Pinnacles National Park

Pinnacles National Park
High peaks in Pinnacles National Park
Coordinates: 36 ° 28 ′ 43.4 "  N , 121 ° 11 ′ 9.8"  W.
Location:	California , United States
Specialty:	Rocky landscape of volcanic origin with ideal nesting opportunities for birds of prey
Next city:	Soledad
Surface:	107.99 km²
Founding:	January 16, 1908
Visitors:	222,152 (2018)
Address:	Pinnacles National Park

The Pinnacles National Park is a protected area by the type of national parks in the State of California . The area is characterized by formations of volcanic origin from different geological ages. The rugged rocks and the low fertility prevented human use and thus preserved the original nature. Therefore, the Pinnacles National Park was a suitable location for the release of the California condor .

The Pinnacles area was discovered as a tourist destination from around 1900, placed under protection as a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 and opened up in the 1930s as part of the New Deal . It is administered by the National Park Service . Since 1976 around 60% of the area has also been placed under the special protection of a wilderness area . At the beginning of 2013 it was upgraded to a national park in order to emphasize its special importance and to promote tourism.

The sanctuary is named after the English word pinnacle for rock needle. A national park of the same name is located in the Australian state of Queensland.

description

The area is almost entirely in San Benito County , about 130 km south of San Francisco and about 50 km east of the Pacific coast, a good 10 km east of Soledad , where a spur road branches off from US Highway 101 to the western part of the protected area. The national park belongs to the Gabilan Mountains , a small mountain range within the California coastline .

The mountains are in the area of ​​the Mediterranean climate with cool, wet winters and dry, hot summers. Large temperature fluctuations occur both between the seasons and between day and night. Night frosts are not uncommon in winter, and snow occasionally falls at higher altitudes. The precipitation of around 400 mm per year falls almost exclusively between December and March. In midsummer, temperatures of 40 ° C are reached during the day, even at high altitudes, at night fog often drifts in from the west from the coastal plain and lowers the temperatures to just a little over 10 ° C.

The valleys east and west of the area are about 300  m . In the center of the park, the high peaks reach around 800 m, in the south of the protected area there are some less prominent but higher mountains around 1000  m high.

geology

Pinnacles National Park is located on the edge of the San Andreas Fault Zone on the Pacific Plate , which migrates to the northwest relative to the North American Plate due to plate tectonic processes . These movements on the fault system separated the area of ​​the park from its origin, so that its geological continuation is now far to the southeast.

The bedrock of the mountains consists of Cretaceous granite and granodiorite with an age of approximately 78-100 million years. The Pinnacle Volcanic Formation rises on it ; volcanic rock (mainly rhyolite , andesite and dacite ) from a volcanic phase of activity at the beginning of the Miocene around 23 million years ago. The High Peaks , the most striking rock peaks in the area, consist of breccias , volcanic ash and lava flows that were formed at that time . The strongly consolidated breccias, which are resistant to weathering , have emerged from the material of several landslides on the cone of the volcano, which reached open water and were transported far under water as turbidite . The Neenach volcano , from which the rock of the Pinnacles Formation originates, is located around 315 km southeast of the protected area near Lancaster , California. From the distance and the known age of the rock, a migration speed of the Pacific plate and today's protected area of ​​about 1.5 cm per year can be calculated. The earthquakes that occurred caused sharp cracks and fractures in the rock formations.

The cracks in the rock weathered under the influence of the strong temperature fluctuations to their present-day distinctive shapes. The rare Talus Caves are among the geological formations in the area created by erosion . These caves were created from crevices at the foot of the rock formations on which boulders of the volcanic talus of different sizes fell so that they did not completely fill the crevices, but got stuck in the crevices or covered them. The resulting cavities extend up to several hundred meters. The two largest were also washed out by watercourses and are accessible from both sides, so you can walk through them.

Rock face in front of the range of hills with Chaparral

Ecosystem

The gentle hills that characterize the vast majority of the area are covered with bush vegetation called chaparral - similar to the maquis in the Mediterranean . It covers over 80% of the protected area and consists mainly of oaks , especially of the Quercus berberidifolia species , an evergreen relative of the holm oak . In the lower elevations of the reserve and on the two small waterways Bear Creek and Chalone Creek , forests of pine , California horse chestnuts ( Aesculus californica ), plane trees , poplars and various oaks grow .

California poppy ( Eschscholzia californica )

Released young California condors with wing tags for individual identification

The vegetation in the high areas between the boulders consists of grass communities in which numerous flowering plants can be seen in spring. The early bloomers in March include the California poppy , predatory leaf family , pepper cabbage and heron beaks . Larkspur species, sage and lupins follow in April . In May the climate is already very dry and hot, with penstemon , buckwheat and several species of orchids in bloom . The flowering season is over in mid-June.

The most extreme locations in the area are the rocks themselves. Lichen grow on them , although the occurrence has only been systematically explored since 2003. Around 300–350 species have been recorded or are suspected to be in the protected area. Taller plants, especially pines , also grow in the crevices and on the rock heads .

149 species of birds , 49 species of mammals , 23 species of reptiles , 6 species of amphibians , 68 species of butterflies , 40 species of dragonflies , almost 400 species of bees and thousands of other species of invertebrates have been recorded in the area.

The area is of particular importance for bats and birds of prey . 14 bat species live in the crevices and caves of the Pinnacles as well as in tree hollows in the lower elevations of the protected area. Three of them are on the California State Red List . Twenty species of birds of prey have been observed in the national park, ten of which breed regularly in the area. The prairie falcon has its highest density here in the United States. The area owes the great diversity of species of birds of prey to the ideal breeding conditions in the rock crevices in combination with the good food supply in the form of large insects, reptiles and small rodents of the grassy communities and rocky landscapes as well as larger rodents and songbirds in the valleys and the agricultural areas south and east of the protected area .

The nature conservation measures of the protected area administration consist primarily of protecting birds of prey. In doing so, she has had considerable success. After an absence of almost 50 years, peregrine falcons have been breeding successfully in the reserve since 2005 . The long-eared owl , the turkey vulture and the white-tailed glider or American glider ( Elanus leucurus ) have also returned to the Pinnacles National Park.

The center of attention is the California condor . Extinct in the wild in the 1980s, conservation is the goal of the largest conservation breeding and release program in the United States. In the 1990s, the first phase of the release of captive-reared condors into the wild began in Southern California and Arizona . The national park in central California was added as a project location in 2003 and around 30 birds had been released here by 2010. The release into the wild will continue in the following years. The small population has had contact with the condors in the neighboring reintroduction area near Big Sur since 2006 , the combined central California population now consists of 61 specimens (as of November 2012). In 2009, the first wild Pinnacles condors were old enough to breed, and two pairs of a Pinnacles and a Big Sur condor began to breed. One of the pairs was breeding just outside the park. The sanctuary was hatched for the first time in 2010, and in early April the first California condor hatched in the Pinnacles area for over 100 years. By the end of 2012 there were two successful broods in the area.

To protect the original flora and fauna, neophytes and neozoa are being fought, alien species that have migrated to the protected area through human influences. Great effort was required to exclude wild pigs, which arose from crossing feral domestic pigs with wild pigs and which became native to Southern California. While searching for food they stir up the sensitive soils of the area and change the composition of the flora with their selective diet. For this reason, a fence was drawn around the entire protected area by 2003, which is safe from undermining and has sufficiently large meshes to allow almost all animal species except pigs through. All pigs were caught or shot in the fenced area.

Bear Gulch Reservoir

history

A systematic settlement of the protected area by the indigenous population cannot be proven. Arrowheads and millstones show that the Pinnacles area was visited at least seasonally. The Indian peoples of the Californian coastal region, known as Costanoans , moved to the hills and mountain ranges in autumn, mainly to collect acorns , which were an essential part of their diet.

In the 18th century, historic California became part of the viceroyalty of New Spain . The closest Spanish mission , from which today's Soledad emerged , was only about ten kilometers west of the protected area. Rumor has it that the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez (* 1839, † 1875 by hanging ) buried treasures in the caves of the Pinnacles in the second half of the 19th century .

Because of the extreme climate and low fertility, it wasn't until 1891 that a settler named Schuyler Hain used the Homestead Act and built a small farm in what is now the protected area. Enthusiastic about the beauty of the rock formations, he began to organize tours through the area and into the caves and for decades campaigned for official nature conservation in the area. In 1908, President Theodor Roosevelt designated the core of the Pinnacles, initially 1.5 km², as one of the first National Monuments, almost at the same time as Muir Woods National Monument and the Grand Canyon (then still a National Monument, now a Grand Canyon National Park).

In order to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression , President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the " New Deal " in 1933 . Men of the Civilian Conservation Corps also worked in the Pinnacles National Monument as part of the state job creation program to develop the area for tourism. Asphalt roads from both sides, paths into the caves with bridges and ramps, hiking trails in the rocky areas and the first visitor center were laid out during this time. In addition, the small Bear Creek was dammed into the Bear Gulch reservoir.

Since it was placed under protection, the National Monument has been expanded many times: from initially 1.5 km² to almost 110 km² today. In 1976 around 60% of the area was placed under extended protection as a wilderness area and designated as Pinnacles Wilderness . It was renamed Hain Wilderness in 2013 in honor of Schuyler Hain .

An upgrade of the National Monument to a national park was discussed over a long period of time, the National Park Service rejected it because the area did not meet the internal requirements for a national park. Politicians from the state of California, however, continued the rededication because they promised increased awareness and thus a promotion of tourism. In mid-2012, Sam Farr , the local MP in the House of Representatives, introduced a bill. The upgrade was justified by the fact that the Pinnacles area is the only federal protected area in the southern California coastal mountains with the typical flora and fauna and in the original range of the California condor. In the United States Senate at the end of 2012, Barbara Boxer , representative of California, proposed an identical draft, which was passed within a few weeks. On January 10, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the bill that made the revaluation effective.

Pinnacles National Park today

The high peaks are in the center of the reserve. They separate the east from the west; these two parts are only connected by footpaths in the national park. The shortest road connection is about 100 km long and goes through King City . That is why there is a visitor information center on both sides. There is only a campsite on the east side. Due to the extreme heat and drought in the summer months, a visit to the protected area only makes sense in the colder months of the year. The peak of the season is in spring when the high altitudes between the rocks are littered with flowering plants.

The national park is a recreational area for the greater San Francisco area and the coastal region. In addition to those interested in natural history and hikers, it particularly attracts free climbers . The rugged rocks and their cracks offer a variety of technically demanding routes, mainly in the difficulty levels 5.6–5.10 according to the Yosemite Decimal System . To protect the birds of prey, some rocks and climbing walls are closed during the breeding season.

The process of updating the park's General Management Plan has been ongoing since 2007 . In particular, the use of the former agricultural extension areas in the east of the protected area is discussed. In 2010, funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were released, which allowed a new visitor center to open on the west side in early 2012. It is no longer the ecologically sensitive course of the river, which can thus be largely renatured.

At the beginning of 2010, the national park established a partnership with the Quebrada del Condorito National Park in Argentina , the local center for the protection of the Andean condor . The administrations want to work together on issues of bird of prey protection.

literature

• Philip Andrews: Geology of the Pinnacles National Monument , University of California Press, Berkley, California, 1936 (also online in full: Geology of the Pinnacles National Monument )

Web links

Commons : Pinnacles National Park  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• National Park Service: Pinnacles National Park (official site; English)
• California Condor: Latest Status Reports
• USGS: A Photographic Tour Featuring Park Geology - Extensive series of photos from the United States Geological Survey covering the geology of the reserve
• Friends of Pinnacles - a club of climbers with information about routes in the area

Individual evidence

1. ^ Whitehouse.gov: Statement by the Press Secretary on Bills Signed on January 10, 2013 , January 10, 2013
2. ↑ Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-pinnacles-national-park-20121231,0,6332813.story , December 31, 2012
3. ^ National Park Service: Pinnacles National Park: Geologic Formations. (accessed April 27, 2009)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Peregrine Society: Condor population ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 149 kB), November 30, 2012 
5. ^ National Park Service: Pinnacles National Park: Pinnacles Condor Chick. Press release from May 12, 2009
6. ^ San Jose Mercury News: Condor hatches at Pinnacles National Monument for first time in 100 years , April 7, 2010
7. ↑ ^{a b} United States Congress: 112TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION HR 3641 (PDF; 118 kB) , passed in the House of Representatives on July 31, 2012
8. ↑ San Jose Mercury News: Pinnacles becomes a national park - the closest to Bay Area , Jan. 10, 2013
9. ↑ National Park Service: Pinnacles National Monument General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement , as of November 2010
10. ^ National Park Service: Pinnacles National Monument will Relocate and Replace Flood-Prone West Side Facilities , June 16, 2010
11. ^ National Park Service: ARRA Funded West Pinnacles Visitor Contact Station Near Complete , press release December 16, 2011
12. ^ National Park Service: National Parks in the US and Argentina Join Forces: Partnership Helps Endangered Condors Take Flight. Press release from January 15, 2010

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on February 15, 2007 .