IV. What will be the operative effects of the Raker Bill on the Yosemite National Park?
The total area flooded in the National Park will be 3373 acres. Of these the city owns about 1300 acres. The Government under the Raker Bill will get, by exchange, the difference between 1300 acres and 3142.78 acres, which is 1842.78. The city will take from the Government the difference between 1300 acres and 3373 acres, which is 2072. Hence, the city will trade to the Government as much land as it takes for flooding, lacking 129.22 acres. The forests to be covered by the flooding are in no part of the large redwoods, but are of a size frequently found in a California forest.
Mr. M. M. O’Shaughnessey, City Engineer of San Francisco, Cal.
One of the men most conspicuous in obtaining water and power for San Francisco from Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Mr. Percy V. Long, City Attorney of San Francisco, Cal.
One of the men most conspicuous in obtaining water and power for San Francisco from Hetch Hetchy Valley.
The Chairman of the House Committee before mentioned, finally conducted this examination:
“Chairman—Don’t you think, as a matter of fact, that the roads, trails, telephones, etc., that would come with this water supply development would enhance the usefulness of the park from the standpoint of poor people who cannot now go there?”
“Colonel Biddle—Yes, sir.”
“Chairman—As matters now stand, it would be pretty extravagant for poor people to undertake to go there.”
“Colonel Biddle—It is impossible for them, unless they go in with knapsacks on their backs.”
“Chairman—Poor people do not visit it at all, do they?”
“Colonel Biddle—I would not say that, because it is one of the great delights of Californians, even if they are not well off, to take knapsacks on their backs and go to the Sierras; but they do not really stay long in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. In the early summer the mosquitoes are bad, in the late summer it is too hot.”
Colonel Cosby of the Board of Engineers gave this testimony:
“Taylor of Colorado—Do you think these roads, provided for in this bill, will make it accessible to a greater number of people?”
“Colonel Cosby—I do. At present I think there are practically only two classes of people who use it, people who are unusually wealthy or people who are unusually strong and healthy and are able to make the trip.”
Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Pueblo, Col., go into national parks for their water supplies. Los Angeles goes into a government forest reserve and brings its water from Inyo County, 220 miles, by aqueduct and more than twenty miles by tunnels.
Gifford Pinchot, testifying before this Committee, stated: “As we all know, there is no use of water higher than the domestic use. Now the fundamental principle of the whole conservative policy is that of use, to take every part of the land and its resources and put it to that use in which it will best serve the most people.”
George Otis Smith, director of the Geological Survey, stated: “I think we will agree that municipal use is the highest value, next irrigation and lastly power—the generation of hydro-electric energy. I believe the highest possible utilization of the Tuolumne, or of any river, is that which provides, as far as possible for a combination of these three values and the harmonizing of the different uses.”