Yosemite Fee, Renovations are Protested

Group objects to $12.5m project near famous falls.

By Matt Leedy
The Fresno Bee - June 14, 2002

A Those opposed to Yosemite National Park's $20 entrance fee and renovations to its most popular tourist site will gather Saturday at the valley visitor center to protest the changes.
Opponents of the entry charge and a project to revamp Yosemite Falls will distribute fliers beginning at 11 a.m. A rally is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Organizers fear wildlife will be destroyed and symbols of Native American culture trampled if a $12.5 million project begins this month on a 56-acre site near Yosemite Falls.

Plans call for a busy parking lot to be replaced with grass and picnic tables. Bridges and trails would be added and refurbished, making some safe for wheelchair users.

"We object to the scope of this project as being completely overblown," said Joyce Eden, co-director for Friends of the Yosemite Valley, who helped organize the protest. "This project has gotten completely out of hand. They will widen paths and harden paths."

Yosemite Falls is visited each year by between 750,000 and 1 million people.

New restrooms will be built farther from a trail that leads to the falls but closer to a Native Americans gathering spot.

Paths on the site's eastern border, which will include several new bridges, are the first targeted for change.

Joe Rhoan, a member of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, says Native American artifacts could be destroyed during construction.

"When this plan starts, there definitely will be an eradication of evidence of people who once lived there," said Rhoan, a former director-at-large for the Mariposa Indian Council. "The best thing to do is to try and do nothing at all to those areas. It's been there thousands of years. Why they think they need to change it is just ridiculous."

Park officials say they've been working closely with the Miwuk tribe since 1998 to protect areas of historical and cultural importance.

"We are doing everything that we can to protect the areas that are of historical significance to them," said park spokeswoman Deb Schweizer.

The renovation plans have been approved by Yosemite officials.

Improving trails also will decrease the likelihood that tourists wander into wooded areas, where they can damage areas treasured by Native Americans, said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman.

Entry costs were increased from $5 to $20 in 1997 as part of the Federal Fee Demonstration Program.

Before the increase, all entry fees went to the Department of the Interior.

Now $12 of every entrance fee is used at Yosemite for "visitor experience" improvements, public safety and maintenance. The Department of the Interior receives $5, and $3 is put into a fund for other parks.