Editing Hetch Hetchy (section)

==Flora and fauna==
[[File:The Hetch Hetchy Valley, California, by Albert Bierstadt, undated - Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA - DSC03988.JPG|thumb|right|[[Albert Bierstadt]], ''The Hetch Hetchy Valley, California'', late 19th century]]

Hetch Hetchy is home to a diverse array of plants and animals. [[Gray pine]], [[incense-cedar]], and [[California black oak]] grow in abundance. Many examples of red-barked [[manzanita]] can be seen along the Hetch Hetchy Road. Spring and early summer bring wildflowers including [[lupin]]e, [[wallflower]], [[monkey flower]], and [[buttercup]]. Seventeen species of [[bat (animal)|bats]] inhabit the Hetch Hetchy area, including the largest North American bat, the [[western mastiff bat|western mastiff]].<ref name=hetchhetchy>{{NPS|url=http://www.yosemite.com/images/Maps/hetchhetchy.pdf|title=Hetch Hetchy Valley|accessdate=2013-05-23}}</ref>

Before damming, the valley floor contained abundant stands of black oaks, [[live oak]], [[Ponderosa pine]], [[Douglas fir]], and [[Abies amabilis|silver fir]] bordering the meadows, with [[alder]], [[willow]], [[Populus|poplar]] and [[dogwood]] in the [[riparian zone]] along the Tuolumne River.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=80230|work=Patagonia Environmentalism Essay|title=Restoring Hetch Hetchy}}</ref> The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for [[mule deer]], [[American black bear|black bears]] and [[bighorn sheep]]. Due to large cataracts on the Tuolumne River upstream, Hetch Hetchy Valley may have been in the uppermost range for native [[rainbow trout]] in the river.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ecoangler.com/habitat/Poopenaut_Valley_Tuolumne_River.html|publisher=The Ecological Angler|title=Fly Fishing Poopenaut Valley Tuolumne River}}</ref>

Due to its abundant wetlands and stream pools, Hetch Hetchy was notorious among early travelers for becoming infested with mosquitoes in the summertime. Said San Francisco resident William Denman in 1918, "The first time I went into the Hetch Hetchy the mosquitoes were intolerable. They would light upon a man's blue shirt and turn it brown, and were voracious as mosquitoes would be."<ref name="Lands1918">{{cite book|author=Committee on the Public Lands|author-link=United States House Committee on Resources|title=Hetch Hetchy dam site: hearing before the Committee on the Public Lands, House of representatives. Sixty-third Congress, first session, on H.R. 6281, a bill granting to the city and county of San Francisco certain rights of way in, over, and through certain public lands, the Yosemite National Park, and Stanislaus National Forest, and certain lands in the Yosemite National Park, the Stanislaus National Forest, and the public lands in the state of California, and for other purposes. [June 25, 1913]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5psAAAAMAAJ|access-date=27 May 2013|year=1918|publisher=USGPO|page=243}}</ref>