President Barack Obama is expected to visit Yosemite this weekend, after visiting Orlando, Florida in the wake of the tragic shooting at the Pulse nightclub.
In Yosemite, Obama plans to speak to the legacy of our National Parks in this centennial year. We are hoping that one of our friends, who may have access to the President, may have an opportunity to ask him to consider restoration of Hetch Hetchy. You can help.
To our knowledge, President Obama is unaware of the role that the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley played in inspiring the creation of the National Park Service 100 years ago.
John Muir, Barack Obama and Theodore Roosevelt
Please send an email to President Obama by accessing the form at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact. Urge him to ask Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to reopen previous studies which show that Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley can be restored without anybody losing water supply.
Say it in your own words, or feel free to use some or all of the following text:
Dear President Obama:
Yosemite National Park once had two magnificent glacier carved valleys: Hetch Hetchy Valley and the eponymous Yosemite Valley. Today Yosemite Valley is one the world's most revered landscapes.
Hetch Hetchy Valley, however, was destroyed 100 years ago to build a dam and reservoir. It was the only time such destruction has ever been allowed in any of America's national parks. The controversy over damming Hetch Hetchy Valley led directly to the passage of the National Park Service Act, whose centennial we are celebrating this year.
Please ask Secretary Jewell to reopen the studies that could lead to Hetch Hetchy's restoration. This work was initiated by the Department of the Interior in 1987 and includes many other studies completed since that time. It is possible to capture the water downstream of Yosemite National Park, so that Hetch Hetchy Valley can be restored without losing a drop of water supply.