From: EcoWatch
by
Though the Rim Fire of 2013
was the third largest conflagration in California’s history, it has
improved the ecological health of the forest, while the majority of the
iconic landscapes of Yosemite National Park remain unscathed. However, a
salvage logging plan now under review by the U.S. Forest Service puts
in danger the regenerating effects of the fire and long-term health of
the Yosemite ecosystem. Scientists, conservation groups, local
businesses and activists have instead called upon the Forest Service to
create a Rim Fire National Monument to protect the biodiversity and
scenic values of the region for generations to come.
With the California drought
continuing and the Sierra Nevada snowpack limited to a foreboding 18
percent this winter, the mountain communities remain on edge. Of course,
last year’s Rim Fire, ignited by a hunter’s illegal campfire in
mid-August, was the biggest to hit the Sierra in more than a century of
record keeping. It burned for more than two months, spreading more than
154,430 acres of chaparral and timberland in the Stanislaus National
Forest, about 24,000 acres of private land and roughly 77,000 acres in
neighboring Yosemite National Park.
On the plus side, Yosemite remains open for the 37 million people who
visit every year, with the majority of its spectacular granite cliffs,
waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves and biological diversity
unscathed. Moreover, thousands of acres affected from the fire have
been reopened already, including trails through Hetch Hetchy and the
Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. A recent outing with the Outdoor Writers of Association of California
(OWAC) confirmed the magic of Yosemite shines bright in the wild high
places, the somnolent green meadows of the valley and the [albeit
historically low] spring flows of the waterfalls.
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