Yosemite Valley’s finely-woven ecological fabric is unraveling due to a combination of too many visitors and too much development. Barbara J. Moritsch gained a stunning insider’s view of park management when she worked as a biologist in Yosemite Valley between 2002 and 2005. In The Soul of Yosemite, she shares her passion for the Valley, addresses management decisions that resulted in severely degraded natural resources, and presents a new vision that will fully embrace the Valley’s incredible uniqueness and restore its wild nature.
Moritsch strongly urges the National Park Service to reduce the impact of humans on Yosemite Valley once and for all, to bring their management focus back to the basics: natural beauty and wildness, and to recognize Yosemite’s unique role as an emissary for wildness in the world—a much more important role than serving as a playground for the masses.