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Merced River Plan – last chance

The Park is conducting the last on-line Webinar on theMRP workbook this Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 pm. You should attend after your busy day at the factory. It’s at 6:30 so you can’t claim access problems at work. These workshops are very good in communicating exactly what the park may look like for decades to come. 5 Alternatives. You comment – they implement. Register at yose.webex.com. Your final in-person shot is April 12 at the El Portal Community Hall; 5:30-8 p.m. or April 13  1-3:30 p.m. in the Wawona Community Hall. Last call for  comments is April 20 – a week  from now.

5 interns have just finished fifteen-weeks in Yosemite busily digitizing the vast collection of archival photos. More as I probe around. FYI – Some of the Archives are kept upstairs of the Museum in the Valley (I got my olde tyme pix from there). But most are held in a controlled environment down in El Portal at the NPS Warehouse. I’ll blog about that soon.

Check your bank credit card statement. Like a few others, I have been charged $20 by recreation.gov. This is a good sign…4 permits. But their website does not reflect that I have permits. Funny, …

Yosemite’s Curry Village Rockfall Hazard Zone Structures Project

You may recall that in October of 2008, 2 days of rockfalls caused the closing of about  200 Curry Village wooden and canvas tent cabins. No one was injured but the area lay behind yellow ribbons and a fence since. A very nice shower complex was closed. I have stayed in a sweet rigid cabin up against the Glacier Point wall earlier that summer. Whew.

The park has just completed the official “Finding of No Significant Impact” and settled on Alternative #1 from the plan. Therefore, the NPS will commence clearing the  remants of the mess.  All the debris will be piled up and sent to the depths of hell itself. Work will take all summer with a fall target for completion. The area will remain off limits as more chunks could fly down. I don’t know if there will be a physical barrier, like fences to keep folks away or just what it will all look like. Kinda scary.

Protection Division Ranger Jack Hoeflich was the ranger who gave the great YOSAR presentation at the Yosemite Conservancy Spring Forum on Saturday. Word is out that he will now be assume the duties of Valley District Ranger. 

Anyone got their …

Merced River Plan Alternatives 4 & 5

Old Priest Grade will be closed from 9 – 4 Friday, so you’ll need to use the “NEW” Priest Grade (Hwy 120) wast of Big Oak Flat. When they say new, they mean it was built in 1915.  Also, snow is coming back Fri-Sat to the Sierra. Light snow accumulations are expected around 4000 feet. Five inches to two feet of snow could fall above 5000 feet. And I’m driving up to the Spring Forum on the All-year Highway – 140. Crikey!

Park facilities opening Friday, March 30: Lower Pines Campground, Wawona Hotel, Yosemite Mountaineering School and the Bike Stand at Yosemite Lodge. So most things are cranking and cashiers ringing.

And now Alternative 4

This alternative would see a total of 201 acres restored to natural conditions. To promote free-flowing conditions, Sugar Pine and Ahwahnee Bridges would be removed. Lodging numbers would be slightly lower than today with minor reductions at Curry Village and Housekeeping Camp. Camping opportunities in Yosemite Valley increase with the addition of roughly 100 sites at Upper Pines Campground and 30 walk-in sites at the former Upper River Campground. The former Lower River Campground would be converted to a day use and picnicking area. The Camp …

Merced River Plan Alternatives 2 & 3

First, a howdy to our new readers from my Sports Basement talk in Walnut Creek last night. Good folks.

OK, so we are corn-fused about the Yosemite Lodge impacts. The plan does say (1,000’s cabins). Sonke of our Hamburg Bureau did some sleuthing and thinks they may be referring to the rooms in the “1,000” numbered series. He’s stayed recently and recalled the rooms being numbered 3,XXX, 4,XXX. But I did see this reference for Concept 1:  Yosemite Lodge: Converted from lodging to day-use, parking and camping (~160 sites). So the dozers may be lined up soon. And feast your blue eyes on these words:

Facilities Proposed for Repurposing Across All Alternatives

• Yosemite Village Sports Shop

• Convenience Shop

• Nature Shop

Facilities Reduced Across All Alternatives

• Camp 6 Day-use Parking Area

• Wawona Campground

• Lower Pines Campground

• Curry Village Residence Area

• Yosemite Valley Backpackers Campground

Now on to Alternative 2 & 3 – the Highlights:

Alternative 2

This alternative would see a total of 293 acres restored to natural conditions, with significant restoration at Stoneman and Ahwahnee Meadows, the former Upper and Lower River Campgrounds, Wawona golf course, and the Merced Lake High Sierra Camp. …

Yosemite Merced Planning Webinar recap

The park held a webinar today to go over the 5 alternatives for the Merced River Plan. About 33 dialed in. I know most of you were at work, so I attended and asked a bunch of questions. This plan will radically affect the Yosemite you have known since your first trip. The alternatives range from – not so bad – to really  radical. In each there are things that will go away or be relocated:

• NPS Volunteer Office

• Happy Isles Snack Stand

• Yosemite Lodge Housing (1000’s of Cabins)

• Highland Court Housing

• Boys Town Housing Area

• Yosemite Lodge Post Office

• Yosemite Lodge Swimming Pool & Snack Stand

• Wawona Stables Operation

• NPS Finance Trailer in El Portal

• Ahwahnee Tennis Court and Former Golf Course

Here is a chart showing the number of people permitted in the park for various activities – a range from “ugh” to “holy cow.”

The park has NOT yet come up with a recommended alternative – they want YOUR comments. Get the plan and comment by April 20. If you don’t things like the Yosemite Lodge will be bull-dozed. Really. The Planning Group wit present at the …

March 15 – Half Dome comments deadline

At midnight tonight the window to submit comments to the Half Dome Stewardship Plan closes. The park has given the public 2 months to read and submit comments to the draft Environmental Assessment (EA).  The Yosemite Planning Division is collecting comments and will (hopefully) address YOUR concerns. Then the final – long term – process for dealing with the Half Dome trail (the last 2-miles before the cables) and the cables themselves will be published for eternity. They are recommending 300 total people per day.

Here is where to get the EA. 

Here is where to comment.

So before you go to bed tonight, submit your comments via email. Regardless of how you feel – from allowing 140 people per day to take the cables down, please participate in the democratic process. Just get involved and don’t leave the fate of Half Dome up to the few.  If you have not been keeping up, there is a group that submitted a petition by over 500 people to eliminate permits altogether and to install a third cable. Another complication the park will have to address.

We still have 2 weeks to submit for the Half Dome Lottery. Be …

Curry Village Clean up

Four years after the 2 rockfalls at Curry Village, the NPS has gone through the required legal processes and has decided to bulldoze the 72 buildings that have been behind a fence. These tent cabins and wooden rentals were squashed in October 2008 when the granite tumbled down. No one was hurt but we lost about 200 summer sleeping units and a very nice shower facility. Although “only” 17 cabins are actually hit, that area was deemed unsafe and will forever be a place we gawk at from afar. No more scrambling to the Glacier point wall. Oh well.

Officials have signed off the Curry Village Rockfall Hazard Zone Structures Project Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). Note: this has nothing to do with Fonzi of the old TV show Happy Days.

The park may move some of the buildings elsewhere in the Curry village area. No contractshave beenlet for the effort and it may be a while. I don’t think I’d want to be on the crew that does the work. Look out!!!

Unrelated thought worth quoting: “George, George, George of the Jungle, strong as he can be. Watch out  for that tree.” – TV cartoon theme song  …

Merced River Plan Update 2/11/12

The Yosemite Park Planning group is holding workshops coming up to discuss Preliminary Alternative Concepts and site visits. See the schedule if interest – and you should at least be interested in the webinars. The MRP could RADICALLY affect the path Yosemite takes in the future.  MORE INFO 

 FYI – I tried to register for the webinars but that page was not “hot” to accept registrations. Sigh.

Tioga Rd is now really, really closed. Really. The park got tired of opening & closing with good/bad weather. It’s closed until late May-ish.

Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Moon River, wider than a mile. I’m crossing you in style some day. Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker, wherever you’re going I’m going your way.” – Andy Williams

*MrHalfDome™ – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com

One Best Hike: Yosemite’s Half Dome

Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Moon River, wider than a mile,. I’m crossing you in style some day. Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker, wherever you’re going I’m going your way.” – Andy Williams

*MrHalfDome™ – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com

One Best Hike: Yosemite’s Half Dome

 …

Finally- Media Coverage for Merced River Plan

Today I’m just going to link you to an article by Joshua Emerson Smith of the Merced
Sun-Star. <HERE> While not the SF Chronicle, the Sun-Star is trying to bring attention to the impact that the MRP may have on us. I chatted with him about my perspective. I have no clue why in 2011 we need to have a golf course at Wawona – the south fork of the America River flows nearby.  But it’s true – with turnouts of from 10 to 50 per in-person session, the workshops should have had standing room only. 11 people took the time to join the webinar. That’s it.  I’ve done a lot of reading on the whole issue and am convinced that the park as we now know it will change. The User Capacity thing is a major item in the lawsuit settlement.

So take the time and complete your comments on the NPS worksheet.  Warning: It took me a couple hours to complete. There is just too much info presented and the form is too small to read easily. You have to scroll and zoom a lot to navigate it.  You can do so <Here>.…

The Merced a Wild and Scenic River

Yosemite National Park is currently developing alternatives for protecting the Wild and Scenic River status of the Merced River through the Park. But just HOW did the river become designated as a WSR flow?  The original WSR Act was passed by Congress in 1968. In summary it states: “. . . to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present
and future generations.” To illustrate the size of the project, the National System protects 12,598 miles of 203 rivers in 38 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; this is a little more than one-quarter of one percent of the nation’s rivers. By comparison, more than 75,000 large dams across the country have modified at least 600,000 miles, or about 17%, of American rivers.

But in 1968, the Merced was not designated as such. Porque? Why?  Well it seems developers were getting antsy to dam up the Merced again. This time south of the park.  There is a massive downstream dam called the Exchequer Dam that stops the flow as Lake McClure. Locals got wind of the plans and lobbied to stop a new dam by getting WSR …