Yosemite FaceLift 2023: A Fellowship Experience

Merced River Cleanup Project

Jadyn Pando

The Yosemite FaceLift is a five-day event put on by the Yosemite Climbing Association in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS). Each year, the event brings thousands of volunteers into the park to pick up trash and participate in special projects to help clean-up the park and restore its natural areas. This year’s special projects included seed collection, meadow planting, clean-up in the Merced River basin, and bear box removal and installation. Additionally, there is evening programming throughout the week where staff and volunteers gather in the park’s auditorium to listen to guest speakers, watch films related to climbing and conservation, and even catch live-music sets. The 2023 event, which took place from September 20th-24th, was the 20th anniversary of Yosemite FaceLift, making it a special one for organizers and participants who return annually.

This year, there were 1,501 volunteers, 12,151 volunteer hours completed, and 10,432 pounds of trash collected. To collect litter, volunteers meet in the “Mall”, a courtyard near the Yosemite Visitor’s Center. There, they register for the event, participate in an archeology briefing about what to pick up and what not to pick up, receive a trash picker and a burlap sack, and are directed by a maps team to different areas in the park known to have litter. Many of these areas are known climbing hotspots, but volunteers are also welcome to head to other trails, campgrounds, and picnic areas. Volunteers also meet with NPS rangers and specialists in the Mall to be led to special project sites. Aside from the registration, archeology, and litter drop off booths in the Mall, there are tons of sponsors and partners tabling at the event. Companies like North Face, Patagonia, and Kodiak brought products to give away or raffle off to volunteers as a way to say thank you for their contributions. Leave No Trace and 5 Gyres, two environmental non-profits, also came out to educate visitors on trash pollution and environmental solutions. In the main village area of the park, with Yosemite Falls looming over head, the tents and tables in the Mall were an attraction for some park visitors as well as event volunteers, as they passed through curiously asking what the crowds were here for.

Ahwahnee Meadow Planting Project

Jadyn Pando

As a part of our Public Land Corps project, a program aiming to expose young people to conservation and stewardship projects, two of my NPS Workforce Management coworkers and I had the privilege of assisting with the Yosemite FaceLift event. We were each assigned a schedule to help organizers with registration, archeology briefings, and event photography. My main assignment was photography, though I did put in some hours at the registration booth as well. Throughout the week, I joined special project groups and wandered through the valley to get shots of volunteers at work. One of the projects I joined was planting in the Ahwahnee Meadow with NPS Botanist Emily Fong. In the meadow, volunteers planted milkweed and deergrass starts to help restore the meadow ecosystem and attract key species like the monarch butterfly. I also got photos of the seed collection project, where volunteers collected tarragon seeds to be stored and planted in the coming years. The photos will be used by Yosemite National Park Volunteer Office to raise awareness about this annual event and its operations.

Participating in the Yosemite FaceLift event was a memorable and heartwarming experience. It truly is a community event, as it started as a way for climbers to give back to the natural areas in which they climb and mend complicated relationships with land managers like the National Park Service. The compassion felt for the environment and each other was tangible all week long, with participants building relationships and helping each other work towards a common goal. I am fortunate to have been able to witness and help organize this experience and hope to participate again in the future.

Visit the Yosemite Climbing Association website and find FaceLift event near you!

Written by Jadyn Pando
for "A Day in the Life of a Fellow" Article Series
National Park Service - Workforce Management Fellow