Yosemite National Park is a world famous natural wonder with towering granite cliffs, gorgeous meadows, giant sequoias, and splendid waterfalls. And now, the wondrous natural beauty of the park is being given a chance to expand and thrive in a new area. This newly added 400-acre plot of land, known as Ackerson Meadow, was sold at a slight loss for $2.3 million, from a local ranching family to the Trust for Public Land, which donated it to Yosemite. Now, an ambitious restoration project is underway in the area.
This plot has been used by people and animals since the 1880s, when homesteaders began to log and build on the land and use it for cattle grazing. The soil was compacted, leading to erosion and the formation of huge gullies. This lowered the water table and dried out the land, degrading it even further. Now, planners are working to restore Ackerson Meadow to conditions that have not been present for over one hundred years.
This will be the largest expansion of Yosemite Park boundaries since 1949, and is budgeted to cost almost $18 million. The project will be the largest wetland restoration effort in the history of Yosemite, and it aims to reverse the effects of huge amounts of erosion.
A gully that is fourteen feet deep and about one hundred feet wide will be filled in with dirt, mulch, 700 pounds of wildflower seeds, and 425,000 native plants. Officials are hopeful that the work will be finished by next summer. Then nature will take over. The area is now closed to the public, but it is expected to reopen after completion.
"It's an amazing location, with amazing resources. This meadow is a rare oasis in the Sierra," said Frank Dean, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, a San Francisco-based non-profit group that is contributing to project funds. "It's an incredibly rich place."
Developers have coveted Ackerson Meadow for years. It is a prime location that was once situated within Yosemite's boundaries, but ended up outside and on the boundary of the park after adjustments were made by Congress. For more than a century, it has been privately owned.
The family of Robin and Nancy Wainwright owned the land and sold it to the Trust for Public Land. In an interview with the Associated Press, Robin Wainwright said that his family gotten a higher offer from developers who wanted to build a resort there.
"To have that accessible by everyone to me is just a great thing," he said. "It was worth losing a little bit of money for that."
While only three percent of Yosemite National Park is made up of meadowlands, they are home to about one-third of all of the species in the park. Ackerson, for example, hosts black bears and 55 species of birds or more, including an endangered species called the little willow flycatcher.
Sources: Mercury News via Phys.org