YosemiteBlog.com

Yeah. That’s icky.

Have you ever wondered what kind of person works for the National Park Service in Yosemite?

This really cool video from the National Park Service shows the variety of cool jobs in Yosemite. It’s total run time is 16 minutes but it’s a great video and well worth the time to watch. So check it out. Go watch Dream Jobs.

Two lightning caused fires in Yosemite National Park continue to grow and are being managed for natural resource benefits. Both of these fires have been inactive due to cool weather conditions, however activity has increased due to dry and hot weather.

The Grouse and Harden fires in Yosemite National Park continue to move at a steady pace under hot and dry conditions. The Grouse Fire (848 acres) is about three miles southwest of Yosemite Valley and north of Glacier Point Road. The Harden Fire (593 acres) is on the north side of the park, west of Harden Lake and northwest of White Wolf.

Travelers are advised of temporary road delays and closures, due to smoke and firefighters working along the Wawona Road and the Glacier Point Road. For firefighter and driver safety, please use caution.

On Tuesday, early morning light rain and clouds gave way to the predominant hot and dry weather that has been over the area the past few days. As the temperature rose, the fires started to gain momentum through the afternoon into the early evening. A significant smoke column was visible on the Harden Fire around 5 p.m. Managers expect continued vigorous activity on the fires while the current weather pattern remains in place.

Tuesday, personnel took actions on the Grouse Fire along Steamboat Ridge to reinforce the northern boundary to keep the fire within the defined management area. On the Harden Fire, personnel began fire line construction east and west of the fire to stop fire progression in those directions while allowing north and south progression to continue. In addition, helicopters dropped buckets of water on hot spots to slow fire spread and shuttled supplies for crews.

Trail closures have been implemented on the Harden Fire for public safety. The closures are the Smith Meadow to White Wolf and Aspen Valley to White Wolf. There is an alternate route to Pate Valley from White Wolf, which bypasses the Harden Lake area.

Park staff continues to monitor smoke and work closely with Mariposa and Tuolumne County Air Pollution Control Districts to address air quality concerns. Managers have implemented actions on the Grouse Fire to meet incident objectives and minimize smoke impacts to the park and surrounding communities. Smoky conditions may exist from time to time within the park, on roads and in surrounding areas. Residents and visitors are advised to take precautions to minimize smoke impacts to health. To see air quality data, please visit: http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/aqmonitoring.htm

A strong high pressure will persist over the next few days with partly cloudy conditions, high temperatures and a chance of isolated thunderstorms.

All park facilities remain open. Smoke is visible at many locations throughout the park. Please use caution while driving through the park.

For additional information, please call 209/375-9574 or visit the Inciweb at http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1704 or http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1708

Courtesy of National Park Service.

So if you’ve got some time to kill then I recommend heading over to JeffreyTrust.com and spending some time reading the stories. Jeffrey Trust is a ranger in Yosemite who “works with Web sites, bears and people” but it’s his work with bears that he talks about on his blog that I find most interesting. One of the more interesting post I’ve found is where Jeffrey talks about a particular bear and…well you can read. Here’s a clip:

jeffreytrust.com: The next year, I was working one night when we received a report of a bear (who turned out to be Yellow 53, a yearling on his own at that point) near Lower Pines Campground. Since he was out of the campground, we didn’t bother him, and he soon disappeared. Expecting that he might come into the campground once it got dark, we talked to everyone to make sure they stored their food. Meanwhile, Yellow 53 ambled over a nearby bridge and left the area. He’d had his chance to get into Lower Pines, but he walked all the way around the campground and over a bridge to go somewhere else. This is what bears are supposed to do, and I actually remember feeling proud of him! Maybe he’d be unlike his mother! On another night shortly after, I was working once again, and I ran into my partner as he told a woman not to forget the bag of trash she still had hanging out.

Hours later, as I was walking through Upper Pines Campground, checking on food storage, I found Yellow 53 eating from the trash bag that this woman my partner had reminded had never put away. The bear treed, and when he finally came down, I chased him away. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time Yellow 53 got human food on his own, and all because this woman, despite the reminder, still managed to forget to throw away her trash.

And thus a downward spiral began. He was active that year, less so the next, and then very active the following two years. He knew by then that getting human food was far more efficient than eating only natural foods, despite the occasionally annoying person who actually tried to scare him away. He could sneak into campsites with people just a few feet away and grab their food. As time went on, he was so comfortable doing this that visitors had a hard time scaring him away (although, I always found him easy to scare away).

He was a smart bear, like his mother. Orange 19 once banged a bear canister against a rock for 45 minutes until the lid popped off. Yellow 53, on the other hand, went around opening up unlocked car doors… using the door handles.

I (and many others) spent quite a lot of time trying to undo the consequences of that woman forgetting to throw away her trash. I even got an award for it, but all Yellow 53 got was more and more food. He got so close to people so often, and may have injured one (or more) people, that we were beginning to think we’d have no choice but to kill him. We tried moving him, we tried aggressively using a shotgun with rubber slugs or bean bags to scare him, we tried to improve food storage. But, in the end, none of these things made a difference, and we had to kill him. It was a very sad day. He was perhaps my favorite bear.

So, a few nights ago, I was walking through Upper Pines when the wildlife techs, just a loop away, found a sow with three cubs in the campground. And what were they doing? Eating from a trash bag someone had forgotten to throw away.

If you’d like to read more about Jeffrey’s work with bears head over to jeffreytrust.com.

Awesome stuff, Jeffrey. Please keep it up.

Tonight’s Photo of the Day is a beautiful shot from Joshua Couts of the Merced River at sunset. What really caught my eye about Joshua’s photo was the color. Awesome!

Great shot, Joshua.

Hey if you like Joshua’s stuff be sure to take a look at his Smugmug galleries. Lots of beautiful shots from all over and you can even order a print or two to hang on your wall.

Photo by Joshua Couts.

Staying with the theme of cool places I’d rather be than the 100 degree heat, today’s Photo of the Day is a great panorama by Mathew Winchester of Lembert Dome and Tuolumne Meadows.

Awesome shot, Mathew.

Photo by Mathew Winchester.

If you’ve been noticing it’s a quite a bit smokier in Yosemite of late don’t be alarmed. Fire is a natural thing and it’s part of the process of growth and rebirth. For hundreds of years before the european settlers came native peoples managed the growth in the Valley through fire. Fire today is allowed to burn when possible to help restore and replenish soil and plant populations.

The fires you see burning in Yosemite today have been smoldering for quite some time and are being closely monitored. As the high pressure moved in that is giving us this nice heat wave it’s also making for ideal conditions for the fires to grow. The two major fires burning are the Grouse and the Harden Fires.

NPS: Grouse (37 41.445 x 119 41.017; 6500’, Mariposa Co.) The fire began May 30, and has grown to approximately 75 acres. Personnel are working ahead of the fire implementing management actions along Steamboat Ridge to prevent northward fire spread. On Sunday, personnel will take measures to hold the fire in Grouse Creek drainage. The fire is visible along Highway 41 and temporary road closures may be enacted for visitor safety.

Harden (37 53.624 x 119 42.221; 7800’, Tuolumne Co); Lightning-caused, probably on June 8. It is north of White Wolf, west of Harden Lake and within the 1996 Ackerson fire perimeter. It is 20 acres and burning mostly in brush and Red Fir. Fire officials are assessing the need for closures around Harden Lake, Smith Peak and the old Aspen Valley Rd.

For more information on the fires please check out: http://www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/current_fire.htm

Photo by Edie Howe-Byrne.