Yosemite Proposal

In response to the editorial “Yosemite: Jewel About to Lose Its Crown?” ( Dec. 22):

Yosemite is a park at risk. This is a historic opportunity for Californians to voice their opinions on the path of restoration or development for its future. The National Park Service has issued the Concessions Service Plan that is intended to be the blueprint used to develop the next contract for the park concessionaire. Part of this proposal was developed based on a survey of 470 visitors to the park in the summer of 1990. The park service has decided to construct hotel-type rooms while eliminating a large percentage of the affordable tent cabins.

In 1980 the National Park Service adopted the Yosemite Management Plan that was developed over a two-year period after receiving 63,000 responses to a five-page questionnaire and a series of 48 public meetings. The general management plan had universal support aimed at the goal of reducing congestion and controlling development in the valley.

Subsequent National Park Service administrations have attempted to gut and ignore this document and are intending to develop a new contract based on the 1990 preliminary survey of a selected group of visitors.

Anyone interested in the health of Yosemite should attend the National Park Service meeting at Davidson Conference Center at USC on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. If the park is to be protected, this is the time to act.

DAVID CONVERSE, Vice Chair, Sierra Club’s Yosemite Task Force, Irvine