Editing Sierra Nevada (section)

==History==
[[File:John Charles Frémont.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John C. Frémont|John Frémont]] was an early American explorer of the Sierra]]

===Native Americans===
{{Main|Great Basin tribes}}

Archaeological excavations placed [[Martis people]] of [[Paleo-Indians]] in northcentral Sierra Nevada during the period of 3,000&nbsp;BCE to 500&nbsp;CE. The earliest identified sustaining [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous people]] in the Sierra Nevada were the [[Northern Paiute]] tribes on the east side, with the [[Mono tribe]] and [[Valley and Sierra Miwok|Sierra Miwok]] tribe on the western side, and the [[Kawaiisu]] and [[Tübatulabal people|Tübatulabal]] tribes in the southern Sierra. Today, some historic intertribal trade route trails over mountain passes are known artifact locations, such as Duck Pass with its [[obsidian]] [[arrowhead]]s. The California and Sierra Native American tribes were predominantly peaceful, with occasional territorial disputes between the Paiute and Sierra Miwok tribes in the mountains.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Charles F. |year=1868 |title=Notes on Hetch-Hetchy Valley |journal=Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences |volume=1 |issue=3:5 |pages=368–370 |url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/notes_on_hetch-hetchy_valley.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509102144/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/notes_on_hetch-hetchy_valley.html |archive-date=May 9, 2011 |access-date=September 27, 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Washoe people|Washo]] and [[Maidu]] were also in this area prior to the era of European exploration and displacement.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516220327/http://www.sierrarockart.org/makers.html |url=http://www.sierrarockart.org/makers.html |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |title=Ancient petroglyph makers of the Northern Sierra |last=Drake |first=Bill |year=2000 |publisher=sierrarockart.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofgrassvalley.com/services/departments/cdd/IdMd/FinalMEAJune2006/405_CulturalRes.pdf |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5qzIbKsfp?url=http://www.cityofgrassvalley.com/services/departments/cdd/IdMd/FinalMEAJune2006/405_CulturalRes.pdf |archive-date=July 5, 2010 |title=Prehistoric Context |page=2 |access-date=August 15, 2008 |date=June 2006 |work=Idaho-Maryland Mine Project, Master Environmental Assessment |publisher=cityofgrassvalley.com |url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Initial European-American exploration===
{{See also|History of the Yosemite area|California Trail}}
[[File:Albert_Bierstadt_-_Among_the_Sierra_Nevada,_California_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|alt=Painting of a lake with deer at the water's edge and the Sierra Nevada in the background. Light is shining between the clouds onto the mountains.|thumb|[[Albert Bierstadt]], ''[[Among the Sierra Nevada, California]]'', 1868]]
American exploration of the mountain range started in 1827. Although prior to the 1820s there were [[Spanish missions in California|Spanish missions]], ''[[pueblo]]s'' (towns), ''[[presidio]]s'' (forts), and ''[[Ranchos of California|ranchos]]'' along the coast of California, no Spanish explorers visited the Sierra Nevada.<ref name="Wuerthner">{{cite book |title=Yosemite: A Visitors Companion |first=George |last=Wuerthner |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-8117-2598-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yosemitevisitors00wuer/page/13 13–14] |url=https://archive.org/details/yosemitevisitors00wuer/page/13}}</ref> The first Americans to visit the mountains were amongst a group led by fur trapper [[Jedediah Smith]], crossing north of the Yosemite area in May 1827, at [[Ebbetts Pass]].<ref name="Wuerthner" />

In 1833, a subgroup of the [[Bonneville Expedition of 1832|Bonneville Expedition]] led by [[Joseph Reddeford Walker]] was sent westward to find an overland route to [[California]]. Eventually the party discovered a route along the [[Humboldt River]] across present-day [[Nevada]], ascending the Sierra Nevada, starting near present-day Bridgeport and descending between the Tuolumne and Merced River drainage. The group may have been the first non-indigenous people to see [[Yosemite Valley]].<ref name="Schaffer">{{cite book |title=Yosemite National Park: A Natural History Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails |first=Jeffrey P. |last=Schaffer |publisher=Wilderness Press |location=Berkeley |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-89997-244-2}}</ref> The [[Walker Party]] probably visited either the [[Tuolumne Grove|Tuolumne]] or [[Merced Grove]]s of [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoia]], becoming the first non-indigenous people to see the giant trees,<ref name="Wuerthner" /> but journals relating to the Walker party were destroyed in 1839, in a print shop fire in Philadelphia.<ref name="Kiver">{{cite book |title=Geology of U.S. Parklands |edition=5th |first=Eugene P. |last=Kiver |author2=Harris, David V. |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=New York |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-471-33218-3}}</ref>

Starting in 1841, emigrants from the [[United States]] started to move to California via [[Sonora Pass|Sonora]] and [[Walker Pass]]es.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Exploration of the Sierra Nevada |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=3–58 |date=March 1925 |first=Francis P. |last=Farquhar |doi=10.2307/25177743 |jstor=25177743 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015049981668 |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/exploration_of_the_sierra_nevada/ |hdl-access=free |access-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-date=October 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019035212/http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/exploration_of_the_sierra_nevada/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the winter of 1844, Lt. [[John C. Frémont]], accompanied by [[Kit Carson]], was the first European American to see [[Lake Tahoe]]. The Frémont party camped at {{cvt|8050|ft|m}}.<ref>{{cite book |year=2007 |orig-year=1999 |title=Frémont's "Long Camp" |url=http://www.longcamp.com/longcamp.html |access-date=May 29, 2010 |archive-date=August 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819115823/http://www.longcamp.com/longcamp.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Gold rush===
[[File:Sierra Gold Rush map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of gold fields in the Sierra]]
{{main|California Gold Rush}}
The California Gold Rush began at [[Sutter's Mill]], near [[Coloma, California|Coloma]], in the western foothills of the Sierra.<ref name="CAMap">{{cite web |url=http://www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/minerals/images/Big_AUMap.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214035847/http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/minerals/images/Big_AUMap.pdf |archive-date=December 14, 2006 |title=California Historic Gold Mines |publisher=State of California}}</ref> On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] pioneer [[John Sutter]], found shiny metal in the [[water wheel|tailrace]] of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the [[American River]].<ref name="BancroftDiscovery">{{Cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Hubert Howe |title=History of California, Volume 23: 1843–1850 |publisher=The History Company |year=1889 |location=San Francisco |pages=32–34 |url=https://archive.org/stream/bancrohistofcali23huberich/bancrohistofcali23huberich_djvu.txt}}</ref> Rumors soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] newspaper publisher and merchant [[Samuel Brannan]]. Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"<ref name="BancroftDiscovery" />

On August 19, 1848, the ''[[New York Herald]]'' was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report the discovery of gold. On December 5, 1848, President [[James Polk]] confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to [[United States Congress|Congress]].<ref name="Starr">{{Cite book |last=Starr |first=Kevin |title=California: a history |publisher=The Modern Library |year=2005 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|80}} Soon, waves of [[Immigration to the United States|immigrants]] from around the world, later called the "forty-niners", invaded the [[Gold Country of California]] or "Mother Lode". Miners lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships.<ref name="Holliday">{{Cite book |last=Holliday |first=J. S. |title=Rush for riches; gold fever and the making of California |publisher=[[Oakland Museum of California]] and [[University of California Press]] |year=1999 |location=Oakland, California, Berkeley and Los Angeles |page=60}}</ref> Wherever gold was discovered, hundreds of miners would collaborate to put up a camp and stake their claims.

Because the [[gold]] in the [[California]] gravel beds was so richly concentrated, the early forty-niners simply [[gold panning|panned for gold]] in California's rivers and streams.<ref name="Brands">{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H. W. |title=The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream |location=New York |publisher=Anchor (reprint ed.) |year=2003}}</ref>{{rp|198–200}} However, panning cannot take place on a large scale, and miners and groups of miners graduated to more complex placer mining. Groups of prospectors would divert the water from an entire river into a [[sluice]] alongside the river, and then dig for gold in the newly exposed river bottom.<ref name="Rawls" />{{rp|90}}

By 1853, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to extracting gold from more difficult locations. [[Hydraulic mining]] was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds on hillsides and bluffs in the gold fields.<ref name="Starr" />{{rp|89}} In hydraulic mining, a high-pressure hose directed a powerful stream or jet of water at gold-bearing gravel beds. It is estimated that by the mid-1880s, 11&nbsp;million [[troy ounce]]s (340 metric tons) of gold (worth approximately US$16&nbsp;billion in 2020 prices) had been recovered by "hydraulicking".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/goldrush.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203062554/http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/goldrush.htm |archive-date=December 3, 2006 |title=Mining History and Geology of the Mother Lode}}</ref> A consequence of these extraction methods was that large amounts of gravel, [[silt]], [[heavy metals]], and other pollutants were washed into streams and rivers.<ref name="Rawls" />{{rp|32–36}} {{As of | 1999}}, many areas still bear the scars of hydraulic mining, since the resulting exposed earth and downstream gravel deposits do not support plant life.<ref name="Rawls" />{{rp|116–121}}

It is estimated that by 1855, at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world.<ref name="Starr" />{{rp|25}} The huge numbers of newcomers brought by the Gold Rush drove [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the miners, provoking counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often slaughtered.<ref name="Rawls">{{Cite book |editor1-last=Rawls |editor1-first=James J. |editor2-last=Orsi |editor2-first=Richard J. |title=A golden state: mining and economic development in Gold Rush California (California History Sesquicentennial Series, 2) |year=1999 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=[[University of California Press]]}}</ref>
[[File:California Geological Survey Field Party of 1864.jpg|thumb|upright|The exploration team for the California Geological Survey, 1864]]

===Thorough exploration===
The Gold Rush populated the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, but even by 1860, most of the Sierra was unexplored.<ref name="roper">{{cite book |last=Roper |first=Steve |title=Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country |year=1997 |publisher=The Mountaineers Press |isbn=978-0-89886-506-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Moore |first=James G. |title=Exploring the Highest Sierra |year=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-3703-6}}</ref> The state legislature authorized the [[California Geological Survey]] to officially explore the Sierra (and survey the rest of the state). [[Josiah Whitney]] was appointed to head the survey. Men of the survey, including [[William Henry Brewer|William H. Brewer]], [[Charles F. Hoffmann]] and [[Clarence King]], explored the backcountry of what would become [[Yosemite National Park]] in 1863.<ref name="roper" /> In 1864, they explored the area around [[Kings Canyon National Park|Kings Canyon]]. In 1869, [[John Muir]] started his wanderings in the Sierra Nevada range,<ref>{{cite book |title=My First Summer in the Sierra |first=John |last=Muir |url=https://archive.org/details/naturewritings0000muir |year=1911 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-1-883011-24-6 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and in 1871, King was the first to climb [[Mount Langley]], mistakenly believing he had summited [[Mount Whitney]], the highest peak in the range.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rei.com/blog/hike/famous-u-s-summits-mount-whitney-california |title=Famous U.S. Summits: Mount Whitney, California |last=Leonard |first=Brendan |date=n.d. |website=REI Co-op Journal |location=www.rei.com/blog |publisher=REI Co-op |access-date=July 16, 2018 |archive-date=July 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716200535/https://www.rei.com/blog/hike/famous-u-s-summits-mount-whitney-california |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1873, Mount Whitney was climbed for the first time by 3 men from Lone Pine, California, on a fishing trip.<ref name="roper" /> From 1892 to 1897 [[Theodore Solomons]] made the first attempt to map a route along the crest of the Sierra.<ref name="roper" />

Other people finished exploring and mapping the Sierra. [[Bolton Coit Brown]] explored the [[Kings River (California)|Kings River]] watershed in 1895–1899. [[Joseph N. LeConte]] mapped the area around [[Yosemite National Park]] and what would become [[Kings Canyon National Park]]. [[James S. Hutchinson]], a noted mountaineer, climbed the [[Palisades (California Sierra)|Palisades]] (1904) and [[Mount Humphreys]] (1905). By 1912, the [[USGS]] published a set of maps of the Sierra Nevada, and the era of exploration was over.<ref name="roper" />{{rp|81}}

===Logging===
{{See also|Logging in the Sierra Nevada}}
[[File:DeQuille 137 Timbering the Mines.jpg|thumb|[[Philip Deidesheimer|Square-set timbering]] as used in the [[Comstock Lode|Comstock mines]], 1877.]]
Logging in the Sierra Nevada has significantly impacted the landscape. The logging industry in the Sierra Nevada started in the early 1800s, when settlers relied on hand tools and ox-teams.<ref name="Johnston 1997">{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Hank |date=1997 |title=The Whistles Blow No More |publisher=Stauffer Publishing |isbn=0-87046-067-6}}</ref>{{rp|103, 127}} Before the California Gold Rush, the industry was relatively small, and most of the lumber used in the state was imported. However, as the demand for lumber to support the mining industry increased, logging became a major industry in the region.

Initially, most of the lumber produced in California was used in mining. The [[Comstock Lode]] was a major center for logging, with operations supplying lumber for the construction of mine structures, such as tunnels, shafts, and buildings, as well as fuel for the mines. [[Dan DeQuille]] observed in 1876, "the Comstock Lode may truthfully be said to be the tomb of the forests of the Sierra. Millions upon millions of feet of lumber are annually buried in the mines, nevermore to be resurrected."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historynet.com/square-set-timbering-v-flume-kept-comstock-lode-running-strong/ |title=Square-Set Timbering and the V-Flume Kept the Comstock Lode Running Strong |last1=Straka |first1=Tom |last2=Wynn |first2=Bob |date=January 17, 2018 |website=History.net |publisher=HistoryNet LLC |access-date=December 27, 2022 |quote=The Comstock Lode may truthfully be said to be the tomb of the Sierras. Millions upon millions of feet of lumber are annually buried in the mines, nevermore to be resurrected. When once it is planted in the lower levels, it never again sees the light of day. …For a distance of 50 or 60 miles, all the hills of the eastern slope of the Sierras have been to a great extent denuded of trees of every kind; those suitable only for wood as well those fit for the manufacture of lumber for use in the mines. |archive-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227204458/https://www.historynet.com/square-set-timbering-v-flume-kept-comstock-lode-running-strong/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the late 1800s, the [[History of the lumber industry in the United States#Twentieth century|logging industry moved westward]] due to the depletion of [[Pinus strobus|white pine]] forests in the upper Midwest.<ref name="Johnston 2011">{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=Hank |title=Rails to the Minarets: The Story of the Sugar Pine Lumber Company |publisher=Stauffer Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-9846848-0-9 |edition=Fourth Edition (Revised) |location=Fish Camp, California}}</ref>{{rp|9–14}}  This shift was encouraged by the positive portrayal of the Sierra Nevada as a promising timber region. In 1859, [[Horace Greely]] marveled, "I never saw anything so much like good timber in the course of any seventy-five miles' travel as I saw in crossing the Sierra Nevada."<ref>{{cite book |last=Horace |first=Greely |date=1859 |title=Overland Journey: New York to San Francisco the Summer of 1859 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AFK4378.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext |location=New York |publisher=C.M. Saxton, Barker & Company |page=280 |access-date=December 31, 2022 |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307170906/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AFK4378.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:HenryERoberts-BaseofFallenSequoia.jpg|thumb|[[Clearcutting]] in [[Converse Basin Grove|Converse Basin]] resulted in a loss of 8,000 [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/log-flume-1 |title=Log Flume |last=Zimmerman |first=Robert |date=Fall 1998 |website=American Heritage's Invention and Technology |publisher=American Heritage |access-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-date=November 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120055024/https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/log-flume-1 |url-status=live }}</ref> ]]
The logging industry experienced significant growth in the late 1800s due to several factors. [[Timber and Stone Act|The Timber and Stone Act of 1878]] allowed individuals to claim ownership of old-growth timber tracts, which were later consolidated under [[Joint-stock company|joint-stock companies]], such as those founded by Midwestern lumber magnates.<ref name="McDougall">{{cite book |last=McDougall Weiner |first=Jackie |date=2009 |title=Timely Exposures: The Life and Images of C.C. Curtis, Pioneer California Photographer |location=Tulare, California |publisher=Tulare County Historical Society}}</ref>{{rp|142–144}} These companies had the financial resources to transport timber from remote locations and build sawmills near the tracks of the [[History of the Southern Pacific|Southern Pacific]] railroad which connected the [[San Joaquin Valley]] to the rest of the state in the 1870s. This facilitated the nationwide distribution of lumber. In addition, technological advancements, such as the [[shay locomotive]] and the [[log flume#V-Flumes|v-shaped log flume]], made it easier to transport lumber across mountainous terrain.<ref name="Johnston 1997" />

===Conservation===
{{see also|Protected areas of the Sierra Nevada}}
[[File:General Sherman tree looking up.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[General Sherman Tree]], a [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoia]] in [[Sequoia National Park]], is the world's largest tree by volume.]]

The tourism potential of the Sierra Nevada was recognized early in the European history of the range. [[Yosemite Valley]] was first protected by the federal government in 1864. The Valley and [[Mariposa Grove]] were ceded to [[California]] in 1866 and turned into a state park.<ref name="Schaffer"/> John Muir perceived [[overgrazing]] by [[domestic sheep|sheep]] and logging of [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant sequoia]] to be a problem in the Sierra. Muir successfully lobbied for the protection of the rest of Yosemite National Park: Congress created an Act to protect the park in 1890. The Valley and Mariposa Grove were added to the Park in 1906.<ref name="Schaffer" /> In the same year, [[Sequoia National Park]] was formed to protect the Giant Sequoia: all logging of the Sequoia ceased at that time.

In 1903, the city of [[San Francisco]] proposed building a [[hydroelectric dam]] to flood [[Hetch Hetchy Valley]]. The city and the [[Sierra Club]] argued over the dam for 10 years, until the [[U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Raker Act]] in 1913 and allowed dam building to proceed. [[O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)|O'Shaughnessy Dam]] was completed in 1923.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dam!: Water, Power, Politics, and Preservation in Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite National Park |last=Simpson |first=John W. |year=2005 |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-375-42231-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/damwaterpowerpol00simp}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism |last=Righter |first=Robert W. |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531309-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/battleoverhetchh00righ}}</ref>

Between 1912 and 1918, Congress debated three times to protect Lake Tahoe in a national park. None of these efforts succeeded, and after [[World War II]], towns such as [[South Lake Tahoe, California|South Lake Tahoe]] grew around the shores of the lake. By 1980, the permanent population of the Lake Tahoe area grew to 50,000, while the summer population grew to 90,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stream and Ground-Water Monitoring Program, Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California |url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-100-97/ |publisher=USGS |access-date=May 31, 2010 |archive-date=May 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530064146/http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-100-97/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The development around Lake Tahoe affected the clarity of the lake water. In order to preserve the lake's clarity, construction in the Tahoe basin is currently regulated by the [[Tahoe Regional Planning Agency]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trpa.org/default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=40 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716131956/http://www.trpa.org/default.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=40 |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |title=Construction Monitoring |publisher=Tahoe Regional Planning Agency |url-status=dead}}</ref>

As the 20th century progressed, more of the Sierra became available for recreation; other forms of economic activity decreased. The [[John Muir Trail]], a trail that followed the Sierra crest from Yosemite Valley to [[Mount Whitney]], was funded in 1915 and finished in 1938.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Starr |first=Walter A. |date=November 1947 |title=Trails |journal=Sierra Club Bulletin |volume=32 |issue=10}}</ref> [[Kings Canyon National Park]] was formed in 1940 to protect the deep canyon of the [[Kings River (California)|Kings River]].

In the 1920s, automobile clubs and nearby towns started to lobby for trans-Sierra highways over [[Piute Pass]]<ref name=usfsRoad>{{cite web |url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd499744.pdf |title=The High Sierra Piute Highway |first=Steve |last=Marsh |publisher=US Forest Service |year=2015 |access-date=December 31, 2020 |archive-date=August 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815210623/https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd499744.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> (which would have closed the gap in [[California State Route 168|SR 168]]) and other locations. However, by end of the 1920s, the Forest Service and the Sierra Club decided that roadless wilderness in the Sierra was valuable, and fought the proposal. The Piute Pass proposal faded out by the early 1930s, with the Forest Service proposing a route over [[Minaret Summit]] in 1933.<ref name=usfsRoad/> The Minaret Summit route was lobbied against by California's Governor [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1972. The expansion of the [[John Muir Wilderness|John Muir]] and [[Ansel Adams Wilderness]]es in the 1980s sealed off the Minaret Summit route.<ref name=usfsRoad/>

A trans-Sierra route between [[Porterville, California|Porterville]] and [[Lone Pine, California|Lone Pine]] was proposed by local businessmen in 1923.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |title=Trail Over Mountains Supported |date=June 15, 1923 |page=II10}}</ref> Eventually, a circuitous route across the Sierra was built across [[Sherman Pass (California)|Sherman Pass]] by 1976.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Fresno Bee |title=See It All in the Sierra |date=October 24, 1976}}</ref>

By 1964, the [[Wilderness Act]] protected portions of the Sierra as primitive areas where humans are simply temporary visitors. Gradually, 20 [[U.S. Wilderness Areas|wilderness areas]] were established to protect scenic [[backcountry]] of the Sierra. These wilderness areas include the [[John Muir Wilderness]] (protecting the eastern slope of the Sierra and the area between Yosemite and Kings Canyon Parks), and wilderness within each of the National Parks.

The Sierra Nevada still faces a number of issues that threaten its conservation. Logging occurs on both private and public lands, including controversial clearcut methods and thinning logging on private and public lands.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Forest Issues - CSERC |url=http://www.cserc.org/local-issues/forests/ |website=CSERC |date=December 16, 2014 |access-date=January 28, 2016 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121020027/http://www.cserc.org/local-issues/forests/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Grazing occurs on private lands as well as on National Forest lands, which include Wilderness areas. Overgrazing can alter hydrologic processes and vegetation composition, remove vegetation that serves as food and habitat for native species, and contribute to sedimentation and pollution in waterways.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2014 Grazing Report Released by CSERC - CSERC |url=http://www.cserc.org/news/2014-grazing-report-released-cserc/ |website=CSERC |access-date=January 28, 2016 |language=en-US |archive-date=February 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202145658/http://www.cserc.org/news/2014-grazing-report-released-cserc/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> A recent increase in large wildfires like the Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest and the King Fire on the Eldorado National Forest, has prompted concerns.<ref name=":0" /> A 2015 study indicated that the increase in fire risk in California may be attributable to [[anthropogenic global warming|human-induced climate change]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yoon |first1=Jin-Ho |last2=Wang |first2=S.-Y. Simon |last3=Gillies |first3=Robert R. |last4=Hipps |first4=Lawrence |last5=Kravitz |first5=Ben |last6=Rasch |first6=Philip J. |date=2015 |title=Extreme Fire Season in California: A Glimpse Into the Future? |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283425168 |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |volume=96 |issue=11 |doi=10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00114.1 |issn=1520-0477 |pages=S5–S9 |bibcode=2015BAMS...96S...5Y |osti=1240234 |doi-access=free |access-date=September 26, 2016 |archive-date=February 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201194439/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283425168_EXTREME_FIRE_SEASON_IN_CALIFORNIA_A_GLIMPSE_INTO_THE_FUTURE |url-status=live }}</ref> A study looking back over 8,000 years found that warmer climate periods experienced severe droughts and more stand-replacing fires and concluded that as climate is such a powerful influence on wildfires, trying to recreate presettlement forest structure may be difficult in a warmer future.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pierce |first1=Jennifer L. |last2=Meyer |first2=Grant A. |last3=Timothy Jull |first3=A. J. |date=November 4, 2004 |title=Fire-induced erosion and millennial-scale climate change in northern ponderosa pine forests |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=432 |issue=7013 |pages=87–90 |doi=10.1038/nature03058 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=15525985 |bibcode=2004Natur.432...87P |s2cid=1452537}}</ref>