A Yosemite-Size Arrogance

Yosemite Valley is in the congressional district of Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa). Radanovich wields political clout as chairman of the House’s national parks subcommittee. That does not add up to making Yosemite National Park a personal playground for him or his business pals.

In a stroke of arrogance, Radanovich has introduced a bill, HR 2715, that would undo much of the planning by National Park Service experts over the last 25 years to reduce the impact of auto traffic and to return the valley to a more natural state for greater public enjoyment. With his influence on park matters, Radanovich may be able to move this bad legislation through the House. But California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer should make it clear now that such a measure would never emerge from the Senate.

The Park Service began a long and very public planning process in the early 1980s to reduce human impact in the 1-by-7-mile-long valley with its famed waterfalls and to return it to a more natural state. Unnecessary buildings were to be relocated outside the valley. Shuttle buses eventually would bring day visitors to the valley, reducing the choking traffic that spoils the natural experience on weekends and in summer. These were controversial matters, and the Park Service moved slowly, gathering public comment on the plans.

In 1997, the process received a boost when flooding wiped out the Upper and Lower River campgrounds along the Merced River. One key decision was to not replace the two campgrounds and to allow the river bank to return to its natural state of meadow and black oak woodland for all visitors to enjoy.

The final plan adopted in 2000 provided for 500 campsites with parking in the valley and 550 parking spots in a centralized lot. Radanovich’s bill would gut the plan by requiring the reconstruction of the campgrounds, providing parking space for 1,200 vehicles and banning a plan to bus day visitors to the valley, a hugely successful tactic at Zion National Park. Regional businesses claim that the bus plan would discourage Yosemite’s visitors and harm revenues. In fact, just the opposite is likely. Those who might otherwise camp in the valley would be staying in the region’s motels and lodges and eating in its restaurants.

Radanovich had the nerve to declare that his bill would “help preserve the character of Yosemite.” Preserve traffic jams with angry motorists, constantly circling in search of a parking spot as they would in a shopping mall, spewing a pall of smog over the valley? Preserve long stretches of dusty, smoky, barren campgrounds along one of the most sublime rivers to be found anywhere?

No thanks. Yosemite Valley already has a better plan, one worthy of its famed rocks and dashing waterfalls. Let’s stick with it.