Groups join Park Service in court fight over Yosemite

Seven conservation and recreation groups are throwing their support behind the National Park Service in its courtroom battle with environmentalists over the future of Yosemite Valley and the river that runs through it.

The coalition announced Thursday that it would file a “friend of the court” brief today in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the park is fighting Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for the Environment and Responsible Government over plans for the valley.

The groups filing the brief contend that a lower federal court erred by halting numerous revitalization projects that are part of a Park Service plan to alter the development footprint in the granite valley.

The park’s plans include rebuilding roads to improve traffic circulation, renovating Yosemite Lodge and replacing aging sewer mains.

It also includes numerous other construction projects that are intended to revitalize the heavily visited valley.

The organizations backing the Park Service are the Yosemite Fund, Friends of the River, the American Alpine Club, Access Fund, National Parks Conservation Assn., California Trout Inc. and the Wilderness Society.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii of Fresno ruled that the park’s ambitious plans violated the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and other federal environmental rules.

Ishii also criticized Yosemite officials for not going far enough in conducting a user-capacity study, which ultimately could cap the number of daily visitors to the mile-wide valley.

Park officials have argued that visitor capacity limits would prove impractical and unfair, virtually locking out some visitors.

The two environmental groups that are fighting the Park Service plans, however, say that they are battling the commercialization and urbanization of Yosemite Valley.

They contend that the Park Service plans to bus day-use visitors into the valley and promote urban-style development that would spark a socioeconomic shift, with a larger percentage of high-end accommodations and fewer campsites and rooms that are affordable.

eric.bailey@latimes.com