
Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park - jelliclesfarm
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-13/yosemite-national-park-closed-wildlife-waterfalls-muir
======
salimmadjd
OT - One of my most personal profound moments was chasing this winter photo
[0] and sharing it with a coyote.

I wanted to take a night shot of the Cathedral Rock (that I had seen a few
years earlier but didn't take a good photo of it) under the full moon and
fresh snow. It took me several years of driving up to Yosemite when there was
snow storm and one night I got lucky.

It was around 11 PM when the storm stopped and sky started to clear up. I
drove to the spot set my camera and I was able to take two images before the
mist disappeared.

While I was taking the long exposure photo all alone in middle of night. There
was such profound sense of being so small in a universe so much vaster than
what I'm able to comprehend.

Out of nowhere, this coyote quietly walked up to me and stood right next to me
looking the same view. I wasn't sure if it was going to bite me or do
anything, but it seemed so harmless that I just looked at it and then we both
looked at the view. Shortly after the coyote walked away and the mist
vaporized, but left something indelible in me.

[0] [https://sf.smugmug.com/BW-
Landscape/i-tPZrsLz/A](https://sf.smugmug.com/BW-Landscape/i-tPZrsLz/A)

~~~
DoreenMichele
I kind of feel like if you somehow combined a succinct version of the origin
story with the photo in the right format, it could become a popular poster or
similar. That's a powerful story and it's a very special picture in a world
with no shortage of good photos, so that's saying something. It that makes
sense.

And I'm not really asking you to commercialize it per se. I'm more saying that
the story adds something of value to an already breathtaking photo and it's
the sort of thing people hunger for, especially now with a global crisis
uppermost in the minds of most people.

I mean it could be a one page static website. It doesn't have to be a poster.
But it seems like a worthy thing to package together and make more readily
accessible to a world hungering for beauty and spirituality and sustainable
practices so we don't go cutting our own throats, so the world continues to
function so we can continue to live and breathe.

~~~
salimmadjd
Thanks! I do agree, we all need something during this challenging times to be
reminded who we are the core and that thins will be okay again.

I'll see if I can put it on a one-pager or something.

Cheers!

------
cardamomo
I think it's amazing that wildlife is flourishing in Yosemite right now. I
feel conservation is important in the preservation of biodiversity.

But I want to point out an incorrect historical assumption on the author's
part. This paragraph caught my attention:

> Tourists aren’t allowed in California’s most popular national park, but if
> they could visit, they might feel as if they had been transported to another
> time. Either to a previous era, before millions of people started motoring
> into the valley every year, or to a possible future one, where the artifacts
> of civilization remain, with fewer humans in the mix.

In fact, Yosemite, like much of North America, was inhabited by Native
Americans for thousands of years. The Miwok people and others lived in
Yosemite before it became a national park.

It's a shame the L.A. Times author didn't include this, especially considering
there are plenty of articles to be found about the indigenous history of
Yosemite merely by Googling it.

Here's what I found:

> When the Yosemite Valley was first preserved for public use by President
> Lincoln in 1864 (giving the property to the state of California), much of
> the local indigenous community had already been devastated by a state
> militia group, the Mariposa Battalion, as a part of what is today known as
> the Mariposa War. [0]

[0] [https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/erasing-native-
ame...](https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/erasing-native-americans-
from-national-parks/)

~~~
205guy
Thank you for pointing this out, I had wanted to say the same thing. You can
tell the wording is dancing around the fact ("before millions ... motoring"),
but to make people think it was only inhabited by animals and leave out the
idea that Native Americans lived there is a serious omission.

Unfortunately, the native inhabitants are no longer around to "reclaim" their
domain. Imagine if that started to happen, and I don't mean the homeless
camping more openly in parks these days.

------
jungletime
I visited Yosemite, while beautiful, it is so commercialized. It feels like
disney world for nature. It did not seem wild at all in the valley. More like
a hippy tent city, with a pioneer village. I saw some deer, wanted to take a
photo from maybe 200 feet away. And I literally could take photo with two
other photographers in my line sight with the deer. It was a little
ridiculous. 3 in one head shot. And a little moment of self reflection later,
I realized I'm part of the problem by being there.

~~~
gamblor956
Yosemite Valley is about 2% of the total area of Yosemite National Park. It's
deliberately concentrated so that most of Yosemite can remain wilderness.

~~~
burtonator
I've hiked the entire park. Literally ever trail except for maybe 1-2 miles.

The park is massive. It would take about 2 weeks doing 10-15 miles a day to
cover the entire thing.

The VAST majority of the park is empty. If you go more than 2 miles in you
have the entire place to yourself.

There are places in the back country that would be ENTIRE national parks if
they were anywhere else. Maybe of the waterfalls don't even have names.

I want wolves and grizzlies reintroduced.

The upside of grizzlies and wolves is that all the slow and sick tourists
would be eaten thereby strengthening our species.

Jokes aside... We did it in Yellowstone and it's time we let wolves back into
CA

~~~
Balgair
I did a fair bit of hiking all through the park in my youth. We'd go
days/weeks without seeing anyone else up there. Most of the Sierras and the
west coast/southwest parks are like this. You are very much alone if you
choose to be.

There really isn't much else like hanging out with your best friends, fishing
for dinner, all alone in the wilderness for days/weeks at a time, hiking and
sleeping out under the stars. It's so unique and intoxicating, I have trouble
remembering it back home. I transmogrify in the dust of the trail.

I can't wait for this all to be over so I can get back out there like that
again.

Us, the moon, the sweet winds, and the howl.

------
throwaway888abc
That's so nice to read.

Coral reefs, glaciers, many species ...

[https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059061](https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059061)

~~~
jelliclesfarm
It’s happening all around the world. Places like India has seen a remarkable
drop in pollution levels. People are able to see Himalayas for the first time
from their homes near by. Everest gets a break from the climbers.

And even Ganges is showing levels of purity never seen before :
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/gang...](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/ganga-
river-water-becomes-fit-for-drinking-in-haridwar-rishikesh-during-indias-
lockdown/as75079848.cms) [..] When the ancient Yamuna River in Delhi has
reached a remarkable level of purity due to the absence of industrial
pollutants in the last many days of India-wide lockdown, how can River Ganga
show its sparkling clear waters to the nation?

Well, news has it that Ganga waters at Rishikesh and Haridwar have become very
clean according to the observation made by BD Joshi, Environmental Scientist
and Ex-professor at the Gurukul Kangri University. According to Joshi, it is
after a long time that Ganga water has become good for achaman (ritual
sipping) in Haridwar. Joshi also added that the cause behind cleaner Ganga
water is a 500 per cent decrease in total dissolved solid (TDS), industrial
effluent, dharmashalas, sewage from hotels and lodges. [..]

Perhaps this is the solution when pollution markers reach a certain threshold.
Shut down everything for a month.

~~~
allannienhuis
or treat your effluent, or avoid it in the first place? Pretty sure it would
cost less than shutting everything down...

~~~
jelliclesfarm
We would have done it already, no? Perhaps only punitive measures work.
Pollution and environmental damage cannot be quantified ...it is invisible and
we assume that it is a function of time.

But it isn’t..it is because of consumption and population growth(which leads
to more consumption)

~~~
icebraining
> We would have done it already, no?

No, lots of countries had a problem with water pollution, including the US
(Tom Lehrer wrote a satire song in '65 on that issue[1]), and then they
implemented measures to improve it. India can and will do the same, I'm sure.

[1] [https://youtu.be/nz_-KNNl-no?t=18](https://youtu.be/nz_-KNNl-no?t=18)

~~~
wh1t3n01s3
Edit, I was wrong on the improving pollution side note, sorry. Anyway the
capitalist consumism will pollute more than it can be improved...

------
Plough_Jogger
Pro-tip for LA Times paywall: Open developer tools > Application > Local
Storage > Right click to clear

~~~
encom
Pro pro-tip: [https://noscript.net/](https://noscript.net/)

Took care of it for me.

------
briga
This is nice, but I bet you the moment SIP is lifted Yosemite is going to be
absolutely flooded with people and will receive an all-time high level of
visitors. Enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts, animals.

~~~
11235813213455
Let's not be negative, this period should definitely raise awareness. I find
myself picking plastic litters on the road-side while cycling, because
currently it's so silent, pure and beautiful, growing fast, with plenty
flowers, insects.

People will take time to go back in dense public spaces, entertainments, with
still that (irrational) fear of viruses

------
neonate
[https://archive.md/TpE5t](https://archive.md/TpE5t)

~~~
3xblah
[http://web.archive.org/web/20200413161736/https://www.latime...](http://web.archive.org/web/20200413161736/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-13/yosemite-
national-park-closed-wildlife-waterfalls-muir)

One can also get LA Times stories via Reuters, thanks to shared TLS hosting:

    
    
       printf "<base href=https://www.latimes.com />" > 1.html
    
       printf "GET /california/story/2020-04-13/yosemite-national-park-closed-wildlife-waterfalls-muir HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.latimes.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n" | openssl s_client -connect www.reuters.com:443 -servername www.latimes.com -ign_eof >> 1.html
    
       firefox ./1.html

~~~
3xblah
Correction:

In the example, there should be an additonal \r\n after "Connection: close".

------
hentrep
As noted in the article, the headline is misleading.

The population obviously hasn't quadrupled since Yosemite closed to visitors
on March 20th. It is remarkable though to see how quickly wildlife is willing
to re-enter areas that have historically been overrun with humans!

~~~
dang
If you say that the population of a city has doubled, it mostly means that
people moved there, not that they were born there. The headline is fine.

All: Obviously the bears weren't born in the last month. Please assume basic
intelligence in your fellow readers.

Edit: Ok you guys, I surrender. There is no fighting the dreaded title fever.
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22title%20fever%22&sort=byDate&type=comment).

~~~
TheRealPomax
The population of a city is based on humans, which take 15 to 20 years before
they have young. Wildlife typically takes "some crazy short period of time"
like a year, and so when we say the population has double, tripled, etc. most
people will (reasonably) understand that to mean that's because of
reproduction, not because of migration.

So if the cause is migration, the headline kind of needs that, as we're
talking about wildlife and not human settlements.

~~~
baddox
> most people will (reasonably) understand that to mean that's because of
> reproduction

Subjective claims are fine, maybe _you_ misunderstood the headline (although
by definition anyone complaining about the wording actually _didn 't_
misunderstand it). But that's an empirical claim that could be tested. And my
suspicions are that almost no one in the target audience would think for one
second that the bears have reproduced enough in less than one year to
quadruple in population.

------
reality_inspctr
Bear _sightings_ have quadrupled

~~~
no_flags
... reckons local hotel employee.

------
sharkweek
I sometimes wonder if the earth is trying to remove us, its own infection of
sorts.

If memory serves this was also the plot of some terrible M Night Shyamalan
movie.

~~~
MadSudaca
Nature has been trying to remove us since the very beginning. The process of
preventing our removal is called surviving, we've been at it for as long as we
can remember.

~~~
duderific
We are part of nature, not separate from it. We can either choose to live in
harmony with nature or try to overcome/dominate it. When we try to dominate,
the non-human parts of nature will try to snap back, or we see unintended
consequences. For example, cutting down trees for firewood or paper goods
leading to environmental problems.

~~~
rightbyte
Nature doesn't "try" anything. It just is.

------
ackbar03
To look t this objectively from the perspective of nature, humans really are
the actual virus. But hey we all gotta do what we gotta do

------
antibland
While articles like this always bring a smile, I'm saddened for the animals,
knowing that their ecological reprieve will soon be dashed by human
recklessness. I've actually begun to enjoy many aspects of the quarantine, and
would like it to continue a lot longer. The planet is better off without us.

~~~
seph-reed
Much love for you!

------
romanovtexas
I wonder if we can create ways in which this will remain enabled even post the
COVID crisis. Limit the amount of visitors, keep the parks open only during
certain months of the year, etc.

~~~
jshevek
I'm excited about the possibility that the covid experience (and data) will
strengthen the arguments and motivations for various ecologically sound
cultural shifts, but I'm less sure about the specific issue of bears getting
comfortable in close proximity to human campgrounds.

~~~
romanovtexas
Wasn't talking about the bears specifically, but yes, this should enable us
for a greater call to action to save our ecological systems.

------
izzydata
It's nice to know that the earth starts to heal so quickly after humans are
gone. Although by the time we are actually gone we might make it uninhabitable
for other life too.

~~~
erikig
Philosophical question: if humans are gone, does it really matter what happens
to the earth?

~~~
izzydata
I don't know. Does anything really matter at all even when you are alive?

------
volak
A month without humans, bears are moving through survey zones more frequently.
The problem highlighted here is our methods for setting up survey zones is
terrible and is severely UNDERCOUNTING the population.

Even more troubling is systems of surveillance like these provide the inputs
for the climate change models we've depended on and which have predicted we'll
all be extinct in 50 years.

I swear by the end of Covid19 we're all going to look back at the models and
determine what climate skeptics have been saying for decades: Models are
easily manipulated by bad inputs - and generally trash

~~~
Fauntleroy
That's an amazing amount of speculation and extrapolation from a tiny data
point. How exactly do bear sightings relate to temperature readings?

~~~
volak
Sure I'll take a shot at being a modeler -

You take temp readings from various wildlife zones around the world, and
calculate how many less bears you see for each degree increase in temperature.
Then extrapolate that to humans by a simple equation designed to compare bear
survivability to humans.

Obviously the models need to be able to understand how temp readings equate to
survivability. Population counts from various sites would obviously fit that
need

------
mrfusion
I never understood why no animal has emerged to fill the niche of hunting
squirrels in the suburbs? They’re everywhere. (Same question for pigeons)

~~~
Loughla
Feral cats, maybe? There's just a shit-ton of squirrels and pigeons, is my
guess as to why there still seems to be so many of them.

I'm a firm believer that I should be allowed to hunt squirrels during squirrel
season in the suburbs. They're so big there.

~~~
bnjms
You can. They sell pellet guns at Walmart. Good ones that will kill a
squirrel. From experience understand giving one to kids will likely end with a
pellet through a window or through a shoe.

------
williamscales
I hope we keep it closed, more or less. They could restrict visitors using a
lottery system. No motorized vehicles within the park boundaries. The valley
would have a chance in that scenario. Otherwise it will just be swamped by
even greater crowds rushing in to "enjoy" (really destroy) the beautiful
nature.

I visited Yosemite valley proper for the first time last year after living in
California for five years. I was blown away by the scale of development and
the sheer number of people.

If we truly want to save these places, we need to keep most humans out.

~~~
wkyle
The goal of a park (particularly the valley) is to allow as many people as
possible to see and appreciate it. There are hundreds of thousands of square
miles of empty wilderness in the Sierra (including in Yosemite) , with much of
it similar in scale to Yosemite.

Your story is a good example for one of the goals of parks, but you seem to
have missed the point. If you've never been to the Yosemite after living in CA
for a few years, then you likely wouldn't expend a lot of effort to see wild
places in nature. Thus, Yosemite is a perfect place for you to see and
appreciate since it is spectacular and relatively accessible.

With your newfound appreciation, you now can advocate for the preservation and
protection of wild places – though preferably not in the sense that you want
to prevent others from having your experience, and rather in the sense that
you should want to advocate for the protection of undeveloped wilderness.

~~~
nikofeyn
you seem to have missed the point.

what's the point in allowing people to go to a park in such a way that it
destroys the park? a national park simply cannot handle a limitless amount of
traffic.

i went to rocky mountain national park on what happened to be labor day
weekend. it sounds weird, but we actually didn't plan on going there while in
colorado but ended up going due to other things changing. it was _insane_.
cars, traffic, lines, massive congestion on trails, trash, etc. the park was
completely overrun. lines for the shuttles were hours long. obviously, myself
and my girlfriend were part of the problem (in terms of adding to the visitor
numbers), but many didn't seem to care. it felt like almost being in a gold
rush. people swimming with god knows what chemicals in delicate ponds and
glacial lakes, trash, etc.

unprompted by anything other than my experience, i asked one of the park
rangers / shuttle drivers if the park planned on implementing some system to
reduce numbers in peak travel times. she basically said that it had been
considered and talked about and that she felt that they were going to have to.
she mentioned that the traffic of people on foot and cars was destroying the
park. wildlife are constantly hit by cars, ranging from big to small. just a
month or two earlier, a bear, already in dwindling numbers in the area, had
been hit and killed by a car.

humanity acts as if the world must bend to its unchecked population growth.
well, it will bend, then it'll break, and then it'll snap back.

~~~
prawn
Not sure they did miss the point, by my reading at least. Outside of impact of
vehicle traffic on animals who otherwise roam, you're talking about a very
specific part of the park, not the entire park. Huge portions of it are
inaccessible to tourist vehicles and seen by very few. The difference between
the main areas and backcountry are significant. Both you and the grandparent
had experiences that confirmed their comment - you came away very aware of the
human impact on our environment.

I don't mean to discount your broader position, I just don't think you're
actually arguing against your comment's parent. Yes, the parks are absolutely
swamped and many will gradually bring in shuttles or lotteries and the like.
Zion runs a shuttle, Bryce also. Half Dome and The Wave have lottery systems
as it is. Getting a camping spot in the big name parks during peak season is
miserably difficult. When I went to Rocky Mountain last year, we drove Trail
Ridge Road and found a parking spot just once that allowed us to stop. Every
parking spot was otherwise taken along the entire drive. And the main, named
trails' trailheads fill up daily too which meant we didn't even try. But
that's not the entire park. Think of it like the ocean where almost everyone
plays on the beach but you have to be well-equipped, skilled and aware of
risks to dive at a continental shelf or cross oceans or whatever. (Just
pretend cruise ships and trawling boats don't exist for this comparison...)

------
salvad0r
Empty except for this one person taking photos and videos...

------
ranman
I thought this was a bear market joke at first.

~~~
dennis_jeeves
Ah, the impact of modernity :)

------
sabujp
non paywalled / adblocked : [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/science/wildlife-
is-reclaimin...](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/science/wildlife-is-
reclaiming-yosemite-national-park-the-bear-population-has-quadrupled/ar-
BB12z1m7)

------
bsimpson
> This month is typically a busy month in Yosemite: Of the almost 4.6 million
> tourists that visited the valley in 2019, about 308,000 came during April.

"This month is typically a busy one: less than 1/12th of the number of annual
visitors." ️

~~~
mschuetz
I like the absolute numbers. "Less than 1/12" lacks important information:
less than xx of what?

~~~
blawson
I think the point is how can April be a busy month when it gets less than the
naive expected number just from averages.

------
jt2190
> "The bear population has quadrupled," said [Ahwahnee Hotel employee Dane]
> Peterson...

> "It's not like they aren’t usually here," he said of the bears, bobcats and
> coyotes that he and other employees now see congregating outside their
> cabins and apartments. "It's that they usually hang back at the edges, or
> move in the shadows."

Edit: The title used here omits the quotation marks of the article title,
making it more misleading.

~~~
jschwartzi
As I discovered on an evening hike once when I encountered a few cougars.

~~~
Loughla
Sex jokes aside. . .

How do you encounter 'a few cougars'? I've only ever run into them as single
animals. They're very solitary.

~~~
jschwartzi
It was during the colder months. There were three of them on the path. I think
it was a female and two adolescents. One of them tried to get closer to me by
heading up the back of a hill. I threw a rock at it to deter it, then we
turned around and headed back down.

The eyes and the way it moved in the dark were very catlike. I've not seen any
bears or coyotes that would move like that.

------
0xB31B1B
I hope this inspires our generation. I hope we remember that the way things
were recently aren’t they way have to be, or the way things naturally are. We
need more pollution controls, clean power, and less driving. I also think we
need to reduce how many people visit certain places as the harsh reality is
that impact is clearly related to visits. It will mean a shared sacrifice but
a healthier planet. Hopefully limits can be done in an equitable way like a
lottery or apportionment somehow.

~~~
spking
Me too. This is the reason I absolutely don't want to see airlines or airframe
manufacturers bailed out. That industry needs to shrink. If that means fewer
flights available and higher prices in the future, that's a net positive for
the planet as people will have to be more selective about travel.

[https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_ins...](https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/transportation_and_global_warming/airplane_emissions/)

~~~
s5300
"If that means fewer flights available and higher prices in the future, that's
a net positive for the planet as people will have to be more selective about
travel."

I've lurked near daily on HN for over five years - and this is the unfortunate
comment I finally feel the need to make an account to reply to.

I presume you're living in the U.S. based on your comment.

I too live in the U.S., with severely debilitating health issues. I've been
chronically ill for over half of my life now, and only just recently could I
legally consume alcohol.

I'm in the MidWest, and have to somewhat regularly fly to California and
Massachusetts for medical treatment. I have no parents, and haven't throughout
the duration of my illness. I receive no government assistance financially,
because our medical system is shit on recognition of many musculoskeletal
illnesses. My insurance is also shit in general, because medical care
availability is shit in the U.S.

Anyways, I'm practically only alive/still somewhat sentient because of
availability of cheaper airline tickets to get to my care.

Don't advocate for making accessibility even _more_ expensive unless you're
going to also make sure that people like me (which there's a surprising
fuckload of) don't have to rely on it.

Check your privilege, or something like that. Or maybe I should, and just let
my body die ^__^

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Unfortunately, the best solution is for you to move to a more densely
populated area. Not necessarily to a mega-expensive city—although we should
make those more accessible too—but somewhere close enough that you don't need
air travel to get treatment. And there should be social programs that can make
this financially possible.

It would totally suck for you, I realize that. Unfortunately, our society
simply cannot continue on as it has. We either change now, proactively, or we
change after the climate catastrophe has forced our hand. Under the latter
scenario, the change will be much worse.

(We should also make healthcare accessible in more places, but it sounds like
your needs are highly specialized. There are some treatments we cannot
realistically provide everywhere.)

~~~
pathseeker
There are many large cities in the Midwest. Flying to California/Massachusetts
implies that the problem is a rare disease, not that it's a population density
issue.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Yeah, and so that needs to be a consideration in where GP chooses to live. I
realize I'm asking them to upend their entire life, but I don't know what else
to do. The status quo simply isn't an option.

~~~
s5300
I don't get to choose where to live. Unless you want another homeless in the
streets of SoCal who plagues Greyhound for their doctors appointments.

I was born in the 8th poorest community in the U.S., by parents who were born
and lived their lives in the 8th poorest community in the U.S., and had to
drop out of my full-ride scholarship college I somehow got from being at the
top of my highschool (can't really remember how at this point, partial amnesia
from untreated chronic pain) because of complications caused by lack of
medical treatment. Couldn't afford it/the ability to get care as a minor
without a guardian is near impossible.

If you think you can just choose where you want to live, no matter the
desperate circumstances to do so, you must be gleefully unaware of the
realities of life, which is something I wouldn't expect from a H.N. poster,
for the most part at least...

Some people just had no real chance. It's unfortunate.

------
nsthorat
How could a bear population quadruple in a month of lockdown when the
gestational period of a bear is 200+ days?

~~~
s_dev
Yosemite is desireable to bears so long as humans aren't occupying it. They
moved in from other areas -- allowing the now vacant areas they left to
support more bears.

------
iLemming
How do we know they're not migrating away from fires that are raging now
uncontrolled in the valley?

~~~
anigbrowl
Because we have satellite coverage and people outside the park would be able
to see smoke plumes, so if there were huge fires raging we'd know about it.

~~~
iLemming
Ah, my bad. So I saw a headline this morning that says:

"Amid coronavirus shutdown, Yosemite wildlife roams free"

And I read it as "wildfire". I saw it first on my phone, then tried searching
for it on my computer and realized that I misread the headline.

~~~
anigbrowl
It's happened us all at one time or another :-)

