S.F. Conservation Project : Inner-City Youths Restore Trampled Yosemite Field

Stoneman Meadow has served as a hotel site, a grain field, an auto campground, a gathering spot for counterculture activists in the 1960s and 1970s and once was the scene of a bloody riot.

It also was the main gathering spot for tourists to watch the famed twilight fire-falls off Glacier Point until these were discontinued in 1968.

But now, the historic and trampled meadow, which was named after California Gov. George Stoneman (1883-1887), is being restored by inner-city San Francisco youths, including refugees from Central America and Southeast Asia.

The meadow has become heavily veined with footpaths from park visitors taking shortcuts between Yosemite Village and the Camp Curry and Lower Pines campgrounds. One corner is bisected by permanent roads.

Meadow Fenced

About 20 youths from the San Francisco Conservation Corps, including immigrants from Vietnam, Nicaragua and Samoa, are spending the month of October erecting a post-and-rope fence around the meadow and repairing damage to its vegetation.

Using a technique similar to a human hair transplant, the young workers are taking “plugs” of healthy meadow topsoil and vegetation and transplanting them to the worn areas of the paths. They are also uprooting exotic weeds imported from outside Yosemite and turning the soil along the paths.

One main path across the 25-acre meadow will be left intact.

There are only 391 acres of meadows left in Yosemite Valley, down from 750 acres at the time of an 1866 survey.

Colorful History

Stoneman Meadow, which provides one of the best vantage points in the valley for viewing the spectacular geological treasure of Yosemite, has a long and colorful history.

The meadow was the site of a three-story “modern Gothic” 80-room hotel called Stoneman House completed in 1887. It burned down in 1896 and was not rebuilt.

During the late 1800s, 150 acres of the meadow were plowed and planted to grain.

Stoneman Meadow was later fenced, but in 1924 the fences were torn down and it was opened to campers who drove their cars across the delicate ecosystem and pitched their tents wherever they chose. This manner of camping continued until the 1960s.

War Protesters Arrested

On July 4, 1970, a few weeks after the Kent State shootings of four youths, 500 young people, many of them long-haired anti-war activists, wanted to use the meadow for a concert site. They clashed with park rangers on horseback and when the dust had settled there were dozens of injuries and 135 arrests.

All was quiet one day recently as several young members of the Conservation Corps fanned out across the meadow with picks, post hole diggers and shovels. Four deer grazed a few feet away, warily eyeing the workers.

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein showed up to praise the youths and present them with award certificates.

The nation’s first municipal youth employment corps, the SFCC was co-founded by Feinstein and J. Anthony Kline, presiding justice of the California Court of Appeal, in 1984.

“What better than the restoration of the meadows can we do for one of the most beautiful places in the world?” asked Feinstein.

The Yosemite crew members, ranging in age from 16 to 23, come from mostly low-income homes. Almost all are minorities. Some are school dropouts and have had scrapes with the law. Others are immigrants who speak little English.

“I’m no punk 19-year-old,” said Michael Collins, who chatted confidently with the mayor, pointing out park landmarks.

The Yosemite crew, headed by supervisor Bobby Castillo, is staying at the Curry Village Campground during the restoration project. For several members it is their first time out of San Francisco.

In San Francisco, the Conservation Corps--82 members strong--has worked on a variety of urban restoration projects, ranging from painting old houses to chopping weeds on Twin Peaks.

They are paid $3.50 to $5.50 an hour, sign up for a one-year tour of duty, and must adhere to a strict disciplinary code.

“This is the best job I ever had,” said Eric Taeleifi, 19. “Millions of people who come to the park will see our work at Yosemite.”

The $105,000 for the crew’s wages and materials was donated by Chevron USA.