A Shroud on Sequoia's Scenery

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A Shroud on Sequoia's Scenery

Pollution: The park's air quality is among the worst in the national system.

Evidence suggests that plants and animals are being harmed.

By STEVE HYMON

Times Staff Writer

July 17 2001

The views from the top of Little Baldy should be stupendous. The 8,044-foot

granite dome, in Sequoia National Park, is surrounded by California's High

Sierra, the mountains Muir dubbed " the range of light. "

On most summer days, the views leave visitors gasping--but for all the wrong

reasons. To the west, the Sierra foothills usually are covered by a thick

brown blanket of smog. Looking east, the haze stains the skies above some of

the Sierra's tallest, most majestic peaks.

Although the smog's severity is a shock to many park visitors, air pollution

at Sequoia has for years ranked among the worst in the national park system

and, occasionally, the nation. Now, with President Bush promising to fix the

national parks and lawmakers grappling with a host of air quality issues,

researchers say, with increasing urgency, that more than soiled vistas is at

stake.

Even as air quality improves in some big cities, including Los Angeles, it

is getting worse at many Western parks. According to a recent park service

report, levels of ozone--the principal noxious ingredient in smog--are on

the rise at Yellowstone, Canyonlands, Rocky Mountain, Lassen Volcanic, Grand

Canyon, Mesa Verde and Tree, a frequent challenger to Sequoia for the

title of park with the dirtiest air.

Last year in Sequoia, for example, ozone levels at one air monitoring

station exceeded the federal health standard on 52 days. In downtown Los

Angeles the number of such days was four.

Moreover, researchers say evidence is growing that foul air is harming

plants and animals and changing ecosystems at Sequoia and other national

parks.

Air pollution is blamed for damaging native vegetation, killing frogs and

acidifying soils and trout streams. At Sequoia, prescribed burns--needed to

maintain the health of the park's namesake species, the world's largest

trees--have been canceled because they would worsen the park's already bad

air.

" I think if the public knew what was going on, they would be appalled, " says

Judy Rocchio, the park service's Pacific region air coordinator.

Who's to blame?

The park service's air experts say pick any or all from the following list:

the West's booming population; a dramatic increase in the number of cars and

trucks; urban sprawl; the migration of industry to rural areas; state and

local regulators who either can't or won't enforce clean air standards.

" There's a landfill planned for right next to the park, and six power plants

are either being built or are proposed for the area, " said Holbeck, a

scientist at Tree, located 140 miles east of Los Angeles. " You pour

all that nitrogen [from pollution] on desert plants, and they don't know

what to do. Then the weeds take off, and that makes us more susceptible to

fire. "

Two years ago, Holbeck says, a fire that began in a weed-ridden area

consumed 14,000 acres of important habitat for bighorn sheep and deer.

The problem for vegetation is simple: " Plants can't go inside when the air

is bad, " says Jeanne Panek, a UC Berkeley researcher.

In 1990, a study in Sequoia indicated that a small percentage of giant

sequoia seedlings might be harmed by ozone. But the real concern in the park

is what ozone may be doing to two other widespread species, ponderosa and

pines. In some research plots at the park, more than 90% of the

trees have shown signs of injury.

" Ozone is like a chronic backache for these trees, " said Dan Duriscoe, a

park ecologist. " Like people, the trees can go about their work, but maybe

not as well because they're in constant pain. "

Ozone rarely kills trees outright. Rather, the pollutant is absorbed by pine

needles, which interferes with their ability to photosynthesize and,

therefore, grow. In response, some trees drop their needles years before

they normally would. Other trees are so weakened they're killed by

bark-beetle attacks that healthy trees could survive.

Another problem facing the park is a broad category of pollutants known as

particulate matter. The particulates typically consist of soot, ash and

dust--and toxic substances that can hitch a ride on the tiny particles.

Those particles can carry pesticides from the agricultural San Joaquin

Valley.

In a study published in June in the journal Environmental Toxicology and

Chemistry, scientists at the geological survey identified two pesticides

found in the tissue of Pacific tree frogs in Sequoia and elsewhere in the

Sierra. Although Pacific tree frogs still are common, researchers argue the

pesticides are linked to widespread declines of foothill and mountain

yellow-legged frogs.

Annie Esperanza, Sequoia's air specialist, says the frogs are gone from

places teeming with them 20 years ago.

If the ecological implications of air pollution are complicated, so are the

politics.

Bush visited Sequoia in May and promised to spend nearly $5 billion over

five years on cleaning up maintenance backlogs at national parks. But that

money is not aimed at air quality problems, environmentalists point out.

The Bush administration has allowed several Clinton-era clean air rules to

go forward, including one that targets the cleanup of diesel truck

emissions--a big source of pollution in the San Joaquin Valley. But

environmentalists criticize the administration's energy plan, which seeks to

boost supplies by increased burning of coal and oil.

Ultimately, says Esperanza, cleaning the air won't be up to politicians.

Rather, it will depend on the majority of park visitors making the

connection between smog-filled vistas and their everyday actions.

" The San Joaquin Valley has to change if our air is going to change, "

Esperanza said. " But I think it has to get worse before it gets better. "

Copyright 2001, Los Angeles Times