YOSEMITE — Tuolumne Winter Rangers Laura and Rob Pilewski report in this week’s blog that the snowpack in their beautiful corner of Yosemite National Park is rather dismal. Here is their post on Tuolumne Meadows Winter Conditions for Jan. 31, 2018: New snow: 9 inches Total settled snow depth: 12 inches (at 8,600 feet) High temperature: 54°F (January 29) Low ...

YOSEMITE — Tuolumne Winter Rangers Laura and Rob Pilewski’s latest blog post from the field: Tuolumne Meadows Winter Conditions Update for January 24, 2018 New snow [as of Jan. 24): 6 inches Total settled snow depth: 10 inches (at 8,600 feet) High temperature: 45°F (January 23) Low temperature: -5°F (January 21) Ski Conditions and Weather This was the first week ...

WASHINGTON, DC — A new superintendent will soon take over the leadership of Yosemite National Park. Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced that he has selected Michael T. (Mike) Reynolds to be the superintendent of Yosemite. Reynolds, a 31-year NPS veteran and a third-generation NPS employee, grew up in Yosemite and later returned to the park as ...

YOSEMITE — National Park Service employees will be back on the job in Yosemite National Park now that congress has agreed to fund the government for a few more weeks. All NPS services were halted on Saturday morning, including the staffing of the Visitors Centers, entrance gate fee collection and information, campground reservation management, trash collection, and maintenance of such ...

YOSEMITE — As we head into the first full day of the government shutdown, employees in Yosemite National Park are busy implementing the guidelines set out by the Department of the Interior as to how the Park will operate going forward. The gates are open, but there is no National Park Service (NPS) staff on duty for the most part. ...

SACRAMENTO – Residents of the Central Sierra will soon see more crews on county roadways as new funding from Cal Fire helps with the removal of hazard trees. Six million dollars have been awarded in a one-time grant to aid high-priority counties impacted by California’s historic tree mortality. Cal Fire’s Local Assistance for Tree Mortality (LATM) Grant Program will provide ...

YOSEMITE — With the failure of U.S. congressional leaders to reach an agreement and stop a government shutdown, the situation in Yosemite National Park remains unclear. Despite dozens of phone calls, emails and texts to Park officials in Yosemite throughout the day, no one has yet responded to our repeated requests for detailed information on closures and services, or the ...

OAKHURST — Now, there’s one massive task checked off Yosemite Unified School District’s lengthy to-do list. After a grueling four-month scrutiny under what’s known as compliance monitoring, including the line-by-line parsing of some 335 documents, the state of California results are in. For well over the sixteen weeks since school began, the district has been in the throes of Federal Program Monitoring ...

YOSEMITE — Tuolumne Winter Rangers Laura and Rob Pilewski are celebrating their seventh season in the park. Here’s their third blog post of the season. Tuolumne Meadows Winter Conditions Update for January 10, 2018 New snow [as of Jan. 10]: 14 inches Total settled snow depth: 10 inches (at 8,600 feet) High temperature: 47°F (January 7) Low temperature: 17°F (January 7) ...

YOSEMITE — Officials in Yosemite National Park are searching for a man reported missing in the park. Maximillian “Max” L. Schweitzer’s rental car was found at the Camp 4 parking lot on Friday, Jan. 5, after it was reported overdue by the rental agency. Max is a 41-year-old white male with brown hair and blue eyes, 5 ft. 8 in. ...