Friends of Yosemite Valley

September 20, 2005

	Previously undisterbed oak woodland along the Merced River in which Yosemite National Park is bulldozing a new 27-building dormitory complex. Photo: courtesy Friends of Yosemite Valley archive

More pizza parlors, drink stands, ice cream shops, dead bears, logging of black oaks park-wide? Rocks potentially falling on "low-level" employees as they sleep in their new 27-building dormitory complex (now being built by the National Park Service in a previously intact oak woodland and active rockfall zone)? Is this a picture of preservation of a National Treasure? Since 1997, Friends of Yosemite Valley has been working to halt the advance of urbanization and the loss of precious natural and cultural values, as well as the loss of a visitor experience based on those values that will be affordable to average families.

In 1997 Yosemite National Park, without public input, closed 40% of the campsites in Yosemite Valley and they remain closed today. Yet the Park Service plans to increase the number of employees park-wide to serve more upscale lodging and concession "opportunities."

Successful litigation on the part of Friends of Yosemite Valley (FoYV) resulted in a court-mandated rewrite of an unprotective Merced River Plan and injunctions on many development projects. As we write this, the Record of Decision on that still unprotective rewritten plan is probably being signed. Chainsaws and bulldozers are poised to resume court-halted destructive development projects. FoYV and a variety of "stakeholders" have recently come together to save the well-loved environment and equitable access to Yosemite. An unprecedented joint letter was issued and we are continuing to proceed on various avenues to preserve this precious place for present and future generations, not to serve it up as a cash cow for the concessionaire or for Park administrators who support more development.

To help out, sign up for the FoYV alert list by emailing yojo@batnet.com.

For more information: 408/973-1085,
www.yosemitevalley.org



This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-209

Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation.