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Tuolumne River Plan Implementation: Restore Wetlands and Reroute Informal Trail in West Tuolumne Meadows Pothole Dome 'Thumb'
Yosemite National Park » Tuolumne River Plan Implementation: Restore Wetlands and Reroute Informal Trail in West Tuolumne Meadows Pothole Dome 'Thumb' » Document List
The goal of this project is to restore wetlands and improve the overall condition of the meadow.
The "thumb" of wet meadow in western Tuolumne Meadow contains an erosion gully that has lowered the water table, drained former wetlands, and converted to dry-site species, bare soil, and lodgepole pine. Dry soils adjacent to the gully contain redoximorphic features that form in saturated wetlands, indicating that this area was formerly wetland. The gully is actively headcutting and widening, suggesting that this erosion is recent and originated from historic human activity. Although social trails were removed from this wet meadow in the 1990s and visitors re-directed around the meadow to Pothole Dome, the erosion gully is still expanding, threatening intact wetlands above the gully with further soil loss and drying. Active restoration is needed to obliterate the gully, restore dispersed flows of water ("sheet flow"), and restore wetland plant communities. For this project to succeed, the social trail around the meadow, which is not a constructed trail with planned drainage structures, needs to be addressed. The trail captures water flow off Pothole Dome and concentrates it as it enters the meadow, which contributes to the erosion problem.
The objectives of this project are to (1) restore wetland topography, hydrology, and vegetation to former wetlands (current uplands) on 5 acres of west Tuolumne Meadows, (2) retaining primitive character of informal trail, provide minor reconstruction and re-routing around the project area to disperse drainage, reduce wetland impacts, and improve visitor experience, and (3) protect archeological sites by moving trails out of site boundaries as much as possible.
The "thumb" of wet meadow in western Tuolumne Meadow contains an erosion gully that has lowered the water table, drained former wetlands, and converted to dry-site species, bare soil, and lodgepole pine. Dry soils adjacent to the gully contain redoximorphic features that form in saturated wetlands, indicating that this area was formerly wetland. The gully is actively headcutting and widening, suggesting that this erosion is recent and originated from historic human activity. Although social trails were removed from this wet meadow in the 1990s and visitors re-directed around the meadow to Pothole Dome, the erosion gully is still expanding, threatening intact wetlands above the gully with further soil loss and drying. Active restoration is needed to obliterate the gully, restore dispersed flows of water ("sheet flow"), and restore wetland plant communities. For this project to succeed, the social trail around the meadow, which is not a constructed trail with planned drainage structures, needs to be addressed. The trail captures water flow off Pothole Dome and concentrates it as it enters the meadow, which contributes to the erosion problem.
The objectives of this project are to (1) restore wetland topography, hydrology, and vegetation to former wetlands (current uplands) on 5 acres of west Tuolumne Meadows, (2) retaining primitive character of informal trail, provide minor reconstruction and re-routing around the project area to disperse drainage, reduce wetland impacts, and improve visitor experience, and (3) protect archeological sites by moving trails out of site boundaries as much as possible.