Most Active Stories
Valley Public Radio Staff
Tue April 2, 2013
The Merced River Plan and the Future of Yosemite National Park
Beneath the shadows of Half Dome and El Capitan, in the heart of
Most Active Stories
Valley Public Radio Staff
Tue April 2, 2013
The Merced River Plan and the Future of Yosemite National Park
Beneath the shadows of Half Dome and El Capitan, in the heart of Yosemite Valley, lies the Merced River. It’s been known as a Wild and Scenic River since 1987. It’s a federal designation that aims to preserve river ecosystems and values. But after a major flood damaged much of the park’s infrastructure in 1997, environmental groups and park management clashed over plans for how best to restore the park in compliance with the law. Now, after 15 years marked by lawsuits and studies, a new management plan for the Merced River has been released. The controversial proposal, known as the Merced River Plan, would not only guide the restoration efforts for decades to come, but would also result in the removal of a number of features that are popular with tourists.
Valley Public Radio reporter Rebecca Plevin spoke with Kathleen Morse, chief of planning for Yosemite, about the future of the park.
Question: What’s the big picture goal for the plan?
Answer: Really, there are two objectives we’re trying to accomplish under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
One is to protect the resources and the river values, which include the free-flowing condition of the river and the water quality, and a number of other values that we’ve identified as being outstandingly remarkable under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Those include the large meadow systems, riparian areas, the scenic quality of the park, and some of the cultural and historic resources. So that’s the fundamental underlying foundation for the plan. The second objective is to provide access, to provide recreation and resource uses in the river corridor, as long as they’re consistent with protecting the river values.
Question: What sorts of changes will visitors notice?
Answer: Alternative 5 will really totally renovate the visitor experience. The main problem we have today is traffic congestion and crowding. And it’s not necessarily the number of cars, the number of people that are in the valley - it’s our transportation system. It’s got a number of flaws in it and things that are causing gridlock and problems in peak periods. So we’re addressing those issues through the preferred alternative with some transportation re-routes, and some changes in the way our parking is laid out. One particular thing is that pedestrian underpass at Yosemite Lodge and Yosemite Falls intersection.
The other thing that people will notice is the visitor experience will be enhanced. We’re going to look at a lot of the areas where we have localized impacts to resources. So, we have El Capitan meadow, where people go out to watch the climbers. We’ve got some social trailing going on there, some fragmentation of the meadow, and we want to address that with a system of boardwalks and viewing platforms that will allow the meadow to recover and still allow people to see the climbers.
Another area of impact is along the river, the riverbank riparian areas between Clark and Sentinel bridges. We’ve gotten a lot of riverbank erosion and what we want to do is restore those areas with new vegetation, with redirecting use, so that will be a more healthy ecosystem and a more visually appealing part of the riverbank.
Q: In some other plans, there have been ideas about restricting car use, or using more buses, but it sounds like that is not in these plans, right?
A: The idea of mandating mass transit was explored in previous plans. The thing that you run into when you try to do that is, unlike a place like Zion, which has one entry and one exit, the park, and especially east Yosemite Valley, has many ways to get into that particular location, so you can’t have an in-and-out system because people are coming from all these different directions, and in many cases they are having a through-park experience - they are coming in one entry and going out another.