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Public Scoping open now through
August 29, 2009
Click here to view the Federal Register Notice
Click here for the 2009 Public Scoping Meeting schedule.
Yosemite National Park is reopening public scoping for planning and environmental impact analysis for a new Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (NMRP/EIS).
Public scoping comments will be accepted through August 29, 2009. Scoping comments submitted when the National Park Service (NPS) first initiated public scoping on March 28, 2007 are still valid and do not need to be resubmitted.
The NPS completed the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan (MRP) in August 2000. Soon after, two lawsuits were filed and several years of litigation ensued. A supplemental EIS was prepared in 2005. Subsequent court proceedings culminated in a 2006 U.S. District Court decision that invalidated the park’s MRP and ordered the NPS to prepare a new comprehensive management plan. The NPS appealed the U.S. District Court’s decision that the 2005 MRP was invalid. However, on March 27, 2008 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion affirming the judgment of the District Court and expanding the scope of what the NPS had previously understood must be included in a legally valid Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan.
Consequently, the NPS is reopening public scoping for the MRP to provide additional opportunity for public involvement in developing a new plan. The purpose of reopening scoping is to receive any new public comments about issues and concerns that should be addressed in the new MRP.
Written comments should be addressed to the Superintendent, Attn: Merced River Plan, Yosemite National Park, P.O. Box 577, Yosemite National Park, CA 95389, or faxed to (209) 379-1294.
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