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With Yosemite National Park closed due to coronavirus, wildlife are reclaiming one of America's natural treasures. The Los Angeles Times paid a visit to the park, whose only residents are a handful of essential park service employees and concessionaires, plus homeowners who have houses inside the park boundaries.
Dane Peterson, an employee at the Ahwahnee Hotel, told the Times “the bear population has quadrupled” since Yosemite closed on March 20. (The park clarified on Twitter that while the population itself is stable, the bears are more visible since the closure.) A reporter and photographer saw bobcats and coyotes making their way along park roads and trails.
The closure has created a time capsule of sorts, temporarily returning Yosemite to how it would have appeared to early visitors in the 19th century. Char Miller, a historian at Pomona College, said, “One thing we can know for sure is that Yosemite is enduring. It was here before us, and will remain after we leave.”
$18 million fine in home explosion
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved a record $18.25 million fine against a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum on Monday for its role in a home explosion that killed two people in 2017. The fine was levied against Kerr-McGee, which was at the time part of Anadarko Petroleum. Occidental bought Anadarko last year. The fine is an order of magnitude larger than the previous record, a $1.6 million fine against Noble Energy in 2018.
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As an industry, it is critical that you are held responsible to properly maintain all and any equipment left in the ground. The bottom line, had you done your job correctly, my husband, my children’s father, and my brother would be alive today. Had the flowline been properly abandoned from the beginning, then nothing that transpired after would have led to the explosion.”
