The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-10
A NEW YOSEMITE BATTLE,
John Muir and Others Want the
Valley Given Back to the
Government.
Ready to Start an Agitation in Defense
Of Sierra Parks and Res.
ervations.

Ahoe ihecILuiItcIlIly DO1llIS controversy
| over the management, protection, destruc-
ton, identifying and dissertation of Yo-
semitic Valley is about to rage again.
John Muir and other members of the
Sierra Club are getting ready for a cam
| paign in the mutual interest of the Sierra
parks and forest reservations and the
| people who go, or ought, or might go
| there in summer time, or who need in
summer the waters from the mountain
| SHOWS. The club proposes to inaugurate
something OF campaign right away in
the line of educating the public to a con-
ception of the treasures it has in the vast
Government reservations of the Sierras
and to realization of the need of their
protection.
The Yosemite Valley, the gem and chief
ga rden of the whole, will be part of the
| objects of the campaign. John Muir and
some other mem bers of the club are ready
and eager to begin q special movement to
secure the recession of the Yosemite Val
ley to the United States Government, that
1t may be taken, as they say, out of the
hands of small politicians and jobbers and
given into the reliable and com petent care
of the Government authorities.
The management of the valley is ten
der subject that draws much fire from
both sides, and not all of the club are
ready for it yet. John Muir and others,
who have been exploring the valley and
surrounding regions this summer, say that
the condition of the valley, which has
| steadily been going from bad to worse, is
this year worse than ever, because more
| people have visited it. The trouble, as
described, is that the whole floor of the
| valley, once one of the most wonderful
and exquisite gardens of the world IN the
L.,
| its blooming meadows and groves, has be-
come dusty, frowsy, woe-begone desert
such place as Golden Gate Park would
be If it were wholly abandoned to herds of
stock and to any and everything that
| would trample, hack and browse away
its beauty and leave it to forlorn sandy
waste.
1t is said by champions of the valley that
campers are allowed to camp and run over
and pasture their horses throughout the
valley with the result asserted.
The green that is left to gladden. the eye
is found In the pastures and hayfields
fenced up to give cheap feed for stage
horses of the saddle-train company. The
bloom is gone from the meadows too, of
course, and while the grandeur and beauty
of El Captain, Vernal Falls and other
| features defies assault, the exquisite
beauty of the valley is gone. It is argued
that the military authorities would see
tudI Iutil1tSS ueSlTuCGlOn ana Tree DaStur-
age was stopped. The Sierra Club wants
to encourage by every means visits to the
valley and surrounding regions, but wants
the beauty saved.
John Muir, Professor Dudley of Stanford
University and James G. Runcie, all of the
club, made extended tours through the
Sierra region this summer. A public
meeting of the club will be held on the
| evening of the 23d inst, at which Professor
Dudley will lead paper on his summer
observations, and others will join in re-
| ports and discussions.
| The general topic at this meeting will be
| the condition and needs of the Grant and
| Yosemite National Parks, now protected
| by cavalrymen during the summer time
| and the great timber reservations about
! the headwaters of all the Sierra streams
from Mariposa County south, which are
| wholly unprotected and freely invaded by
| sheepmen and timber depredators
One object of this meeting and the work
of the club that will follow will be to in
terest the public by showing the character
| and extent of these reservations that now
| belong to it, the need of conserving them
| and the a!lurements to mountain trips.
| The necessity of protecting the grass and
| underground of the watersheds that the
snow may be partly shielded and held and
| give continuous supply of water to the
| valleys instead of spring freshets will be
an important thing to drive into the popu-
| lar comprehension.
| This large and interesting programme is
| taking shape, and the Yosemite Valley
| will come in for attention and a new dis
cussion about taking it out of small poll
| tics.