Settlement blocks Yosemite commercial development

FRESNO, Calif. — Ending a lengthy legal battle with environmentalists, the federal government agreed Wednesday to halt all commercial development in Yosemite National Park’s most popular stretch and to consider limiting access to its wilderness.

The settlement was reached by the National Park Service and two small environmental groups that sued the federal government in 2000.

The groups claimed the park’s $442 million plan to move campgrounds and upgrade hotel rooms in Yosemite Valley would jeopardize the Merced River, a federally protected waterway that flows beside famous granite monoliths and dramatic waterfalls.

Under the agreement, the park service will hold off on all planned construction until at least December 2012, when officials are expected to finish a far-reaching plan to manage and protect the river.

The plan will include estimates for how many visitors could be allowed into the park without threatening the Merced’s fragile ecosystem.

“Going back to the time of John Muir, citizens have been an active conscience for the national park system,” said Greg Adair, director of Friends of Yosemite Valley, one of the groups that filed the suit. “Now Yosemite is catching up to what the public, the Congress and the laws told they must do, which is protect the place for the appreciation of nature.”

Planners with the National Park Service had been following the case closely, fearing it could force officials to cap the number of people allowed into Yosemite each day.

The settlement lays out a new process for park managers, consultants and the public to determine the maximum number of people who can visit certain areas of Yosemite without harming the river.

“We’ll be trying to figure out the overall carrying capacity of Yosemite Valley,” park spokesman Scott Gediman said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be closing off areas to the public, but the Merced River is an incredibly valuable resource and we want to make sure that it’s protected.”

Yosemite advocates have for decades debated how to preserve its scenic wilderness while maintaining access to public lands.

The current fight began in 1997, when the river flooded, wiping out campgrounds and parking lots and damaging rooms at the popular Yosemite Lodge.

Park officials drew up an ambitious remodeling plan that included rerouting a key access road, rebuilding employee housing and upgrading hotel rooms on the valley floor.

Adair’s group and Mariposans for the Environment and Responsible Government sued, claiming aspects of the plan — including blasting part of the river canyon and felling nearby oak trees — threatened the Merced River.

Some employee housing eventually was rebuilt. But the park has been losing housing stock over the years.

Last November, park officials closed 43 employee cabins and 233 guest accommodations following an October 2008 rock slide.

Tuesday, an early morning rock slide kicked up a cloud of dust about 300 feet from some new employee dorms, reflecting the ongoing risks to housing.

Gediman said the park’s new management plan will factor in both the impact any new accommodations would have on the river ecosystem, as well as concerns about placing housing or guest quarters in the rockfall zone.