YOSEMITE, Calif. — National parks tend to be a tree hugger’s paradise.
Layers of federal laws, strict Park Service rules and even the disapproving scowls from some visitors prohibit so much as driving a nail into a tree, much less cutting one down.
But it is getting crowded in Yosemite, where more than a hundred years of prompt firefighting have allowed towering pines and cedars to clog the park’s meadows and valleys. These days, you can barely see the granite for the trees.
That’s about to change. Yosemite National Park officials say thousands of trees will be felled to preserve the iconic views of the park’s waterfalls and the craggy faces of El Capitan and Half Dome.
The project is part of Yosemite’s Scenic Vista Management Plan, approved by the Park Service’s regional office last week.
Chain saws will be fired up in the fall, said superintendent Don Neubacher, aimed mainly at ponderosa pines and incense cedars. Rare or ecologically sensitive trees such as California black oaks, sugar pines and white bark pines will be spared. None of the thousand-year-old sequoias will be cut, nor will any tree more than 130 years old.
In public meetings and in person, park officials and rangers have been making the case that their tree-cutting plan is biologically sound and aims to improve visitor enjoyment of the park’s natural features.
To that end, much of the thinning will be done along the park’s roads and turnouts, where carloads of tourists pile out to snap pictures of Bridal- veil or Yosemite falls.
Neubacher understands visitors’ concerns about cutting trees in Yosemite but says, “This will create views for visitors, views that were here before.”
Numbers
93 Sites at Yosemite National Park at which park officials plan to cut trees
28 Percentage of scenic views around Yosemite that are obscured by vegetation, according to a 2009 analysis
