Sticking to General Plan Will Serve, Protect Yosemite

by Robert O. Binnewies, Community Columnist
The Fresno Bee - February, 19, 2002

In 1980, I was privileged to approve and sign the general management plan for Yosemite National Park. The management plan represented the largest single instance of public input into a planning question in the history of the National Park Service, or of any other federal agency for that matter.

More than 65,000 people completed a lengthy questionnaire about management options for the great park, and thousands of others participated in public hearings and responded to opinion polls throughout California and the nation. This impressive display of citizen involvement in the stewardship of Yosemite resulted in an overwhelming consensus: in the contest between use and preservation, Mother Nature should win.

Yosemite is a 750,000-acre park, slightly larger than Rhode Island. Most of this vast High Sierra province is designated as wilderness and managed accordingly. But the sanctum sanctorum of the park is the exquisite glacier-sculpted valley that only is about seven miles long and a mile wide. Fabulous Yosemite Valley gives the park its international fame and attracts millions of visitors each year.

Focal Point

Most of the attention in the management plan is focused on the valley because it is here that a collision has occurred between natural beauty and human-caused development. The valley has been a tourist destination since just after the California gold rush. Even then, a race to capitalize on tourism and grab portions of the valley for hotels and related facilities caused Congress in 1864 to declare Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias a park and vest stewardship in California. In 1890, California deferred to the federal government and Yosemite became the nation's third national park.

Over many years, more and more facilities have been squeezed into Yosemite Valley to accommodate visitors and make profits for the monopoly-advantaged park concessionaires. Mixed with lodging, restaurants, campgrounds, museums and parking lots are houses and dormitories for park employees, warehouses, maintenance shops, laundries, a jail and court house, and administrative offices. Many of these facilities should be reduced in scale or removed from the valley.

Recognizing past development mistakes and future promise, the message in the management plan is simple: Yosemite Valley has a capacity. An added ingredient, dramatically reaffirmed in the 1990s, is that Yosemite Valley has a flood plain. The management plan and subsequent spin-off plans recognize capacity and flood plain limits, and accordingly recommend reductions in infrastructure within the valley to better balance use with preservation.

Almost everyone is in favor of preserving Yosemite Valley, but 22 years after the management plan was signed not much progress has been made in this direction. Why? The surrounding "gateway" communities of Oakhurst, Mariposa, Fish Camp, Groveland and Lee Vining are economically dependent on tourist traffic and therefore are underwhelmed with the idea that access to Yosemite Valley should be limited, particularly in summer, the heaviest tourist season.

Added is the fact that recognition of the capacity problem has resulted in complex and confusing solutions, most prominently represented by the idea of capturing inbound tourists in costly "satellite" parking areas and hauling them into the valley in buses.

Better Plan

There is a more simple, cost-effective solution. Accepting that Yosemite Valley has a capacity, people who wish to visit on popular days should make a reservation. Reservations also should be required of day-use visitors.

People who plan ahead would be rewarded with the type of valley experience that is the stuff of dreams and good memories. Those who do not plan ahead might luckily pick up an unused reservation at the park entrance gate or could drive to alternate areas of the park. The "gateway" communities and concessionaires still would enjoy plenty of profitable business.

Too many years have passed while the debate about how best to balance use and preservation in Yosemite Valley continues, but why wait any longer? Beginning with our political leaders, the well-reasoned general management plan and related plans should be honored, and a bold step taken to reserve the valley for this and future generations. A small investment in proven reservation technology could bring great dividends to a precious place that is deserving of our best sensitivity and wisdom.

Robert O. Binnewies served as Superintendent of Yosemite National Park from 1979 to 1986.