October 1, 2000
Friends of Yosemite Valley is leading the effort to protect and restore Yosemite Valley and the Merced River watershed. A new generation of commercially driven plans is threatening Yosemite, while bordering the park numerous corporate resort developments await federal land exchanges, public-funded roads, and other approvals.
FoYV responded with litigation in 1998, halting a $60 million hotel expansion in Yosemite Valley. We followed in 1999 with protests and litigation to stop a road-widening project from causing horrific destruction in the Merced Canyon. In that case, brought with attorneys Duggan and Olson, the court found a list of NEPA and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) violations and ordered an overdue WSRA management plan for Yosemite's Merced River. That plan arrived this year, and though we'd hoped for a new standard for Wild and Scenic Rivers protection nationwide, an avalanche of paper, loopholes, and zoning for more development resulted. So this summer we again filed suit. Through legal action, grassroots organizing, and public and press outreach we are working to force an end to Yosemite's development push and to require a visionary WSRA plan that directs a future of restoration and biodiversity for the Merced watershed.
Growing support from grassroots environmental groups nationwide was bolstered in summer 2000 when chambers of commerce, county officials, and the Madera County Board of Supervisors joined us in calling Yosemite plans "the corporate sellout of a national treasure." Beyond Yosemite's border, FoYV has initiated opposition to a major resort development at Hazel Green that threatens eighty acres of rare wet meadows and ancient forest. We've started opposition to a pro-business National Park Service land swap that would build hotels on priceless federally owned wetlands at El Portal. With help from EPIC and the Center for Biological Diversity, we are also spearheading opposition to a private timber harvest marked at Ackerson Meadow, one of the most biodiverse meadows in the Sierra.
Organizationally, we are trying to identify and fund an outreach coordinator. FoYV thanks the Trees Foundation for its continued, amazing support.
P.O. Box 702, Yosemite CA 95389
(209) 379-9337
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2000