Yosemite, CA – Yosemite Conservancy announces $19 million in grants to support Yosemite National Park this year related to science, restoration, cultural, and visitor-focused work.
Over the last three decades, the philanthropic conservancy has invested in more than 950 projects totaling more than $180 million, including the restoration and protection of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Many grants study and protect park landscapes that support more than 400 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, and reptiles, which provide a haven for threatened and endangered species.
“Public funding alone does not fully address urgent needs in the park. Our investment helps the National Park Service and other partners to do important scientific research, restoration, cultural preservation, and visitor-focused work,” said Yosemite Conservancy President and CEO Cassius M. Cash.
Funding is designated for expansive trail improvements to Legendary Trails in and leading out of Yosemite Valley, restoring 3,000 feet of trail near the Cathedral Lakes trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows, and rehabilitating more than 60 miles of trails in the park’s front country, Valley and Merced River areas. Other specific efforts include the restoration of Kerrick Meadow in the high country, an AI model to study bear behavior, and tribal-led cultural exhibitions, for which the Conservancy provided this breakdown:
- A restoration effort in the high country will reroute a 900-foot section of trail bisecting Kerrick Meadow that threatens both the meadow’s essential hydrologic functions and local amphibian populations.
- Creating an AI model to enhance the park’s Human-Bear Management Program to further mitigate bear incidents and determine how much farther it can go in protecting bears and educating people.
- Funding for seven cultural demonstrators from local California tribes who will interpret their own stories and indigenous practices at the Yosemite Museum and Indian Village through dance, basket weaving, and history.
- A study seeking ways to improve visitor access by getting in and out of the park gates efficiently, providing direct visitor improvement.
- Research will continue to protect imperiled Pacific fishers, Sierra Nevada red foxes, and great gray owls. Still other grants will support the park’s Junior Ranger programming and the popular “Ask a Climber” program.
“Millions of people come to Yosemite for wonder. Our work deepens people’s connection to this place and protects Yosemite’s ecosystems for generations to come,” said Cash.
