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By Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee - May 29, 1998
Rock climbers are suing Yosemite National Park, alleging that new park buildings
will increase noise and crowding in a mountaineering mecca known throughout
the world.
The federal suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is aimed at delaying new.
Yosemite Lodge buildings and employee dormitories in Yosemite Valley. The buildings are replacements for facilities damaged in the flood of 1997.
The suit lists 30 plaintiffs, including Friends of Yosemite Valley and the American Alpine Club, a national organization. (A copy of the lawsuit can be viewed at http://www.camp4yosemite.com.)
Climbers say the building locations - out of the Merced River floodplain - will bring too many people into the Camp 4 or Sunnyside Campground area. Climbers say they will fight to preserve the tranquillity of the campground and nearby low-level Swan Slab cliffs.
"After the flood, the park didn't take a look at the natural values of Camp 4 before deciding to build next to this place," Greg Adair, one of the climbers who filed the suit, said Thursday. "This has brought the climbing community together in opposition.
Yosemite National Park officials responded that the lodge plan had been studied extensively twice for environmental problems. The plan was analyzed briefly last year after the record flood destroyed some of the lodge's units.
Officials decided to remove 173 units from the flooded area and replace them with 134 rooms outside the floodplain - which moves them closer to Sunnyside. Construction was supposed to begin sometime this summer.
The climbers, who call themselves Friends of Yosemite Valley, met with officials many times about the changes after the flood. As a result, officials decided to delay the new employee housing or dormitories, but the lodge units were supposed to go as planned.
"There is no significant altering of Sunnyside in the project as it stands," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said. "We have listened to the climbers. But we have to consider an experience for everybody, not just climbers.
Climbers claim the Yosemite Valley experience is unmatched anywhere in the world. Scores of international visitors each year challenge some of the world's largest exposed granite monoliths, such as El Capitan.
But the climbers' suit seems shortsighted, said Jay Watson, California-Nevada regional director of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group. The lodge plan strikes a good balance for all interests without building in the floodplain, he said.
Also, the park already has removed the gas station next to the campground and eventually would turn the nearby roadway into a pedestrian walkway, he said, adding that the noise and crowding would be reduced, not increased.
The Yosemite Restoration Trust, a park watchdog group, doesn't agree with the Wilderness Society. Trust president Janet Cobb said she thought the lodge plan appeared to take up more valley land than before, a charge the park denies.
She said she thinks the climbers' lawsuit has merit. Cobb said she generally opposes the new lodge construction because more hotel room already have been built in gateway communities such as Oakhurst.
"We support private business in the gateway communities," Cobb said. "We don't want to see a trampled Yosemite."
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