Yosemite: Embrace the Sublime

Yosemite Valley may be the most wondrous natural feature in a nation blessed by nature’s bounty, but there are times when heavy traffic and jammed parking lots seem to overpower the grandeur. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt had it just right on Monday when he declared: “We must restore a semblance of nature to this most sublime place in our country.”

Now the debate begins. Babbitt’s unveiling of a draft plan to reduce auto congestion and development in the valley, the one-mile-wide by seven-mile-long heart of Yosemite National Park, launches an intense series of 18 public hearings from now until mid-June. Federal officials will revise the draft as necessary after collecting public reaction. The plan currently calls for a two-thirds reduction in parking spaces, fewer lodging rooms and employee housing and the restoration of 180 acres of meadows and wetlands.

The most contentious effort is the restriction of day-use auto traffic by cutting back parking and urging visitors to take shuttle buses into the valley. Will such a transit plan catch on with visitors accustomed to scooting from spot to spot in their own cars? Incentives may be needed--a reduction in the entrance fee, perhaps--to entice them onto the shuttles, at least at the beginning.

There are already familiar protests on both sides of the issue. We hear the same arguments that have deadlocked efforts to return the valley to a more natural state for two decades. Some environmental groups still want private vehicles banned from the valley altogether. Area tourist interests fear the restrictions are too harsh and will scare away business.

There is no perfect balance between the Park Service’s mandate to protect the nation’s natural places and the public’s right to enjoy them. This draft plan at least strikes a fair balance, and there will be opportunities for fine-tuning in the years that implementation will take.

There is no gain in fighting over the last parking slot or whether the pizza joint should go or stay. The point is to make it possible for visitors to revel in the first morning light splashing El Capitan and the alpenglow gracing the sheer face of Half Dome, to hear the quiet rippling of the Merced River, to marvel at the dancing veil of Yosemite Falls and the breeze caressing the pines and dogwood--to do so without omnipresent traffic noise and in relative peace. The proposed changes would not restrict Yosemite to some select, wilderness-appreciating few, but they would help make its sublime beauty once again available to all.

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To Take Action: Hearings on the draft plan will take place in Costa Mesa June 5, Los Angeles June 6 and San Diego June 8. Locations and times are available at www.nps.gov./yose/planning/yvp.htm