Yosemite Forum & Merced River Plan Workshops
Sponsored by Resources Management and Science
Yosemite National Park
The Yosemite Forum is a free interactive lecture series designed to bring evolving knowledge of the Sierra Nevada to the public and the park. Lectures are noon–1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month in the Yosemite Valley Auditorium. Note: Schedule is subject to change.
The Merced River Plan workshops take place at a variety of times and locations. View MRP links for details.
April 22 MRP Hydrology/Biology/Geology Workshop: Learn more about Yosemite's hydrology, wildlife biology, and geology. If you missed the event: View a recording of the webinar.
April 26 MRP Transportation Workshop: More on the topic of visitor use. If you missed the event: View a recording of the webinar.
April 27 MRP Cultural Resources Workshop: More on Yosemite's cultural resources, including archeology. If you missed the event: View a recording of the webinar.
April 29 MRP User Capacity Workshop: More on visitor use. If you missed the event: View presentations and a recording of the webinar.
May 13 MRP Science Forum: See the schedule below. If you missed the event, view a recording of the webinar.
- 9-9:20 a.m.: Welcome by RMS Division Chief Joe Meyer
- 9:20-9:40 a.m.: Comprehensive Geologic Hazard and Risk Assessment by Greg Stock
- 9:40-10 a.m.: Water Supply Impacts Assessments for Yosemite Valley and Wawona by Jim Roche
- 10-10:20 a.m.: Yosemite Valley Merced River Condition Assessments by Jim Roche
- 10:20-10:30 a.m.: Break
- 10:30-10:50 a.m.: A Preliminary Assessment of Meadow Conditions in the Merced River Corridor by Liz Ballenger
- 10:50-11:10 a.m.: Special Status Plants in the Merced River Corridor by Alison Colwell
- 11:10-11:30 a.m.: Wildlife Special Status Species by Steve Thompson
- 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Lunch
- 12:30-12:50 p.m.: Historic Resource Survey for El Portal by Dave Humphrey
- 12:50-1:10 p.m.: Baseline Data Collection in the Three Archeological Districts of the Merced River Corridor by Emily Darko
- 1:10-1:15 p.m.: Break
- 1:15-1:35 p.m.: Integrating Transportation and Visitor Use Research by Henrietta de Groot
- 1:35-1:55 p.m.: Modeling Transporation and Visitor Use Components by Henrietta de Groot
- 1:55-2 p.m.: Wrap Up and Preview of Upcoming Planning Milestones by Planning Division Chief Kathleen Morse
May 25 MRP Recreation Workshop: View description, time and location on related web page. Attend in person or by webinar. More on the topic of visitor use.
June 14 Yosemite Forum: The Ahwiyah Point Rock Fall and Seismic Monitoring in Yosemite National Park. Valerie Zimmer, graduate student at UC Berkeley. The Ahwiyah Point rock fall, at 5:26 a.m. on March 28, 2009, buried 300 meters of the Mirror Lake Trail, leveled hundreds of trees, and sent off seismic waves that were detected as far as 400 kilometers away. While the distant seismic stations help us to understand the size and nature of larger rock falls, a local seismic monitoring system was also in place at the rock formation known as The Brothers, in order to learn more about the progression and nature of rock falls. The seismic monitoring network recorded several rock falls over two winters, and results from these smaller rock falls as well as the large Ahwiyah Point rock fall will be presented.
July 12 Yosemite Forum: Climatic Tolerances of Rare and Common Plants: Implications to Species Models and Management. Iara Lacher, Ph.D. candidate in ecology at UC Davis. One of the most pressing issues in conservation today is how climate change will interact with other human impacts to influence species populations and communities. This presentation will address underlying assumptions about climate change and its affect on patterns of species occupancy across the landscape. Related questions: How climate change might alter these ranges? How to predict alterations to these climatic ranges? What kind of conservation action will help parks save species under threat from climate change?
Aug. 9 Yosemite Forum: Use of Genetics and Stable Isotope Analysis to Investigate Black Bear Forging Ecology and to Evaluate the Human-Bear Management Program at Yosemite National Park. Jack Hopkins, Ph.D. in Ecology at Montana State University. Hopkins collected bear hair throughout Yosemite and analyzed these samples to identify individual bears and to estimate their diets using isotopic data. He used various analytical procedures to investigate their foraging behavior and to detect bears that currently consume human foods. He used these results and an isotopic analysis of historic bear tissues to evaluate human-bear management over the past century.
Sept. 13 Yosemite Forum: Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep: Recovering the "Bravest Mountaineer" in the Yosemite Area. Thomas Stephenson, Program Leader for Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery with the California Department of Fish and Game. Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are a federally endangered species that spends most, and in some cases all, of the year in the alpine. Sierra bighorn are dependent upon, and well adapted to, a landscape above 11,000 feet during both summer and winter. Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are an umbrella species that represents the health and landscape integrity of the Sierra Nevada; they are dependent upon a contiguous, expansive wilderness landscape. When bighorn sheep existed at historical numbers in the Sierra Nevada they also likely functioned as a keystone species that mediated nutrient cycling in vegetation communities and functioned as an important prey species for carnivores and scavengers.
Oct. 11 Yosemite Forum: Groundwater Fluxes and Discharge in the Upper Merced River Basin. Martha Conklin, professor at UC Merced. Demand for water is increasing in most mountain regions, and the type and timing of mountain precipitation is expected to change in coming decades due to global warming. Characterizing water fluxes within alpine basins is necessary to assess present and future water resources for downstream communities. Source waters, processes controlling source water chemistry, and source water mixing were characterized in the Merced River basin within Yosemite.
Nov. 8 Yosemite Forum: Prehistoric Human Ecology of the Central Sierra Nevada: A view from Crane Flat. Jeff Rosenthal, principal of the Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. Native Californians occupied mid- to high-elevation regions of the Sierra Nevada, seasonally, for more than 10,000 years. This presentation will explore the archaeological record of the Lower and Upper Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada, with particular attention to the extensive meadow system of Crane Flat and similar environments in Yosemite National Park.Who used this region, why, and under what circumstances did human use within the montane forests of the Central Sierra Nevada change?
Dec. 13 Yosemite Forum: Sense of Place: Design Guidelines in Yosemite National Park. Architect George Homsey (Fellow of the American Institute of Architects) and landscape architect Tito Patri (Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects). Learn about the general nature, purpose, and function of design guidelines, and view a mock-up of the new parkwide design guidelines titled "A Sense of Place" in Yosemite. A future park challenge: Funding the preservation and promulgation of historic and character-defining architectural features and styles.
The Yosemite Forum is a partnership among:
- Yosemite National Park
- The Yosemite Fund
- USGS, Western Ecological Research Center Yosemite Field Station
- University of California, Sierra Nevada Research Institute
- USFS, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Sierra Nevada Research Center
Learn more about the park's research and studies--also detailed in the Yosemite Science online resources management publication published on an occasional basis. Find Yosemite content throughout the Nature & Science and History & Culture web pages.
