WHEN Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant in 1864, he could not have foreseen that the gesture would spark an environmental renaissance across America, resulting in 59 stunning National Parks today.

IT’S been a bad year for wild fires in California and the one that caught the attention of the world media last week was the ‘Rim Fire’ which spread into Yosemite National Park.

Officials said yesterday a massive wildfire burning near Yosemite National Park grew overnight, but they were still making progress in containing it.

A wildfire raging on the edge of the Yosemite National Park threatened both one of America’s premier sites of natural beauty and a reservoir that supplies San Francisco.

Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to protect mountain communities in the path of a fire raging north of Yosemite National Park.