March for Science comes to Yosemite on Earth Day

A national push for scientific research funding called the March for Science will come to the Yosemite Valley on Saturday.

Scientists and supporters plan to gather in Washington D.C. and hundreds of other places across the U.S. — including Yosemite National Park — to bring attention to science’s role in democracy, and the importance of evidence-based research, according to organizers.

In Yosemite National Park, the events, which take place on Earth Day, begin at 11 a.m. in front of the Visitor’s Center in Yosemite Village. The march itself is set for 1 p.m. from the Visitor’s Center to Sentinel Bridge Parking Lot and back.

Nine local scientists and supporters are set to speak at the amphitheater in front of the Indian Museum in Yosemite Village, organizers said. For example, professor LeRoy Westerling of UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute is supposed to cover climate change in Yosemite and analyst Liz van Wagtendonk’s talk is called “Our Sierra Nevada Forests, a View From Above.”

Organizers are expecting a hectic day in Yosemite between the march and Earth Day.

UC Merced professor Valerie Leppert, whose research includes air pollution, said that, due to a previous commitment, she’ll be in Phoenix on Saturday but will march there.

Leppert said she is motivated to march by President Donald Trump’s effort to roll back regulations and cut funding for environmental efforts, among other reasons.

“California has six of the worst polluted cities in the country,” she said Tuesday. “I find the effort to repeal the Clean Air (and) Clean Water Act just unbelievable.”

Trump has ordered a roll back on the Obama administration’s directives in 10 areas, including requirements that power plants reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that the oil and gas industry limit methane emissions, and that they reduce the impact of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on groundwater.

“It’s not motivated by my personal research program,” she said. “It’s motivated by my awareness of the importance of programs like this.”

The president has said he wants to loosen environmental regulations to “eliminate federal overreach, restore economic freedom and allow our companies and our workers to thrive and compete on a level playing field.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2017 at 10:44 AM with the headline "March for Science comes to Yosemite on Earth Day."