In Yosemite, old notes yield new insights on climate

Posted by Tom Knudson's Sierra Summit Blog

August 22, 2008

Joseph Grinnell, the founding director of U.C. Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, was a fanatic about taking notes.

Put it all down, he would say. You might not think it's important but someone may.

Today, Grinnell's detailed, nearly century-old field notes about chipmunks and other small mammals in Yosemite National Park are revealing new insights about climate change in the Sierra Nevada.

View a photo gallery tracing Grinnell's survey route in Yosemite. 

Click on this link and step back in time as a colleague talks about Grinnell's archival obsession in the wilds of California: http://mvz.berkeley.edu/sounds/Russell_on_Grinnell.au

Believe it or not, you can even read Grinnell's hand-written Yosemite journals on line.