Yosemite Valley in the winter time. Photo: Friends of Yosemite Valley Archive

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Friends of Yosemite Valley's claims that the National Park Service's Management Plan for Yosemite's Merced River is not protective. The October 2003 opinion ruled that the plan violates the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by "insufficiently addressing user capacities and improperly setting river area boundaries within El Portal." The court did not overturn the District Court's decision on two other claims.

The case has now returned to the District Court in Fresno for implementation of the Appeals Court's decision. In January 2004, Friends of Yosemite Valley et al filed a brief asking the District Court to order the National Park Service (NPS) to halt development projects that are scheduled for implementation during 2004-2005, and that rely on or tier to the Merced River Plan. These include many of the Yosemite Valley Plan (YVP) development projects: in the Curry Village area, Yosemite Lodge area, El Portal area, a proposed exchange of Yosemite undeveloped oak woodlands for developed Seventh Day Adventist Camp land for their private expansion project -- all in the Merced River corridor.

Meanwhile the NPS is moving forward on the YVP, a massive urban-style redevelopment/development plan for Yosemite Valley and many other areas of the Park. This plan would actually increase the amount of paved roads and parking lots, construct hundreds of new lodging units and concession "opportunities" in Yosemite, and degrade river values, despite the impression given by the NPS and most of the news media to the contrary.

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