Yosemite National Park: Public Access Versus Preservation
The alpine Yosemite Valley is situated within California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. Carved by glacial ice, the valley's towering granite walls and cascading waterfalls provide for some spectacular scenery. Such natural beauty has long been recognized as worthy of preservation. The exact form that this protection should take, however, has also been a source of ongoing controversy. The National Park Service's mission is to conserve the parks' natural and historic resources. In addition though, the service must allow for public use. This bifold agenda has often been a source of conflict. Yosemite National Park, in particular, has begun to suffer from overuse. Environmental degradation caused by overcrowding and pollution inspired the 1980 Yosemite General Management Plan. However, the Plan's recommendations have been largely ignored. Only in recent years have the problems of America's national parks begun to receive renewed attention.
Located at an elevation of 4,000 feet, Yosemite Valley is approximately 7 miles in length and 1 mile wide. It is, in fact, the nation's seventh largest federal park outside of Alaska. In 1864, an act of Congress ceded the valley--and also the nearby Mariposa Grove of Big Trees--to the State of California. Congress' original intent was that California "have and hold [the park] for all time as a public trust." That same year, Frederick Law Olmstead delineated the state's responsibilities in a report to the park commission. Olmstead emphasized the "preservation and maintenance" of the resource "as exactly as possible." These actions ultimately made Yosemite the United States' first protected park.
The need to preserve wilderness areas was first recognized by early conservationists such as John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt towards the end of the 1800s. These leaders sought to set aside lands that were "splen...