Fight over Nature

Park Service plans to return some Yosemite campsites to the wild, but avid campers aren't having it.

by Mark Grossi
Fresno Bee - July 6, 2003

A wall of ponderosa pines stretches majestically skyward above the cold Merced River where an occasional rafter drifts past, entranced by the vertical view.

The weathered granite of North Dome peeks above the ponderosas.

Squirrels scurry behind fragrant incense cedars that partially
obscure Yosemite Falls and foreboding rock columns on the
gray cliffs.

From this vantage point in Yosemite Valley -- riverside at
a campground washed out and closed since a 1997 flood --
it's pretty easy to see why the National Park Service and
campers are at odds about this stunning site.

The Park Service is planning to relocate campsites out of
the area and restore the riverside to natural conditions
for the public to visit. But campers want this prime turf
back.

"I'm so impassioned about this," says Brian Ouzounian, a
Santa Monica resident and founder of the Yosemite Valley
Campers Coalition. "Generations of campers have gotten the
sense of peace that comes when you go to sleep watching falling stars. What gives them the right to tear that down?"

Park Service officials say campsites can be replaced in other
locations of the park, mostly outside the valley. What's
more important, they say, is that the land nestled in these
oxbows of the Merced River is ripe with natural significance.

Yosemite biologist Sue Beatty, who is responsible for planning
the restoration, says the public should have the opportunity
to see its natural contours, vegetation and animals.

The black oak habitat, mixed with pines and other native
species such as big-leaf maple trees, is among the richest
and most diverse in the state, she says.

"These are wetlands and meadows, and California has lost
80% to 90% of its historic wetlands," Beatty says. "What
better place to do this kind of restoration than in Yosemite
Valley?"

But this is more than a tug-of-war over a riverside view.

For the Park Service, this restoration is the ecological
bedrock of the controversial Yosemite Valley Plan, a blueprint
designed over many years to rejuvenate nature, rebuild amenities and control transportation issues in the 1-mile-wide by 7-mile-long valley.

For campers and residents of some surrounding communities,
the campground issues symbolize decades of independence,
family tradition and recreation history that many feel could
be unfairly scuttled in the name of preservation.

Both sides have federal muscle. The campers have Rep. George
Radanovich, R-Mariposa, who would like to see some campsites
rebuilt in the area.

The Park Service has a signed "decision of record" from the
Interior Department on a plan legally committing to the restoration and many other projects.

The plan's projects include rebuilding Yosemite Lodge, overhauling the road system and removing an old dam. Those and many other projects will take place over several years.

The plan, which received the final green light at the end
of the Clinton administration, will require $441 million.
Almost half of the money is available from repair funds for
the 1997 flood.

That's why the massive flood was such a pivotal moment for
Yosemite. The flood happened in January 1997 after unusually
warm, heavy rainfall and snowmelt filled the Merced River.

The river jumped its banks and whipped through three campgrounds -- Upper River, Lower River and more than half of Lower Pines, swamping everything in its way. More than 350 campsites, along with electricity and sewage lines, some roads and bathrooms, were lost.

The flood jump-started the plan that had languished since
the 1980 General Management Plan was finished. Congress provided almost $200 million in repair and recovery money.

Park Service brass almost immediately began talking about
permanently closing the Upper and Lower River campgrounds
and more than half of Lower Pines. And, campers chafed.

"Don't tell me these campgrounds were completely destroyed,"
says Ouzounian, who first camped in the area in 1954. "They're
campsites. You just go back in and put them back. That's
why they received the flood-repair money."

Radanovich, whose district includes Yosemite, emerged as
an advocate for the campers and some surrounding communities.

Earlier this year, when he asked how much it would cost to
restore fewer than half of the campsites, the Park Service
presented an estimate of $18.7 million for 144 sites.

He was amazed the campsites would cost $129,800 apiece. Park Service officials have since explained that sewage facilities, utility lines and roads were included in that price.

Still, at a field hearing in Yosemite Valley a few months
ago, Radanovich asked the Park Service to report how the
money would be spent. He is still waiting for a reply.

"Those numbers were funky," Radanovich says. "We're giving
them time to revise them. We're also looking at having the
concessionaire make the improvements and let them run the
campgrounds there."

But replacing 144 sites would be a significant enough change
to warrant reopening the controversial and time-consuming
planning process for the whole valley, says Yosemite Superintendent Michael Tollefson. The process has attracted more than 10,000 responses and took years to conclude.

"Traffic flow would change," he says. "If that happens, then
all the exciting projects we're doing now would have to stop
for the process."

Radanovich says he sees room for discussion, noting Yosemite
needs more than $200 million to complete the valley plan
projects in the next several years. Congress would make the
decision on whether those funds are appropriated.

"There is leverage," Radanovich says. "I think we could do
something with some kind of consensus agreement."

Yosemite officials will continue planning for restoration.

Biologist Beatty says there is no cost estimate yet, but
heavy equipment would probably be needed to remove the soil
that was used decades ago to flatten the riverside areas
for campsites. Photos dating back to the 1800s will be used
to guide the restoration.

The Park Service brought in the extra soil to flatten the
area a half century ago when the first "modern" campsites
were established, officials say. But people had been camping
in the area for decades before.

The Sentinel Hotel, built in the late 1800s, played a role
in the present-day river campgrounds. With no water treatment
facilities, hotel sewage was discharged directly into the
Merced, officials say.

It didn't take long for campers to realize the river was
much cleaner upstream -- east of the hotel. Campers moved
toward the eastern end of the valley, where the present-day
campgrounds are. The hotel burned down in the early 1900s,
but the upstream camping remained.

And a camping tradition evolved over generations, says Dan
Carter, executive director of the Yosemite-Sierra Visitor's
Bureau in Oakhurst. Campers share a camaraderie in nature,
he says.

"By removing the campgrounds, they're justifying the preservation part of their plan," Carter says. "But this is a balancing act. You balance the preservation and restoration against the traditional experience. And the traditional experience is losing."

Back at the closed campgrounds, Beatty points out the Merced
River's eroding banks, saying the erosion has undermined
trees and widened the river. It has made the river warmer
and shallower, so life is a little tougher for rainbow trout.

The erosion comes from people -- namely, campers who have
walked over the banks for many years.

The majestic ponderosa pines are unnaturally clumped together,
she says. The heavy growth moved in after the meadows around the river were drained, changing conditions and creating
a landscape that is more clustered and less healthy.

Beatty points to stands of pines, incense cedars and white
firs. If not for the unnaturally dense stands, people could
easily see the stark granite feature called Washington Column.

"If you were here in the 1800s, you would have seen it,"
she says. "We would like to return those views. We would
have ranger-led tours and places where the public could visit
to see this. That's what this is about."