Clock Ticking in Yosemite A new superintendent must get solid plans in place for park's future. The Fresno Bee - October 10, 1999 Yosemite National Park's new superintendent, David Mihalic, will arrive on the job with a clear agenda and a firm timetable. He will be asked to finish the process of devising plans for the park's future, and he has a mandate to do it in just about a year. That's good. Mihalic replaces Stanley Albright, and will begin work in the new job later this month. He comes with directions from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to get the planning done, beginning with a study of the Merced River ordered by the courts. The river is protected under federal laws, but the park service neglected to form a plan for management of that resource. That has delayed work on plans for the park itself, which has in turn created all manner of unwelcome consequences. Funding and politics have played a role in the delays. It could be a political urgency that now moves the process along: Babbitt wants the plans in place before he and the rest of the Clinton administration leave office in January 2001. Yosemite has problems, most of which have to do with its popularity. The beauty and history of the park draw visitors by the millions each year; that creates wear and tear even in a cathedral of granite. Park Service resources are at best badly stretched; in the view of many, they are woefully inadequate. Automobiles are part of the equation. The park service has made it clear that it wishes to reduce the number of cars moving in and out of Yosemite Valley. That's one reason the park service became involved with the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation Strategy, a three-county experiment to see if some of those visitors can be moved out of cars and into buses. Babbitt created a minor flap last week when he appeared to pour cold water on the YARTS project; his staff later took pains to clarify his remarks and reassert his support for the plan. But even that minor tempest is evidence of he need for the park service to get its Yosemite act together. Yosemite is a grand treasure, the jewel of American public places. Balancing the need for environmental soundness against the need to keep the park open to all is a tough act, even with a good plan in hand. Without such a plan, the task may be impossible. We welcome the new superintendent to the park and to that planning task, and we wish him well.