New Boss Prepares for Park Politics

Yosemite Valley Plan at the heart of many issues facing Tollefson.

by Michael Doyle
Fresno Bee - December 8, 2002

It's homework time for Yosemite National Park's next boss, Michael Tollefson.

"I've got a foot-high stack of things to read over the next few weeks," Tollefson said recently.

Heavy documents dominate as Tollefson prepares to become Yosemite's superintendent Jan. 5. There's the park's five-volume Yosemite Valley Plan, jammed with details and legal landmines. And he has considerable technical background to absorb, on flood recovery and concession operations.

Even Tollefson's free time centers on his upcoming job. Asked about his recent pleasure reading, he cited Alfred Runte's book "Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness."

Written with a distinctly environmentalist perspective, Runte's 1990 book details the kind of enduring challenges Tollefson will soon confront. Public use vs. preservation. Political micromanaging. Power conflicts of the highest order.

"Mike Tollefson is a good man," Runte said in an interview. "But he's going to have to be able to stand up to these pressures."

Runte characterized Tollefson as one who's "considered by the preservation community to be one of the strongest of park superintendents." At the same time, Runte asserted that individual park superintendents like Tollefson have lost power in recent years compared to the influence wielded by political appointees.

Tollefson has earned confidence from those on the flip side of environmental issues. Since ending a five-year tenure as superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and moving to Great Smoky Mountains in October 2000, he's kept in regular touch with the office of Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa.

"People have nothing but positive things to say about him," said John McCamman, Radanovich's chief of staff.

Radanovich is chairman of the House national parks, recreation and public land subcommittee, and his newly redrawn district includes all of Yosemite. He differs with environmentalists over, among other policies, how the Yosemite Valley Plan will be put into practice.

The long-term plan, for instance, calls for reducing the number of Yosemite Valley parking spaces to 550 instead of 1,800. Radanovich would like to see about 1,200 parking spaces. Similarly, the congressman wants more than the allotted 500 camping spaces.

Some Madera County officials, fearful about lost tourism opportunities, have talked of scrapping the Yosemite Valley Plan altogether. Twenty years in the making, the plan probably won't simply disappear. The trick for Tollefson -- and possibly the key to his longevity in the job -- will be balancing such strongly felt views with those of the equally vehement environmental community.

The Yosemite Valley Plan will take years to put into play, at an estimated cost of $441 million. Tollefson will have some of the money in hand when he starts work next year, but in time he'll have to help convince Congress to deliver more.

With all of those challenges, it's little wonder that besides tackling his foot-high stack of reading, Tollefson also has sought advice from outgoing Yosemite Superintendent David Mihalic. Mihalic is retiring from the Park Service rather than accept a job-swap transfer to Great Smoky Mountains.

"The thing we've talked about the most is the Valley Plan," Tollefson said, adding that personnel decisions also have been a recurring topic.

Tollefson said he doesn't expect to be bringing any of his Great Smoky Mountains staff with him when he comes to Yosemite, though one of the Great Smoky administrators is now on temporary duty at the California park.