At the age of seven, I was bravely following my cousin walking across the waist-high Merced River when I stepped into a deep spot, hit a current, and was swept downstream a few hundred yards. My parents panicked. I didn't. The Merced River is cold, but it's slow through Yosemite Valley.
The Merced River is now the tool being used to manage Yosemite's biggest threat, the hordes of people in Yosemite Valley. Twelve years after a flood wiped out campgrounds and rerouted the river, it's back to the drawing board to draft a plan for the river -- and thus Yosemite Valley.
Yellowstone has snowmobiles for its political hot potato; Yosemite has something far more basic, people. How many people should be allowed to enjoy the Merced River's vicinity, also known as the incomparable Yosemite Valley?
It's the quintessential national park fight over access: how many people is too many people? You can vote your opinion, if you haven't already. Details below the fold.
The Merced River thunders down from Yosemite's high country, down Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, and then undergoes a drastic personality transplant. Flat, tranquil Yosemite Valley mellows water. The river meanders lazily through the flat Valley floor in big oxbow curves before picking up speed again as it exits the Valley. You can rent an inflatable boat in Curry Village to spend four hours drifting four slow miles, and they will be the among the best four hours of your life, as dragonflies dart across the river's surface, tadpoles are just out of arm's reach, sandbanks call for picnics, currents send you here and eddies send you there, and the spectacle of Yosemite Falls changes around every riverbend.
The Merced River was declared a Wild & Scenic River in 1987, which meant that governmental agencies with jurisdiction over it had to declare plans for preserving its unique values. The National Park Service moved slowly on its plan 1.0 until January 1997, when Mother Nature trumped the best laid (or not) plans of mice and men. Heavy high country snowmelt fattened the lazy river into a torrent. The river crested up to ten feet higher than its usual banks, uprooting trees, washing away picnic tables and destroying bear lockers, and washing out roads.
Half of the Valley's 900 campsites were destroyed. The National Park Service elected to close Upper and Lower River campgrounds and a portion of Lower Pines campground while it rethought the Wild & Scenic River plan.
Once the plan 2.0 was drafted in 2000, Friends of Yosemite Valley and others filed lawsuits, claiming that the plan permitted too much development too close to the river. If you follow Yosemite news, you've probably seen snippets of various plans and rulings: all construction work is halted! number of visitors to be capped! ice skating rink to be removed! Cheap campgrounds removed, expensive lodging rebuilt! The NPS appealed, but was turned down in 2008 by the Ninth Circuit federal appellate court in a case known as Yosemite III (the title hints at how Yosemite breeds litigation). The courts ordered the NPS to throw out old plans and produce a brand new plan, version 3.0. And that's where you and I come in.
The NPS goes back to the drawing board for the Merced River plan now, and wants to hear from the public. Action Details! You can mail a comment to Superintendent, Attn: Merced River Plan, Yosemite National Park, P.O. Box 577, Yosemite National Park, CA 95389, or fax it to (209) 379-1294. Apparently an email option isn't available. If you've already submitted a comment, no need to do so again.
Public hearings will be held on the following dates & locations (all meetings from 4 PM to 8 PM):
Monday July 13, Fresno, REI 7810 N. Blackstone Ave. Fresno, CA 93720
Thursday July 16, Oakhurst, Community Center 39800 Road 425 B, Oakhurst, CA 93644
Wednesday July 22, Mariposa, Government Center 5100 Bullion St., Mariposa, CA 95338 (2nd Floor)
Tuesday July 28, Mono Basin Visitor Center, Highway 395, Lee Vining, CA 93541
Wednesday July 29, Yosemite Valley East Auditorium – Open House Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
Thursday July 30, Groveland Community Hall Groveland, CA 95321
Monday August 3, Pasadena Senior Center, 85 East Holy Street, Pasadena, CA 91103
Thursday August 13, Foster City Recreation Wind Room – 2nd flr above the library Foster City Community Center 100 E. Hillsdale Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404
Tuesday August 18, Sacramento, Southside Clubhouse 2051 6th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Bold typeface indicates hearings in/near Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
Officially, these hearings are to draft a new EIS, but unofficially, it's a question of crowd control. How many people can fit alongside the banks of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley at the same time? It's the existential question -- balancing public access and environmental protection -- that's plagued every national park.
Almost everyone agrees that Yosemite Valley is far too crowded in the summer months, but no one agrees on a solution. The group that I'll loosely call "pro-development" argues that the people can't be kept away, so Yosemite needs to accommodate them, but with environmentally sensitive buildings away from the river. Some people accuse them of selling out to the concessionaires -- for example, replacing picnic tables near the river with expanded restaurant seating further away puts profits over people -- but others applaud environmental sensitivity -- the picnic tables shouldn't be that close to the river in the first place. The group that I'll label "pro-limited-access" advocates requiring everyone to leave cars at El Portal and ride shuttle buses into the park; however, this group doesn't neatly align with the usual pro-environmental groups, because of smog and related concerns. The NPS wants the right to turn cars away at the Valley entrance, which many see as just plain un-American. There's a "pro-marketing" group advocating soft power: the NPS should just market other parts of the park, such as Wawona, that maybe aren't as environmentally fragile.
For what it's worth, my answer is: I don't know how best to control crowds in the Valley in summer, but I won't be part of them, which I suppose puts me in the marketing group. I will visit Yosemite Valley in winter to ice skate under the shadow of Half Dome, take mystical dawn walks through dazzling snow, and admire the rainbow snowcone that builds up at the base of Upper Yosemite Falls. (photo credit: me!)
Yosemite Valley is 2% of the park's land area but attracts 98% of the visitors. Hundreds of miles of trails take you away from the Valley and into the wild. The prettiest waterfall in Yosemite isn't even in Yosemite Valley. My favorite alpine lake is six trail miles away from Glacier Point. In the long run, undamming Hetch Hetchy Valley, once a place rivaling Yosemite Valley in scenic awesomeness, could give visitors another reason to get outside the Valley. That's my point of view -- but what's yours?
Linky goodness: Fitness Monday: running for my life will inspire you, exhaust you, or both. Between webranding's photo diary of the Smoky Mountains National Park and it really is that important's Keep an eye out for bear, last Eco-Week's diaries took us to the best of the East Coast parks.
And for a truly intriguing idea that will assuredly get its own diary in the next few weeks, how do you feel about creating the largest national park east of the Mississippi in the Moosehead-Katahdin region of Maine? Restore the North Woods (www dot restore dot org) and others are circulating a Facebook petition to create a Maine Woods National Park & Preserve.