FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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DAMS IN EMIGRANT WILDERNESS

The Emigrant Wilderness is located on the Stanislaus National Forest and abuts the northern border of Yosemite National Park.  In the early-to-mid part of the 20th Century, local residents constructed eighteen small dams in the area.  All but one of the dams were built on natural lakes, which would continue to exist at their natural size without the dams.  Over time, these dams have deteriorated to varying degrees and are slowly melting into the landscape.

In 1975 Congress designated the Emigrant Wilderness.  The chief congressional sponsor of this effort, California Senator Alan Cranston, noted the existence of the dams and restated his intent that they would eventually deteriorate and disappear.  In the early 1990s, the Forest Service made a decision to remove the dams in order to hasten restoration.  Opposition from some local residents caused the Forest Service to not implement this decision.  Instead, the agency is now undertaking the preparation of an environmental impact statement which proposes to allow the reconstruction and maintenance of up to twelve of the dams.

Wilderness is a place where nature reigns. Maintaining the dams is the antithesis of wilderness -- the dams are designed to trammel the natural ecology and hydrology of the area for perceived recreation benefits, not to preserve or enhance wilderness character.  These dams should be allowed to deteriorate as nature works its will.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs opposes efforts to reconstruct and/or maintain the dams in the Emigrant Wilderness, and it urges the Forest Service to adopt an alternative in its upcoming EIS which allows the dams to continue to naturally deteriorate or to be breached manually.


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