaign to undo the greatest damage ever suffered in America’s national parks.
Making Yosemite whole again will inspire a new generation of conservationists. We must convince San Francisco, using either a carrot or a stick (or a bit of both), to make water system improvements as many California water agencies have been doing for more than 25 years.
We are looking forward to working with the new Congress, the new Administration in Washington DC and officials in San Francisco. We will be pressing forward on all fronts, including:
- promoting water system alternatives that employ technological innovation and California’s new groundwater law,
- showing how the National Park Service has allowed San Francisco to deny public access in the Hetch Hetchy Canyon,
- demanding a change to the insignificant $30,000 in annual rent that San Francisco pays for the right to store water in Yosemite National Park, and
- expounding the tremendous unparalleled opportunity to return Hetch Hetchy to its natural splendor.
Contributions can be made by credit card online. If you prefer to send a check, contribute appreciated stock or contribute in some other way, please see our “other ways to give page“.
Happy holidays,
Spreck Rosekrans, Executive Director
by Spreck | Nov 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
The Property and Environmental Research Center, located in Bozeman Montana, has published a policy paper based on San Francisco’s $30,000 per year “rent” for Hetch Hetchy (and comparing it to Yosemite’s $646 million backlog of overdue maintenance projects). PERC opines that San Francisco’s $30,000 rent “may be the worst contract in the history of the National Park Service.”
Before we go any further, let’s note that San Francisco pays Yosemite some $7,000,000 per year, principally as reimbursement for security and watershed protections costs – as mandated by the Raker Act.
PERC provides a few models to guide what San Francisco might fairly pay, including a “Concessions” model that would warrant $38 million per year and a “Special Use Permit Model” that would bring in $65 million per year. The report is short and worth a quick read.
We are also thankful that PERC cites the potential value of a restored valley ($1.7 – $4.5 billion) in recreational use which ECONorthwest projected in its 2019 report, Valuing Hetch Hetchy Valley.
While Restore Hetch Hetchy is focused on returning the Valley to its natural splendor rather than charging more to use it as a reservoir, we agree that the agreement is the worst ever in the history of the National Park Service. San Francisco continues to reap substantial economic benefits at the expense of the broader public interest. Change is needed.
If San Francisco were to pay a fair rent for its use of Hetch Hetchy Valley, perhaps the City would not be so resistant to restoration.
PERC is off base, however. when it asserts restoration “would force the Bay Area to reassess its entire water supply.” The misconception is disappointingly common among those who have not looked closely at the components of San Francisco’s water system.
A few reminders:
- San Francisco’s water system is one of six major water systems serving the Bay Area. Most Bay Are residents do not depend on it at all;
- Hetch Hetchy Reservoir accounts for less that 25% of San Francisco’s storage; and
- Restoration will not affect San Francisco’s water rights on the Tuolumne River.
While San Francisco should be paying more for use of the Valley, we are dedicated to returning Hetch Hetchy to its original splendor while providing access to park visitors. So, to date, we have not advocated raising the rent.
Restore Hetch Hetchy fully agrees with the Property and Environmental Research Center that “it is time to modernize the century-old arrangement between Yosemite and San Francisco.”
by Spreck | Nov 25, 2020 | Uncategorized
Check out our Fall 2020 Newsletter. Features include:
Your vision of restoration. How would you like to see Hetch Hetchy Valley when it is restored? How would you like the National Park Service to manage the valley? Provide us with your vision of restoration, if you have not already done so. We will be publishing a summary of responses in 2021.
The Hetch Hetchy Loop Road – mandated by law but never built. We aren’t advocating to build this road, but the National Park Service needs to take steps to encourage, rather than discourage, park visitors from going to Hetch Hetchy.
Water system elements necessary to keep San Francisco whole when Hetch Hetchy is restored. More to come on this important subject.
Obi Kaufmann’s Hetch Hetchy note cards. They are beautiful. Let us know if you’d like a box.
People working with Restore Hetch Hetchy:
- Libby McLaren, the most recent musician to record “Hooray For Hetch Hetchy” – check out her video!);
- Lesley Goren, who designed our fabulous new letterhead;
- Richard Sykes, a retired water system engineer;
- Jenner Fox, who recorded “Hooray For Hetch Hetchy” in the Oregon woods near his home;
- Julene Freitas, our Office Manager;
- Daniel McKenzie (above), who designed and built our new website; and
- Ron Rick, the graphic artist who creates our newsletter and other materials.
