Yosemite Bus Plan Still on Track Babbitt officials say negative remark was misunderstood. By Mark Grossi The Fresno Bee - October 9, 1999 Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt shocked Yosemite National Park observers this week when he announced he has abandoned a project that would encourage visitors to leave their cars in gateway towns and catch buses into the park. But Babbitt officials on Friday said the statement was misunderstood, much to the relief of the three counties working on the busing program, called the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation Strategy, or YARTS. "The National Park Service is still 100% behind YARTS," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Friday. "The secretary was talking about how the park's valley plans have been separated from the YARTS process." The Park Service last year decided the YARTS busing project and the valley planning should progress independent of each other. Communities outside the park took the lead for YARTS, and the Park Service backed out of the leadership role. Babbitt, in his comments this week, was saying the Park Service couldn't make the plan work. That's why the Park Service "abandoned" the effort in its valley plans, Babbitt officials said. Outside the park, Merced, Mariposa and Mono counties continued planning the YARTS project. Madera and Tuolumne counties dropped out over differences of opinion with the management board. The Park Service, however, is still represented on the YARTS management board and is still considered a "partner" in the process. The Park Service next month is expected to chip in $300,000 to YARTS, which is scheduled to begin a pilot busing project next summer. Jesse Brown, project manager for YARTS, said the Park Service has assured him the contribution is still planned. "We were scrambling all over the place for a while, trying to get a clarification of what we read this week," Brown said. "I think it was just a misunderstanding." Yosemite plans a priority But there was no misunderstanding Babbitt's marching orders for Yosemite's new superintendent, David Mihalic, named Thursday to replace Stanley Albright. Babbitt wants the valley plans to move forward in the next year. Money and political problems have bogged down Yosemite's plans for almost 20 years. Mihalic, currently superintendent of the 1.4 million-acre Glacier National Park in Montana, will begin his task Oct. 25, officials said. The valley plans will cover housing, transportation and restoration of natural resources, among other issues. Officials want to decrease the number of cars in Yosemite Valley, the 7-mile-long by 1-mile-wide area where many people drive to see soaring waterfalls and cliffs in summer. Traffic must be reduced A fully developed YARTS project might remove many cars from the valley, but the project is not expected to make a big impact at first. Babbitt mentioned Badger Pass Ski Area parking in the park as a place where people could leave their cars and catch a shuttle bus into Yosemite Valley. But using the Badger parking area would only work for the Highway 41 corridor where visitors enter from the south gate. "It's just a possibility being considered as part of our planning," Gediman said. "Crane Flat would be another possibility. But none of this has been decided." Final decisions are delayed until the Park Service completes a court-ordered study of the Merced River. Officials are hoping to finish the study next year.