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Yosemite Begins Restoration of Ackerson Meadow
Confirmed
In Short: The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project, a wet meadow and riparian habitat restoration effort, is underway in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest.
The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project, a wet meadow and riparian habitat restoration effort, is underway in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest.
Restoring Ackerson Meadow will provide multiple benefits for climate resiliency, water quality and supply, flood attenuation, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity.
Ackerson Meadow, one of the largest mid-elevation montane meadows in public ownership in the Sierra Nevada, is a critical biodiversity hotspot and wildlife corridor.
For over a century, land-use activities such as ditching, roadbuilding, agriculture, and grazing have degraded the meadow, creating an incised gully that drains the meadow and prevents it from serving its key ecological functions.
The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project promises to restore these functions and enhance the stunning and vital ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada.
Over the course of two years of restoration work, 150,000 cubic yards of soil will be used to raise the streambed and water table, reconnecting the meadow floodplain to slow and spread flows across the meadow.
Frank Dean, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, said, “It’s an amazing location, with amazing resources. This meadow is a rare oasis in the Sierra.”
Scott Gediman, Yosemite spokesman, noted, “Ackerson Meadow is a regionally critical wildlife corridor that supports an amazing amount of biodiversity.”
What this adds
The project, which began last year, aims to restore the meadow's natural conditions, which have not been seen since before the 1880s when cattle grazing, logging, and homesteading began there.
The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project is funded in part by the Yosemite Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, highlighting the importance of public-private partnerships in conservation efforts.
The project is the largest ‘full fill’ meadow restoration attempted in the Sierra Nevada to date.
Background
The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project, a wet meadow and riparian habitat restoration effort, is underway in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest.
What's confirmed
- Restoring Ackerson Meadow will also provide multiple benefits for climate resiliency, water quality and supply, flood attenuation, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity.
- The Ackerson Meadow Restoration Project is the largest ‘full fill’ meadow restoration attempted in the Sierra Nevada to date.
- Over the course of two years of restoration work, 150,000 cubic yards of soil (or ~15,000 dump truck loads) will be used to raise the streambed and water table, reconnecting the meadow floodplain to slow and spread flows across the meadow.
- It will also create ideal wet meadow habitat for species like the Little Willow Flycatcher.
What's still developing
- Ackerson Meadow sits on the boundary between Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest in the Tuolumne River watershed and is home to a wide range of native bird, plant, and fish species.
- Ackerson Meadow in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest is one of the most significant biodiversity hotspots in the Sierra Nevada mountain range Your gift to American Rivers will power our work to make every river clean and healthy for people and wildlife.
- YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA – Yosemite Conservancy, the primary philanthropic partner of Yosemite National Park, today announced $19 million in support to the park for 2026 for 60 grants.
- “Public funding alone does not fully address urgent needs in the park. Our investment helps the National Park Service and other partners to do important scientific research, restoration, cultural preservation, and visitor-focused work,” said Yosemite Conservancy President and CEO Cassius M.
- A restoration effort in the high country will reroute a 900-foot section of trail bisecting Kerrick Meadow that threatens both the meadow’s essential hydrologic functions and local amphibian populations.
- Among the efforts to be funded are the restoration of Kerrick Meadow in the high-country, development of an AI model to study bear behavior and Tribal-led demonstrations of cultural traditions.
- Many grants study and protect park landscapes that support more than 400 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, fish and reptiles, and provide a haven for threatened and endangered species.
- Funding will go to seven cultural demonstrators from local California Tribes who will interpret their own stories and indigenous practices at the Yosemite Museum and Indian Village, involving dance, basket weaving and history.
- Tuesday, October 6, 2026 · 4:06 PM ET In Short: Only 3% of Yosemite is in meadows, but they are the location of one-third of all of the plant species found in the park, according to the National Park Service.
- The project, which began last year, aims to restore the meadow's natural conditions, which have not been seen since before the 1880s when cattle grazing, logging, and homesteading began there.
- The project is funded in part by the Yosemite Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, highlighting the importance of public-private partnerships in conservation efforts.
- Ackerson Meadow, located on the boundary between Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest, is home to the state-endangered great grey owl and little willow flycatcher, as well as numerous other at-risk wildlife species.