2008 Yosemite Facelift By Ken Yager
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2008 Yosemite Facelift By Ken Yager
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The Yosemite Facelift is a California Coastal Cleanup event, a National Public Lands Day event, and the largest Access Fund
Adopt a Crag event in the country. This event is organized by the Yosemite Climbing Association in partnership with the
National Park Service and Delaware North Parks and Resorts at Yosemite. Over 2,000 people showed up for the 5th annual Yosemite Facelift to help clean up Yosemite National Park. The participants cleaned up trails, roadways, river corridors, campgrounds, lodging and housing areas taking special care to not disrupt archeological sites. Several special projects were taken on with NPS crew leaders, some of these included abandoned phone lines that ran to Nevada Falls and to Mirror Lake. Other special projects included cleaning up a former dumpsite in Tuolumne Meadows and loading up over 400 rusted fire rings for recycling through the generous loan of a backhoe and crew by Candelaria Corporation. 41,631 pounds of trash was gathered and two thirds of it was recycled. Over a hundred miles of trail and sixty miles of roadway were scoured. Over a thousand pounds of non-native plant species were removed and disposed of. Many children’s groups helped with this effort including the Yosemite Institute, the El Portal School, the Yosemite School and a Brownie Troop from Sacramento. These children had a lot of fun and will be the future land stewards of our Public Lands. The Yosemite Climbing Association treated all Facelift helpers to incredible daily raffles and evening entertainment. Slideshows were provided by Don Lauria, Glen Denny and Dave Nettle. There was a showing of the internationally acclaimed and award winning Reel Rock Film Tour highlighting the film “The Sharp End”. Timmy O’Neil had the crowd roaring with laughter acting as a talk show host with selected climbers and members of the audience. Josh Ritter in partnership with ClifBar’s Music Matters program played a live acoustic set for the audience outdoors under a magical landscape. During the final evening Delaware North Parks and Resorts at Yosemite served Dinner to volunteers and after the final raffle people danced the rest of the evening to music by the extremely talented Jonathan McEuen Band. Yosemite sparkles once again. Many different user groups came together this year to clean a national treasure. Families, school groups, foreign visitors, hikers, first time Park visitors, and climbers all volunteered. It was obvious by the enthusiasm, smiles, and energy that these volunteers received more than they gave. The Facelift is a shining example of how people from all over the world can work together for a common cause.
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