A celebration of conservation, economic growth, and recreational opportunities
The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) represents a vital investment in the conservation and maintenance of US public lands and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools. Establishing the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (GAOA LRF) provides a permanent source of funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), safeguards natural areas and cultural heritage, and addresses overdue maintenance. Since 2021, GAOA has supported 17,000 jobs annually and generated $1.8 billion for local economies.
August 4 marks three-year anniversary
On August 4, the Department of the Interior will celebrate the three-year anniversary of GAOA’s enactment by waiving entrance fees at all department-managed lands. Secretary Deb Haaland highlighted the importance of GAOA in ensuring public lands are safe and accessible while also boosting the economy and preparing infrastructure to combat climate change.
The Great American Outdoors Act ensures that our public lands are safe and accessible for all visitors and staff by investing billions of dollars in infrastructure projects. I was proud to co-sponsor this historic law, which provides critical investments in our public lands to ensure they are ready to meet the challenges of climate change, while boosting the American economy by creating good-paying jobs.
As our public lands continue to meet increased visitation, GAOA complements President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to strengthen our infrastructure and prepare it to meet future needs.
—Secretary Deb Haaland
GAOA LRF is financing deferred maintenance, improving over 2,200 assets across the nation, and enhancing visitor safety and accessibility. The fund also supports Indigenous communities by enhancing BIE-funded schools and creating better learning environments for Indigenous youth.
In addition, GAOA permanently funds the LWCF at $900 million annually, which has already financed $5.2 billion for over 45,000 projects nationwide since 1965.
Celebrate GAOA’s anniversary at one of our National Parks
The National Park Service offers a plethora of outdoor recreational activities and ways to celebrate GAOA’s three-year anniversary. National Parks offer cycling, camping, and hiking, as well as cultural and natural programs including ranger talks and live performances. Many parks also host events such as music, theater, and craft demonstrations. In addition, some parks provide sports facilities for activities like golf, tennis, and running.
GAOA’s contributions are vital to President Biden’s economic agenda, creating good-paying jobs, boosting infrastructure, and fostering resilience against climate change.
We were up at Yosemite National Park this week and noticed that it has changed since our last visit 30 years ago. Yosemite National Park remains majestic. However, it is undeniably experiencing transformations at the expense of climate change. From its cascading waterfalls to the towering sequoias and diverse wildlife, the effects of our changing climate are visible.
Warming rate
Data collected since 1895 reveal that from 1895 to 2016, the area within the park’s boundaries warmed at a rate of 1.6°F per century. This warming rate has more than doubled in recent decades, with the period from 1950 to 2010 seeing a warming rate of 3.4°F per century. Nighttime temperatures in Yosemite Valley have increased faster than average temperatures, rising by 7.6°F from 1915 to 2012. Along with rising temperatures, the park’s frost-free days increased by around 88 days from 1907 to 2012, indicating a longer growing season.
The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and large-scale farming have resulted in historically high levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane. These gases trap heat near Earth’s surface, contributing to global warming.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, the climate of Yosemite is projected to experience further changes over the next century. Average temperatures in the park could rise by 6.7-10.3°F between 2000 and 2100. The number of days per year with temperatures above 90°F could quadruple, and extreme weather events, including storms that historically broke 20-year precipitation records, may become far more frequent.
Emissions at the park
People love national parks and want to experience their beauty. According to the Yosemite National Park website, modern times have seen an influx of cars into Yosemite Valley. The cumulative distance traveled by visitors within Yosemite is over 80 million miles annually. This traffic not only leads to pollution and congestion but also contributes over 60% of the park’s carbon footprint.
The forests’ silent struggle
Climate change also poses significant threats to Yosemite’s sequoia trees. The warmer climate exacerbates drought conditions and increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires, both of which can stress these ancient giants.
Last year alone, in 2022, Yosemite was impacted by four significant fires. In July 2022, the Washburn Fire threatened the giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove, including the beloved Grizzly Giant, and in that same month fire officials evacuated over 6,000 people Yosemite area during the Oak Fire. One month later, in August 2022, the Red Fire burned 8,410 acres in Yosemite National Park as part of the 2022 California wildfire season.
Moreover, changing conditions are affecting the broader forest ecosystem. Rising temperatures, coupled with increased pest outbreaks, such as the pine beetle infestation, are leading to higher mortality rates among tree species. This alteration in forest composition can fundamentally transform the habitat, impacting numerous species that call Yosemite home.
Vanishing glaciers
Lyell Glacier, the largest in Yosemite, has shrunk by nearly 80% in the past century. As our planet continues to warm, glaciers in the park are predicted to disappear entirely. Glacial melt not only contributes to sea-level rise globally, but it also influences the park’s water supply, impacting both the natural habitats and human usage.
Wildlife impact
Yosemite’s rich biodiversity, from the smallest insects to the largest mammals, is also affected. Species are forced to shift their ranges to higher altitudes in search of cooler temperatures, disrupting the existing ecological balance. Some, like the pika, a small mammal adapted to the cold alpine environment, are running out of room to move higher and are at risk of local extinction.
“….to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
The park has mobilized its resources toward confronting climate change. Scientists from various fields work to understand the changes we witness. Their findings are shared with the public through guided programs and activities, raising awareness and prompting individual action. With around four to five million visitors annually, Yosemite is uniquely positioned to shape the narrative around global change.
Reducing carbon footprint from transportation
To reduce the carbon footprint from transportation, park managers have implemented shuttle and bus services, reducing emissions and easing traffic.
A long-standing partnership with the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) provides services to and from communities around the park. Within Yosemite, free shuttles transport visitors to various destinations. As of 2020, 24 of these vehicles were diesel-electric hybrids, and two were fully electric.
Waste management
Yosemite generates over 6,200 tons of waste yearly. This waste must be transported to landfills, contributing to carbon emissions. To offset this, Yosemite recycles almost 980 tons of various materials annually, saving over 2,800 metric tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. Furthermore, the park is involved in the Zero Landfill Initiative to improve trash and recycling infrastructure and education.
Green power
To decrease its carbon footprint, Yosemite installed several solar panels at the El Portal Maintenance Complex in 2010. The panels generate over 670,000 kWh of energy annually, preventing over 6,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions since their installation.
Yosemite Valley, among the trees, in June 2023
The park needs our help
Although the park devotes significant resources to climate mitigation, in the context of significant environmental changes, this task becomes more challenging and the parks need help from all of us.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the individual, community, national, and global levels are crucial. Sustainable practices, renewable energy, and energy-efficient technologies can play significant roles in this transition.
Learn about nature and park protection
Rangers and park partners offer visitors opportunities to learn about nature and park protection. They leverage their understanding and engage in conversations about the meaning of change in public lands. They help visitors appreciate the profound impacts of climate change, reinforcing the need for collective action.
Volunteer
Volunteer with the Yosemite National Park Service or a National Park near you to help improve and maintain trails in Yosemite Valley or your national park. Volunteering offers you the opportunity to connect with nature and enjoy the vistas, gorgeous trees, and granite walls, as you restore fragile natural resources damaged by visitors.
It is our profound hope that we act together to protect our beautiful planet and our national parks. Let’s co-create a legacy of care, conservation, and protection for future generations.
The sequoias that live on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California are the largest trees in the world by volume. Erin Donalson/EyeEm via Getty Images
Editor’s note: As wildfires came dangerously close to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in September 2020, the curator of the archives there worked with Emily Lin, librarian and head of digital curation at the University of California Merced, to evacuate the archives to keep them safe. In this interview, Lin explains how they evacuated the records, what’s in them and why they’re worth preserving.
Listen to Emily Lin of UC Merced talk about the archives and see the contents of the park archives and photos from the evacuation.
Why were the archives of Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks evacuated?
Ward Eldredge, the curator of the archives of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and I had been talking about the potential partnership around digitization of collections that had been housed there for a couple of years now. There’s been a concern about the safety of these records because wildfires in the past few years have been an annual threat. So the long-term safekeeping of the records was very much on Eldredge’s mind. And he pointed out that the UC Merced campus is located in one of the few areas in California that are outside of a high-risk fire zone and also outside of the risk of earthquakes. There was just no question that we would do whatever we could to bring them here for safekeeping.
The Castle Fire in October 2020 burned hundreds of Sequoias in the privately owned Alder Creek grove that NGO Save the Redwoods League purchased less than a year ago. Al Seib/LA Times via Getty Images
In September, when the fires got really close to the park, Eldredge was trying really hard to find a way to move the materials. He just couldn’t find a van or a truck because the residents in the area were also being called to evacuate, and there was a shortage. So in the course of a day, we managed to make arrangements to take our moving truck from campus, and he was able to secure a U-Haul truck. We were able to pack everything and move it out of the mountains to the UC Merced campus, which is two and a half hours away.
What’s in these archives?
There were hundreds of boxes of collections, about 600 linear feet, and also cabinets of plant specimens and artifacts.
It’s a complete record of the administrative history of the park. Sequoia was the second-oldest national park in the U.S., established in 1890. So there are records related to its founding and through to the 20th century. In letters written by the park directors to the U.S. president and the secretaries of the Department of the Interior, one can see how the thinking around managing public lands, conservation, fire and forest management changed over the last century.
Before the park was established, people would cut the sequoias down for timber. The city of Los Angeles wanted to build a dam in Kings Canyon up until 1965. So you can see how the thinking changed and how we got from that way of thinking to really establishing the National Park Service and protecting these unique environments.
There’s an incredible photographic record – tens of thousands of photographs that cover pretty much every place within the park. There are maps of the sequoia groves, maps related to how trails and roads and other buildings were constructed. We take these trails for granted, but they were huge undertakings involving hundreds of workers breaking rocks, cutting trees and excavating for years. They worked through the winter sometimes to do it within schedule. These projects also provided jobs during the Great Depression.
Who will find them useful?
Anyone, from those within the parks who want to better understand the history of the park, to the rangers and the interpreters who want to provide and present that history to the general public. Ken Burns, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, accessed these records while he was making his television series about the national parks.
They’ll also be more widely available for students to use. There’s plenty of material in there for lots of Ph.D. students working on dissertations and for those who want to really investigate how best to manage public lands and determine what’s effective. That knowledge is going to benefit the broader public and help conserve these national parks for all of us. There’s a rich record that can help us understand what is unique about the environment that allows these trees to survive.
What are the plans for keeping the archives at UC Merced?
When the records were kept in the park, it was just one person, Ward Eldredge, maintaining the records. That’s a lot of work. You could make an appointment and he could provide access if you wanted to come to the park, but it’s in a very small space within the park headquarters, so the accessibility was definitely limited. Now that these collections are at the library at UC Merced, it will be easier for people to be able to access them.
Our vision is to be able to digitize much of this material. Once it’s online, it will be a lot easier for people to at least see and maybe answer some of their immediate questions. And if there’s a need for them to see the physical material, they can still make arrangements to do that.
There’s still a long way to go, because normally, we would have to make a plan with the National Park Service, raise funds, build the facilities to store them safely and so on. Because we had to evacuate them, we still have to work on formalizing an agreement, but our goal is eventually to make sure that these records will be safe.
