Tioga Pass reopens to drivers wanting to access from the east to Yosemite National Park. A California firefighter’s advice to other countries battling wildfires. Endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs released into Plumas National Forest.

Tioga Pass reopens

There is finally another way to get to Yosemite National Park. After months of grueling labor, Tioga Road has finally reopened to motorists. At an elevation of just under 10,000 feet, it is California’s highest mountain pass and connects the Eastern Sierra to Yosemite via Highway 395. It is a seasonal road and a crucial lifeline to the communities in the Eastern Sierra that rely on summer tourism to Yosemite. Given the elevation and terrain, the opening of Tioga Road varies from year-to-year depending on the snowpack. Typically, the pass closes in November and opens back up by June, making this year’s opening the latest recorded in at least 90 years. Yosemite is warning drivers that although the road is open, to expect delays, some damage, and one-lane sections. The park also advises to bring all food, water, and a full tank of gas because none will be available. Those extra weeks of pass closures have impacted gateway communities to the east of Yosemite. To get a snapshot of what Tioga Pass means to the Eastern Sierra, Insight invited Margie Beaver with the Lee Vining Chamber of Commerce onto the program. The community is located in Mono County at the entrance to Tioga Road.

Advice to other countries fighting wildfires

We’ve been lucky so far. Despite the recent heat waves up and down California, no major wildfires. But we are all smart enough to know that our luck here in California tends to run out when it comes to wildfires. We have seen it and experienced it all too often, and sadly, Canada is suffering this year. Right now, smoke from hundreds of fires burning in Canada continues to pour into the U.S.  as far south as Alabama. It’s been going on for more than a month and it’s not the only extreme wildfire behavior blanketing a region. Greece and other parts of Europe are experiencing wildfires as well. Clare Frank spent 30 years as a firefighter and became CalFire’s Chief of Fire Protection. She’s also the first and only woman to reach that rank. Frank recently published opinion pieces for CNN and the New York Times about what other countries around the world could learn from the United States, including California’s mistakes when it comes to fire. She is also the author of the book “Burnt:  A Memoir of Fighting Fire.”

Endangered yellow-legged frogs reintroduced to Plumas National Forest

For those who love to hike in the Northern and Central Sierra, there is a chance you may be lucky enough to spot a rare creature that was once common in the high country. The Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frog called streams, ponds, and lakes home, adapting to survive in the toughest conditions while playing an essential role in its ecosystem. But since the 1970s, their populations began to decline dramatically due to several factors, and the frogs were eventually listed as an endangered species in 2014. In an effort to help boost their numbers, biologists captured more than 160 tiny tadpoles in the waters of the Plumas National Forest and dropped them off at the San Francisco Zoo where they were raised and prepared for life in the wild. Those tadpoles are now frogs, making their journey home where they were released back into the Plumas National Forest this summer. Ian Vogel, a Senior Fish and Wildlife Biologist with “U.S. Fish and Wildlife” was there for the homecoming and joins us to tell us more about the critical role these frogs play in the waterways of the Sierra Nevada.