Vegetation Change and Park Purposes in the High Elevations of Yosemite National Park, California

Abstract

Vegetation changes over the past 80 years in the high elevations of Yosemite National Park were identified with 59 scenes originally photographed at the turn of the century and rephotographed in 1984 and 1985. The resulting photo pairs suggest that ( I ) krummholz has increased in height and density (2) forests at the upper forest line have increased in density ( 3 ) meadows have been invaded by trees (4) local patches of thin forest have increased in density and ( 5 ) trees on many domes and rock slopes have increased in number. Fire suppression, climatic fluctuations, and livestock grazing are explored as possible causes of the changes. Management programs to reverse such vegetation changes caused by modern humans are evaluated in terms of the purposes of national parks. I argue that these purposes are best met by recognizing the legitimacy of both ecological goals, which may be furthered by managing the vegetation intensively, and humanistic goals, which may be served by maintaining a landscape free of a conspicuous human presence.

Changing forest structure across the landscape of the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, since the 1930s

“…There are currently many more small trees and fewer large trees in most locations and for most species. Densification, or infilling, by small trees has been reported in other studies from the Sierra Nevada that used various methodologies, including repeat photography (Vale 1987, Gruell 2001, dendrochronology and stand reconstruction (Parsons and Debenedetti 1979, Taylor 1995, 2000, historical re-sampling (Ansley andBattles 1998, Dolanc et al 2013b), and a combination of methods (Vankat and Major 1978). More recently, multiple studies have observed a reduction of large trees as well , Lutz et al 2009, Dolanc et al 2013b).…”

The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: Nonequilibrium Landscapes and Nature-Society Hybrids

“…A focus on anthropogenic or heavily utilized environments is also compatible with this awareness. For management, the scarcity of pure, pristine nature means that nature is rarely best left to care for itself (Botkin 1990;Sprugel 1991;Vale 1987 Peru (1982Peru ( , 1985Peru ( , 1986Peru ( -1987Peru ( , 1990Peru ( , 1995; Cochabamba Bolivia (1987, 1990-1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997); Sierra de Manantlán International Biosphere Reserve, Mexico (1997. 12.…”

“…To make this effort, I engage a wide variety of academic, applied, and activist perspectives. In the field of geography, an interest in conservation-taken broadly as resource management, nature protection, and ecological restoration-is familiar and shows a fast-growing popularity (for example , Brower 1990;Coomes and Barham 1997;Morehouse 1996;Naughton 1993;Neumann 1998;Nietschmann 1984;Stevens 1997;Sundberg 1998;Vale 1987;Veblen 1978;Young 1999;Zimmerer and Young 1998). These works underscore the growing prevalence of nature-society couplings that characterize the new conservation areas.…”

Retrospective on Nature–Society Geography: Tracing Trajectories (1911–2010) and Reflecting on Translations

“…Into the 1960s it was dominated by the Berkeley School of Sauer and the Chicago School of hazards scholars, including, notably, Harlan Barrows and Gilbert White, along with their prodigious offshoots in the discipline. 10 During the 1970s and 1980s, Annals publications foreshadowed a diversification of topics and approaches, including urban development and irrigation landscapes (Vandermeer 1968;Hobbs and Woolmington 1972;Wescoat 1986), environmental conservation (Vale 1987), environmental health (Meade 1976;Frenkel and Western 1988), resource institutions (Emel and Brooks 1988), political ecology (Bassett 1988;Grossman 1993), and household models of development (Veeck and Pannell 1989).…”