Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There are 18 national forests in California managed by the
US Forest Service
(USFS;
www.fs.usda.gov/r5
), comprising lands around Mt Whitney, Mt Shasta, Lake Tahoe, Big
Bear Lake and Big Sur. Beloved by birders, national wildlife refuges (NWR) including the
Salton Sea and Klamath Basin are managed by the
US Fish & Wildlife Service
(USFWS;
www.fws.gov/refuges
). More wilderness tracts in California, including the Lost Coast and
Carrizo Plain, are overseen by the
Bureau of Land Management
(BLM;
www.blm.gov/
California's Top National Parks
Conserving California
In California, rapid development and uncontrolled growth have often come at great envir-
onmental cost. Starting in 1849, Gold Rush miners tore apart the land in their frenzied
quest for a lucky strike, ultimately sending more than 1.5 billion tons of debris and uncal-
culated amounts of poisonous mercury downstream into the Central Valley, where rivers
and streams became clogged and polluted.
Water, or the lack thereof, has long been at the heart of California's epic environmental
struggles and catastrophes. Despite campaigning by John Muir, California's greatest envir-
onmental champion, in the 1920s the Tuolumne River was dammed at Hetch Hetchy in
Yosemite National Park, so that San Francisco could have drinking water. Likewise, the di-
version of water to LA has contributed to the destruction of Owens Lake and its fertile
wetlands, and the degradation of Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra. Statewide, the dam-
ming of rivers and capture of water for houses and farms has destroyed countless salmon
runs and drained marshlands. The Central Valley today resembles a dust bowl; its under-
ground aquifer is in poor shape, with some land sinking as much as a foot each year.
Altered and compromised habitats, both on land and in the water, make easy targets for
invasive species, including highly aggressive species that wreak havoc on California's eco-
