Hetch Hetchy Valley

Hetch Hetchy Dam The Hetch Hetchy valley is the subject of one of the greatest and longest debates between conservationists and preservationists. In short, preservationists look to safe the great Hetch Hetchy valley from being dammed and flooded, and by doing that they prevent San Francisco people from getting what is rightfully theirs, the clean water and natural resources of the Hatch Hatchy valley and the Tuolumne River. Conservationists are on the other hand, they try to use the most of the

especially an environmentally or culturally important place or thing) from harm or destruction.” John Muir, a famous preservationist is someone I agree with completely, his idea of preservationism is the best way to help our earth. Not damming Hetch Hetchy Valley was what really drew me into him. He believed that politicians were using nature as a way to get material gains. Muir believed that nature should be protected and should be kept beautiful. He states at one point that "everybody needs beauty

cliffs, Hetch Hetchy Valley was not only a place of beauty but a target for the development of urban water supply. The Hetch Hetchy Water Project, an undertaking designed to deliver water to the San Francisco Bay Area using a unique gravity fed transmission system of elaborate tunnels above and through the ground, would ultimately become the biggest influence on the valley’s history, natural environment, and the area’s local economic development. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND The valley name

Fifteen miles south of the world-renowned Yosemite Valley sits the Hetch Hetchy Valley with its water roaring. Hard to believe, the desolate valley was once recognized as the exact counterpart of the Yosemite Valley for its natural beauty— cascading waterfalls, lofty mountain cliffs, and serene rivers. John Muir, an ardent advocate for the preservation of the wilderness, described the experience of visiting Hetch Hetchy to be a sheer pleasure: “it [was] a bright day in June; the air [was] drowsy

was transformed into the renowned Cliff House. Cliff House provided lodging and meals to countless tourists until it burned down in 1958. The small site harbors big Sierra history. The Hetch Hetchy Railroad steamed through here during construction of San Francisco's gargantuan water project in Hetch Hetchy Valley. The line was abandoned in the late 1930s after the dam was raised 85 feet, and the tracks were removed for scrap in 1949. San Francisco was not the first to divert Sierra water for human

conserving the marvelous national park we know as Yosemite. From its establishment as a national park, to the transfer of the Yosemite Grant to Yosemite National Park, to the damming of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, great efforts have been made to preserve the breathtaking landscape of Yosemite. Even though Yosemite Valley was legally and officially protected since 1864 by the passing of the Yosemite Grant, it developed into a cluttered series of roads, hotels, cabins, and pastures because of remiss state

help came to aid the conservation and preservation movements. If the movement came in a more populated group, which could agree on how save the environment around us, then it wouldn’t have taken this mishap to get the ball rolling. The battle for Hetch Hetchy highlighted the different views within the movement, all in favor of environmental protection. Years later

Ever since the early nineteenth century until today, the California water crisis has been an issue that is yet to be resolved. As one of the largest states with a population of over thirty million (Class Discussion); water consumption is in high demand. "From the very beginning, California was a state with tremendous agricultural potential"(Chan, S., and Olin, S. Pg 136). A similarity from both the California of the early 1800 's and today is that water is an expensive and important resource being

The fragile ecological existence of the U.S. Southwest is complicated by the presence of endangered migratory species who naturally move across our borders, including gray wolves and jaguars. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 entrenched social rules regarding immigration and border security installed through the Illegal Immigration Act and Immigrant Responsibility Act. This and the Real ID Act allow border patrol to further diminish chances of survival for endangered species, by granting

In 1906 President Roosevelt had granted the city a permit to “divert water from the Owens River Valley [which was a fairly new] reservoir [located] in the San Fernando Valley” (Wells and Blake). That permit led to behind the scene meetings with the city’s mayor and other leading LA capitalists where they were using the water from the San Fernando Valley for personal gain and to fatten their wallets by “[bolstering] real estate speculation and [irrigating] vast new acreage