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jose gutierrez
Trad climber
sacramento,ca
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 29, 2016 - 11:02pm PT
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It is almost too painful to climb in Yosemite Valley this year due to the devastation the drought and Bark Beetles have had on the Valley. I hate to be a downer but I took this photo this weekend on my way out of the park and the devastation compared to even a few years ago is alarming. Does anyone who has been going to the Valley for a long time have any good photos or ever recall this amount of tree mortality? It is so sad to see the Valley dying, and I have to wonder if it will be as magical a place for my children someday if all the trees are dead.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 12:28am PT
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I think it is easy to get sentimental about a place you grew up knowing, and assume that that place was always as you had known it.
If you look at Yosemite Valley in 1865 you see the famous Carleton Watkins image:
http://www.carletonwatkins.org/getviewbyid.php?id=1005215
Many people have found these scenes, using hints from old maps to find the "Mariposa Trail" and then taking images from that trail, for instance:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,65416
This image was probably taken in the 2010's... almost 150 years later.
The difference is quite apparent, there are a lot more trees on the floor of the Valley, especially pine species,
in the modern image compared to the old image. The density of trees in the foreground are especially revealing,
you can see the ground in the old picture, which is totally obscured in the new one.
The talus slopes on the North side up around the "Old Big Oak Flat Rd." are much more vegetated now
then they were, as well as the slopes up to El Cap.
Certainly, modern fire suppression (probably largely since WWII) and the altered hydrology have played a role in the
pine succession. Increased density also causes problems for both fire propagation as well as disease and insect
infestation.
Our modern view of the Valley is quite a bit different from the view 150 years ago. It is certainly true
that the "first people" utilized fire to alter the vegetation to their advantage, favoring oaks to pines as
a food source. The Merced river was also dammed by the terminal moraine which was breached in the
late 1800s to drain the marshes (or perhaps by accident?) reducing the flooding that prevented the pines
from establishing in the various meadows.
All this is a long winded way of saying that we can try to make these places look like we think they should,
but there are natural processes which we know little or nothing about that can act quickly, and in ways that
we cannot control to produce the vista we desire.
An old saying goes "man proposes, God disposes" Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, and independent of one's
views on religion, it is an appropriate saying to keep in mind.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Aug 30, 2016 - 04:23am PT
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A very current photo from the summit of Ranger Rock.
The trees which are in red stage of bark beetle infestation are plain to see and plainly doomed. They are inferior specimens, anyway. Meh.
The carpet of pines, created by lack of fires over recent history, is very apparent as well. Change is for chumps. We want it the way we had it.
Sorry, Charlie.
It seems like only a matter of time until the pines are nearly or completely wiped out here and elsewhere in the range.
The lichens don't seem to be worried, but we should be.
Mice dispose of lots...of shi't, Ed.
Boy, this is a good topic. Thanks for noticing and caring, JG.
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Matt's
climber
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Aug 30, 2016 - 06:23am PT
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Jose-- a couple points:
1) yes, there is a massive tree die-off occurring-- probably some combination of infestation/drought/global warming/previous fire suppression. It's unclear to me what a "natural" level of vegetation is in the valley. I think a bigger issue is the 20% year-over-year increase in YNP visitors....
2) Every generation of californian has experienced watching their version of california disappear-- I'm sure that you're children, when they grow up, will talk about how much better the state was when they were growing up...
best,
matt
(you should come visit Meve and I in Oakland one of these days!)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Aug 30, 2016 - 06:54am PT
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Dingus, you make-a my head hurt!
What you say is valid; but the topic is the drought, is it not?
Nothing too magical about lack of rain in California.
That is the norm as I see it, and my being a native has taught me some form of dry humor.
I never cease to appreciate the magic of being somewhere besides Merced by being able to walk beside the Merced.
In such surroundings, the quiet spots away from the churning masses (20%/year is just not sustainable!), there is still lots to appreciate.
It's easy to try, white as I am, to picture myself as one living there among others native to the place--
I can't help the feeling of being part of it, I have come to know it so well as I have,
yet not a skosh compared to the lucky ones who live and work there for long spells.
Dry comes and goes, though. And what is the nature of the norm in natural Yosemite Valley?
That is a basic question and people like Greg STock ("resident ST rockfall expert notices changes...
again and again and again") and others are the ones to whom to go for beta on that, I think.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 07:44am PT
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Let's not forget that the indians were burning off the meadows every year to resist forestation of their crucial deer habitats in the grassy open spaces. Sierra Club Bulletin did a study and good article on this back in the Sixties, by the way, including photos. I think the NPS/NFS is trying to mimic this action controlled burns on the Valley floor.
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Cragar
climber
MSLA - MT
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Aug 30, 2016 - 09:21am PT
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Some emotional management may be necessary to come to terms with this.
You've said it in the past and it continues to ring true. The sooner folks can learn to cope, deal and move on, the better. Trees, health and aesthetics in environment are just the beginning! :)
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 09:32am PT
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Taken from mid-Sentinel in June of 2013:
In 2014:
Last month:
Trees dying in any quadrant you put in focus:
Sensible and rational answers here, but I'm with you Jose - even though I see the bigger picture and am not worried for the health of the forest, it makes me sad to see such beautiful trees dying, too.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Aug 30, 2016 - 11:02am PT
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I was aghast when I heard the tree mortality in Mariposa county was pegged at 55% this year. Drive through Oakhurst during the day, and you know that it's not a joke.
Combination of drought, beetles, and other factors.
My prediction is that in a quarter century, we gonna see saguaros in Yosemite instead of pines.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 11:09am PT
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My hope, if not prediction, has a much more optimistic hue. I hope the dead conifers in the Valley turn back to meadows and oak forests. When I look at old pictures of the Valley -- including those in my family's albums -- the much greater grass areas stand out. Since we would never agree to artificial tree clearing, and most would consider a massive burn too dangerous, the drought and bark beetle, like the drought and needle miners 50+ years ago below Medlicott Dome, are my last hope for clearing out some conifers to make room for the more scenic "deep, grassy valley" that Ahwahnee allegedly means.
John
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nita
Social climber
chica de chico, I don't claim to be a daisy.
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Aug 30, 2016 - 11:24am PT
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*
More photos ~Turtleback webcam.
Last year already signs of dying trees..
Webcam picture from today
...............
A rememberance of mine.... and interesting nature notes.
i started working in Tuolumne Meadow the summer after the 76 & 77 California drought. That year the river was reduced to a trickle before summers end, and the Needleminer infestation once again took hold in the Lodgepoll pines. The following summer, 1979, ( durning the hatch) the moths were falling in abundance like tiny snowflakes. Moths got into everything, including the food i was serving the guests at the lodge. I don't remember if the park service sprayed the high country that year, but they had sprayed in the past. There are still obvious signs of ghost forests.. die- off throughout the high country.
http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_nature_notes/36/36-5.pdf
Edit:...John...Yep, that old...I'm well preserved ..(-;..
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 11:28am PT
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i started working in Tuolumne Meadow the summer after the 76 & 77 California drought.
I'm sorry, Nita, but you can't possibly be that old.
John
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Aug 30, 2016 - 11:34am PT
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I think that all we have to do is listen to The Donald. He told us there was no drought in California and that all we had to do was "turn on the water."
That man is so smart, somebody should make him president.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Aug 30, 2016 - 03:38pm PT
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My prediction is that in a quarter century, we gonna see saguaros in Yosemite instead of pines.
I think that would actually be rad. (Although I think dirt and sagebrush is far more likely.)
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Aug 30, 2016 - 07:19pm PT
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It is so sad to see the Valley dying, and I have to wonder if it will be as magical a place for my children someday if all the trees are dead.
Unfortunately dying trees are not limited to Yosemite Valley or California . . . You should see the White Fir mortality in and around Ouray, CO. In just the last 4 years the changes have been dramatic. Climate change is the only constant!
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Paul Martzen
Trad climber
Fresno
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Aug 30, 2016 - 07:20pm PT
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Seems like the pine belt is retreating uphill. The worst of the die off appears to be right at the traditional snowline or around 4500 feet up to 6,000 feet or so. The highest concentration of dead trees is at the lowest elevations that they are found. Going up highway 180, east of Fresno, the tree die off near Snowline Lodge appears to be about 90%. As you drive higher, the percentage of dead pine trees steadily declines.
There are plenty of dead oak trees at low elevations as well, but I don't see any obvious pattern of uphill retreat. The low elevation digger pines which are kind of like undead zombie pines seem to be doing fine.
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Aug 30, 2016 - 07:57pm PT
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will somebody please think of the children?!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Aug 30, 2016 - 10:46pm PT
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Some of the photos (areas near El Cap Meadow and near Foresta)
show trees killed by controlled and uncontrolled fires....
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