Please read and heed the attached alert from Sierra Club Yosemite Committee

--
Harold Wood
hwood1@mediaone.net


----------
From: Joyce Eden <yojo@batnet.com>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 16:59:58 -0700

Subject: YOSEMITE Action Alert: FATE OF YOSEMITE VALLEY AT STAKE 5/26/00

SIERRA CLUB YOSEMITE ALERT 5/26/00
* Please Distribute Far and Wide


*** FATE OF YOSEMITE VALLEY AT STAKE ***


Your help is needed to stop more construction in Yosemite Valley. The
National Park Service has put out a draft Yosemite Valley Plan that does
not fulfill the restoration goals long held by the Sierra Club for the
Valley. Comments from you can make a big difference in how the final plan
is developed. (Public Comment Period is now - July 5, 2000)

Hearings on this plans are now being held around California from May 30
through June 17 (also Seattle, Denver, Chicago and Wash DC). Please write
the Park Service to tell them what you think. (address for comments listed
below) Thank you in advance for helping ensure a positive future for
Yosemite!

SIERRA CLUB GOALS FOR YOSEMITE VALLEY

Our goals for Yosemite Valley include the following:

Reduce the pollution from diesel and gasoline engines by reducing, not
increasing, the vehicles entering Yosemite and develop and complete a
traffic management system to lessen the crowding impact of the vehicles in
the Valley. Phase in a user-friendly, transit system that does not itself
create more
pollution, overcrowding or sprawling impacts

Decrease the "human footprint" in the Valley through removing unneeded
structures and facilities.

Restore habitat and natural areas throughout the Valley, especially the
Merced River corridor, to increase visitor's appreciation and to enhance
the natural qualities of the Park.

Reduce overall overnight accommodations in the Valley while maintaining
adequate affordable sites such as existing tent cabins and restoring low
impact camping (1/3 should be walk-in camping).

WHAT'S IN THE PLAN

The Yosemite Valley Plan proposes moving facilities and roads around to new
locations in Yosemite Valley. Since 1980 (under the General Management
Plan) a key conservation goal has been to reduce the imprint of
development. But in too many sensitive places development would grow
rather than decrease. New areas would be impacted by roads that would be
built or rebuilt, and new parking lots would be constructed.

Costly lodging would be built while facilities that most people can afford
would shrink (particularly at Curry Village and in the Housekeeping area).
Yosemite Lodge would grow in capacity. Campgrounds would continue to be in
short supply, with no effort to restore the 40% removed by the Park Service
since the flood. Yosemite Valley would be turned into a resort for the
well-to-do.

While the summer congestion that plagues the Valley is a problem, care is
needed not to make things worse. Large, smoky diesel busses are not the
answer. The plans call for hundreds more of these noisy, polluting busses
every summer day. And that level of traffic would trigger plans to expand
roads. It would also push planners to build ever more parking lots and to
keep expanding them.


The Sierra Club does not support any of the alternatives presented in the
Valley Plan.

* The result of the Valley Plan would be to shut out the average citizen.

* While decreasing camping and modest, low cost accommodations, the Plan
proposes increased, more costly accommodations.

* The Plan moves and sprawls impacts from one area in Yosemite to another.

* Although all of the Valley Plan's alternatives are based on parking
locations, the Plan states that the Park Service has not developed a
traffic management
system.


WHAT WE WANT:
Here are the elements that we believe do belong in a well-considered plan.
Please cover those most important to you in your comments at the hearing or
in your letter.


WE WANT A RESTORATION PLAN, NOT A CONSTRUCTION PLAN

* To keep Yosemite Valley from being overwhelmed at peak times, limits
must be established on the number of cars and buses that can enter the
Valley, on the number of parking places provided, and on the number of
accommodations for overnight visitors. The Park Service must analyze the
Valley's carrying capacity for buses as well as cars and set limits as
needed. There are already existing limits in the General Management Plan.
These must not be overridden.

* Buildings and businesses that can be located elsewhere and that are not
essential should be removed. The Park Service lists many of them in its
various alternatives.

* To protect "outstandingly remarkable values" along the Merced River (as
required under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act), no new parking lots should
be located in the River Area. Remove the "temporary" parking at Camp 6 and
restore the area to wetland. Environmentally responsible removal of
Cascades Dam not linked to road or intersection widening. Inappropriate
developments and rip rap must be removed. Bridges that constrict the flow
of the river should be replaced.


VISITORS AND ACCOMMODATIONS

* Because lodging for visitors outside the park has expanded dramatically
in recent years, there is no need to build costly accommodations within the
Valley. Since the flood, the Park Service has removed 40% of Valley
camping sites, and is not proposing to restore them. Instead it proposes to
remove the low cost, low impact tent cabins at Curry and build costly motel
rooms at the Lodge. The imprint of Yosemite Lodge should be reduced over
time, not expanded.

* As visitors come to rely on lodging outside of the park, most visitors
then will become day users. By requiring less infrastructure, they have
less impact on the park's environment than overnighters. Limits on parking
and bus numbers should keep them from overwhelming the Valley at peak times.

* Visitors at campgrounds require less infrastructure than at lodges. More
of the overnight mix should be shifted to them, with their numbers restored
to between 600-700 sites. At least one-third of them should be walk-in
campgrounds that also have less of an impact on the ground.


WE ASK FOR A VALID PLAN

These hearings come on top of another round held last winter under the Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act on planning for the portion of Merced River in
Yosemite National Park. Even before that wild river plan has been
finalized, detailed development plans for the Valley are being put
forward.By law that wild river plan is supposed to guide what happens in
Yosemite Valley. But instead development ambitions are driving the process.

A lawsuit by the Sierra Club and others resulted in a court order for the
National Park Service to complete a valid River Plan for the Merced. The
Merced River and its systems are central to Yosemite Valley. Legally and
scientifically, the River Plan must form the basis for the Valley Plan. The
current Valley Plan subverts that process.


TRANSPORTATION

The parking that is still provided in the Valley for day use cars and buses
should be concentrated at existing locations at Yosemite Village. To avoid
impacting new areas, the parking which the Park Service moved from Curry
Village (in the orchard area) into the River zone at Camp 6 (without proper
process) should be moved back to the already existing parking area at Curry
(in the orchard area). Camp Six should be restored to its natural
condition. Removal of the garage and other non-essential buildings at the
Village site can provide more room for such parking..

Roads and Traffic: Northside Drive needs to remain open. To close it would
entail the widening of Southside Drive and logging of numerous large trees
which would cause major negative impacts. Also, in the vicinity of
Yosemite Lodge, keep Northside Drive at its present alignment rather than
relocating it close to the Merced River.

Further damage to the park must not be done by widening the El Portal road
east from the junction of Highways 120/140 junction to Pohono Bridge.
Further, the Park Service should develop a plan for handling traffic that
fits within the current road system; specifically, there should be no
further road widening or new road construction in particular at the Hazel
Green area. Better signs are needed to direct traffic flow, as well as
staff to direct traffic at peak times, and more logical patterns of
traffic flow should be created.

We continue our opposition to any increase in the numbers of diesel buses
traveling into Yosemite Valley, and would welcome the advent of clean fuel,
smaller, less intrusive busses. But they, as well as cars, need to be
limited.

QUALITY OF VISITOR EXPERIENCE

Accommodating a variety of ways of experiencing the Valley while preserving
the natural values is important. We are concerned that, while many people
are content to see the Valley out of a bus window, many visitors wish to
experience the Valley in other ways. The quality of the visitor experience
should not be degraded by forcing everyone into a single mold.

PLEASE MAKE YOUR VIEWS HEARD!

You can obtain a copy of the summary of the plan for Yosemite Valley by
writing the National Park Service, or view it on the web (see below). If
you can, attend one of the hearings and offer your views in person
(oralpresentations are usually short). Most important, please write a
letter to the address below.

Thank you for helping to ensure the best possible future for Yosemite!

WRITE PUBLIC COMMENTS -- NOW - JULY 5, 2000

The public comment period is from now until July 5, 2000. Please send in
your comments asking for true protection for the Merced River and Yosemite
Valley and not an increase in development, urbanization and
commercialization.

For futher information contact George Whitmore, Yosemite Cttee Chair, at
559 229 5808 or Joyce Eden 408 973 1085 <yojo@batnet.com>

** Send your comments to:
yose_planning@nps.gov or Yosemite Valley Plan, PO Box 577, Yosemite
National Park, CA, 95389 or fax to 209-372-0456.
The Valley Plan is on the NPS web site at:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planning.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the John Muir Exhibit website:
http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/

To get off the CE-EE-JOHN-MUIR-EDUCATION list, send email to
LISTSERV@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF CE-EE-JOHN-MUIR-EDUCATION