It expands the park by 400 acres, Yosemite’s largest addition in almost 70 years. “It was worth losing a little bit of money for that”. The area designated for the expansion was bought from private owners through the Trust for Public Land for $2.3 million. These tourists have to pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir.
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Yosemite National Park – the almost 1200 square mile park in California – is about to grow in size with their largest addition since 1949. In recent decades, Yosemite Conservancy has funded restoration and protection of ten meadows, such as Stoneman, Cook’s and Sentinel meadows in Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows in the high country.
For at least a century, the grassy Ackerson Meadow has fattened beef cattle and been used for logging, he said. “I fear we’ll lose the value of that meadow”.
The latest addition is the largest since 1949.
More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which Gediman said would set a record for the park that celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Located in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, the park is home to Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, and rock formations such as Half Dome and El Capitan.
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Elsewhere in the park stand groves of giant sequoia, some of the oldest and largest living things on Earth. Most of San Francisco’s water is filtered by Yosemite’s meadows, including Ackerson Meadow. The trust, a conservation group whose purchase was supported by private donors and a number of other groups, then donated the land to Yosemite on Wednesday. “This meadow is a remarkable gift to the American people, coming at a historic time as we celebrate the Centennial of the National Park Service”. The official says the original plans for Yosemite included Ackerson Meadow and that “it is exciting to finally have this important place protected”. It is the largest planned expansion for the California park in almost 70 years, said Tim Ahern of the group Trust for Public Land.
