Yosemite National Park
General Management Plan
& Flood Recovery Update

Volume 13, January 1999

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything in the universe."
     John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1869
 

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Laced through all of these priorities, of course, is our commitment to protect the safety and park visitors and employees.  The GMP recognized this and, to the greatest degree possible, called for removal of all structures from the floodplain and rockfall zones.  This map below identifies these areas and demonstrates how they dominate a huge portion of Valley land.

The "Devil" is in the Details
Establishing criteria is relatively easy.  Balancing the thorny complexities of real decisions and their real-life implications is an entirely different matter.  We offer the following example to illustrate:

The NPS knows that it is important to be able to spend the night in the Valley.  We know too that a range of accomodations are needed, including campsites which some visitors return to and cherish year after year.  But providing the number of campsites called for in the GMP raises some conflicting concerns.  Is it more important to allow camping along the river 

 or to restore environmentally significant riparian zones and natural flooding patters that such campsites disrupt?  Should we place or leave campsites in dangerous rockfall zones in order to meet the GMP's recommended numbers?  What is more important:  to maximize the number of available campsites or to provide a range of density options so that those who want relative solitude can have it, and those who want a camping community can have that?

This is just one of the many such decisions NPS planners must confront.  Because the land available for development in the Valley is severely limited there must also be tradeoffs between the numbers of campsites, lodging facilities, employee housing, other visitor services and NPS operations facilities we are able to build.  Potentially, the process can be rancorous and polarizing.  But an informed, fully engaged public can help see to it that instead, decisions are made in an atmosphere of consensus and cooperation

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Yosemite National Park Planning Page
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http://www.nps.gov/archive/yose/planning/vol13/7.htm
File created/updated Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 10:12:59 Eastern Standard Time
Yosemite National Park Planning Team