Day 6: Sequoia National Park

Today we went to Sequoia National Park! We got the opportunity to listen to a lot of park managers speak and tell us about what they do, and how the park has been affected by the drought. After the AWESOME background on the park and how it

runs, we went to the Giant Forest Museum and listened to a park ranger, Lucy Craft, tell us about the history of the park, where excessive logging and commercialization of the area threatened the sequoias until the national park was revamped and established as a place that would protect nature. She also told us about the wildlife in the park (wolverines and owls!) and she even accompanied us to lunch to tell us about the importance of water conservation and the effects of human-nature interactions on water. After that we got to explore! We ran around the rock we had lunch on and then we headed up the mountain to General Sherman tree. Then, we hiked along Congress Trail (FOR 2 MILES!!!), where we g

ot to see more Sequoia, the natural vegetation and SNOW. After a long day of hiking, we finally piled back into the van and drove off into the sunset.

Reflection

Today was really great because we got to hear a LOT about how the park runs and the different kinds of research and work that goes into monitoring and maintaining the park. We got a really interesting point of view from the staff members because they said the drought gave them an opportunity to study how drought affects the park, and how to best prepare for the future. This viewpoint reinforced the idea that though the drought has many negative impacts, it also provides an impetus for change. This idea differs from what we previously thought about the drought. Coming into this trip, we saw the drought as only something that needed to be dealt with, and had negative effects on people and the environment, but the park staff we talked to were able to see the drought in a more positive light. Lucy’s presentation was really engaging and allowed us to learn a lot about how the park was founded, and how the park has changed since its founding. She later went more in depth about how climate change and human’s interaction with the environment have decreased the available freshwater. For example, in Kiribati, the first environmental refugees are being created. The country of Kiribati is not very high above sea level, and with climate change, the sea level is rising. This means that the salinity of Kiribati’s water supply is decreasing.