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When they went to court, on the one side there was The Wilderness Society, National Parks Conservation Association, the National Park Service and a few more organizations. On the other was Friends of Yosemite Valley, Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth plus several dozen grassroots organizations, including Wild Wilderness. This time, the grassroots organizations won. (see appended article)
My thanks and congratulations go out to Joyce Eden, Julia Olson and those who made this courtroom victory possible. Now its up to everyone who cares about Yosemite Valley to ensure that the National Park Service does not further overdevelop the park, as it seems determined to do.
Scott
PS... You might ask: "What motivated TWS and NPCA to side with the NPS and to actively oppose those who are fighting so hard to protect Yosemite Valley?" In fact, I wish you would ask them!
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Yosemite work faces delay
Court rules on river protection plan for valley.
By Mark Grossi - The Fresno Bee
October 28, 2003
Even as work begins this month on a $140 million face-lift of Yosemite
Valley, a federal court ruling Monday over the Merced River threatens
to stall the long-debated work.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Yosemite National Park
officials must figure out how many people use the river, which runs
through Yosemite Valley.
The ruling overturns part of a U.S. District Court decision made last
year in an environmental lawsuit against the park's river protection
plan.
Park officials haven't yet completed a study detailing the amount of
public use of the river. The appeals court held that Yosemite could not
fulfill protection laws without knowing such "carrying capacity" for
public use.
Because the river flows through the valley, the wait for these figures
in the river plan could be a reason to delay projects in the much
larger Yosemite Valley Plan, a long-range blueprint containing the $140
million in projects.
Environmental critics, who call the valley plan a development scheme,
said the carrying capacity information in the river plan must be used
in planning the valley projects. Carrying capacity will help officials
protect the river bank from overuse.
"Development plans currently on the table, such as those for the
Yosemite Lodge area and the Curry Village area, will need to be put on
hold and revisited," said lawyer Julia Olson, representing
environmentalists in the lawsuit.
Yosemite officials Monday said they were uncertain how the ruling will
affect the valley projects. They said they needed to study the ruling.
The carrying capacity ruling now will return to the Fresno court of
Judge Anthony W. Ishii, who last year issued a 78-page opinion
generally supportive of the National Park Service's river protection
plan. Ishii is supposed to implement the appeals court ruling.
Two environmental groups, Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for
Environmentally Responsible Growth, sued the Park Service over the plan
three years ago. The groups were pleased with the decision.
"We hope Park Service managers as well as employees will now take heart
and feel empowered to ensure real protection of Yosemite," said Joyce
Eden of Friends of Yosemite Valley.
The $140 million worth of valley projects represent only one-third of
the valley plan, which will require decades to complete. The projects
include extensive repairs and realigning of antiquated water, sewage
and electricity lines between Curry Village and Yosemite Lodge.
Yosemite officials said funding and many contracts already are in
place. Work around Curry Village has begun, so no one is certain
whether the ruling will stop the work.
"We need to read the ruling and understand it before we know what will
happen," said spokeswoman Deb Schweizer. "We promised in 2000 to have a
study in place within five years on carrying capacity. We are working
on it."
Perhaps Yosemite will have to speed up the study, said Jay Watson of
the Wilderness Society, which sided with the federal government in the
lawsuit. He pointed out that the ruling Monday also supported much of
the lower court's ruling on the river plan.
"The Merced River Plan still stands," said Watson. "There has to be some fine-tuning, but I'm pleased."
Several environmentalist groups, such as the Wilderness Society and the
National Parks Conservation Association, supported the Park Service on
the river and valley plan issues. But Earth Island Institute, the
Sierra Club and several dozen other environmental organizations
supported the lawsuit.
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- Land management 
