Customer Reviews

Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness

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Alfred Runte, a renowned environmental historian, argues in this volume that no other national park more dramatically reflects the United States' alleged failures to reconcile nature protection with the demands of a visiting public. The volume does not trace the entire history of Yosemite National Park, but instead focuses on the environmental aspects of the park's history. The book, gratefully, does not repeat familiar themes like the Hetch Hetchy Dam controversy. The author notes in the introduction that he wants to break new ground.

Yosemite, being the first land set aside for preservation by the U.S. government, has become the longest-running evidence of the tension between preservation and use and the symbol of the National Park idea at its finest and worst (7). One of its less-than-stellar moments came in 1868, only four years after its designation, when the House of Representatives passed legislation that would have given two Yosemite Valley squatters clear title two their land claims. Luckily, the bill did not carry in the Senate and the park was spared a move that would have greatly undermined the original Yosemite grant. In this presentation of early park history, Runte retreads territory established in his previous volume, National Parks: The American Experience, arguing that Yosemite is the real birthplace of the national park idea because it had been established, publicized, challenged and upheld before Congress designated Yellowstone in 1872.

Much of the volume discusses in detail how the major foundation of the national park experiment is a contradiction. For example, individuals, such as the 1868 Yosemite squatters, could profit by promoting development in parks; they simply could not acquire the attractions themselves (27). The presence of development in Yosemite Valley, in effect, broadcast that no natural resource was distinctive enough to merit unswerving protection (219). Runte's narrative argues that the doctrine of visitor accommodation is too firmly entrenched in park management. Administration of natural resources, which has always taken a backseat to tourism, has been reformed in Yosemite usually only after heavy public outcry or scandal. The author makes a compelling case that the NPS, throughout its history, has shown it is too prone to making quick, emotional decisions instead of educated decisions made on the basis of sound scientific research.

Runte presents problems of park service management and also offers a few possible solutions. He advocates public transportation in national parks, something that Yosemite management instituted in the Eastern third of Yosemite Valley in the 1970s because of traffic gridlock and lack of adequate parking space and what Zion National Park embraced in 2000 to control congestion in its most popular stretch of road, Zion Canyon. He also encourages non-profit foundations taking over park concessions, arguing that such a move would be more compatible with preservation, education and cooperation (223).

Runte's narrative, while insightful, is somewhat dated. A second edition would be a welcome addition to a story that uses Yosemite as a lens to show the bigger picture, that NPS management needs to encourage scientifically based resource management to ensure the national parks are preserved for the enjoyment of posterity.

This book provides a history of Yosemite National Park with a particular focus - Runte's ongoing complaints about activities in the park that can be done elsewhere. These would include `resort" activities in Yosemite Valley such as swimming pools or bike and raft rentals, skiing at Badger Pass, or golfing at Wawona. He takes a strongly preservationist position, and emphasizes protection of wildlife.

I'm sympathetic to all those positions but in Runte's hands it all comes across as elitist. Unlike Joseph Sax's "Mountains without Handrails," Runte does not try to make the principled argument about why camping is good while swimming pools are bad; instead, he simply asserts this repeatedly.

This material in his narrative is valuable, and you'll learn a lot about this park even if you already know quite a bit. If you like your RV, this book will annoy you; if you're a backpacker, you'll agree with most of his complaints. The overall argument would have been more persuasive if he'd provided a stronger foundation for his value judgments.