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Sierra Club contends the project infringes on woodland area.
By Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee - August 21, 1998
The Sierra Club filed suit Thursday against a Yosemite National Park lodge
plan, claiming it will move buildings into a sensitive woodland area and a
road into the Merced River flood plain.
It is the second lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against
the plan to rebuild and redesign Yosemite Lodge, which was damaged in extensive
Merced River flooding last year.
A group of rock climbers sued Yosemite over the plan in May, alleging new
buildings would encroach on an internationally known climber campground and
nearby low-level climbing cliffs.
"Our issues are a little different from the climbers'," said Sierra Club member
John Rasmussen of Squaw Valley. "We object to building a road in the flood
plain of the Merced River."
The Sierra Club also opposes construction of buildings in a woodland area
north of the current lodge, said lawyer Joe Becher of the Earthjustice Legal
Defense Fund, representing the environmental group.
Becher said the park did not follow federal laws in assessing the environmental
impact on the area.
"This needed much more environmental work," he said. "There are violations
of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the National Environmental Policy Act."
Yosemite officials said a series of environmental studies has been completed
on the lodge plan, including an assessment last year.
They said it is now Yosemite policy to move buildings away from the Merced
River flood plain.
Officials believe it is better to save the buildings than the roads and parking
lots.
They also said some people mistakenly believe pristine areas are being developed.
Park officials removed the lodge planning from the larger Valley Implementation
Plan last year.
The Sierra Club lawsuit says the project should have remained part of the
larger valley plan. Becher said he will ask the court to stop the project
until the legal issues can be decided.
Federal attorneys for Yosemite agreed to stop all work on the project while
the injunction is argued.
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