In Yosemite, our efforts continue to reign in a well-funded new generation of commercial development, and to win a long-overdue legal plan to protect the Merced Wild and Scenic River. We have been focused on protecting the Merced while trying to get at what is really wrong here - commercialism and exploitation of a fragile and limited place. Those following our work know that we have labored in the shadow of a well-funded, oncoming development push for nearly ten years. Some damaging projects have been allowed, and many others were halted by our legal efforts.
On November 28th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a US Government appeal from our 2006 court victory for the Merced. We are thankful for the commitment of our amazing and visionary attorneys Sharon Duggan and Julia Olson. The district court in 2006 held that the Park Service--for the second time--had failed to prepare a legal plan to protect the Merced. The court found that the Park did not prepare a new plan as ordered (that is, they relied on the prior illegal plan as the basis for the new one); they had not prepared a legal range of alternatives; they did not describe an actual limit on use of the Merced River corridor.
This last issue, the "capacity issue", has brought our legal battle to the national spotlight, with interviews on NPR and CNN this year. This issue is now central to press coverage of the appeal. The Park Service during the Bush years has come to strongly favor a nonquantitative, socially focused monitoring system for use in natural areas. It is called "VERP." VERP is very different than earlier, quantitative "capacity" systems used successfully, for example, in designated wilderness or Wild and Scenic Rivers. Ironically, we often note how well Yosemite's wilderness capacity system is working year after year (except for serious horse issues!) By contrast, we have argued that VERP would allow ever-increasing use and degradation, would largely ignore changing natural systems, and would rely on the good will (or lack of it) among local managers to even implement. It would also need serious funding and good will from Washington. We think that in Yosemite, VERP avoids the legal responsibility to ever come to grips with ever-increasing use of the Merced corridor, or to deal with increasing damage, and the incessant push for new infrastructure to support more visitors. As we have often said, we think blatant commercialism in Yosemite may finally be at risk if the Merced is ever truly protected as the law requires.
How the 9th speaks on this will shape the "capacity issue" for Wild and Scenic Rivers across the U.S. It will also likely shape National Park General Management Plans for the next generation. In Yosemite, we hope for the abandonment of a wide variety of construction projects which would further damage the river environment.
Surprisingly, the Park Service in Washington recently issued a system-wide report card for its handling of its Wild and Scenic Rivers. It is very self-critical about how it prepares river management plans, saying basically they do not yet know how to do it. Litigation losses on the Merced were cited as a primary reason for this conclusion.
And what of the ground we live with? Well, we could report our losses. There is construction ongoing in the Yosemite Valley, and more scheduled this winter. Meadows and side-flows are torn up with tractors, though not as bad as the last couple of years. Beautiful trees are being cut. Injunctions are imperfect, and Yosemite remains a sort of slow war zone of construction these years, especially in winter. At this writing, the last willows are spreading gold leaves into the dark places along the river banks. A tractor is grinding close along dogwoods. And the river is rising.
For more information: www.yosemitevalley.org
More Articles...
TOC for Forest & River News, Winter 2007