MANAGING THE HORDES
The reservation system has changed on a yearly basis in Yosemite, but the National Park Service (NPS) is well on its way to finalizing a definite plan for the future.
Potential plans were on display this past Monday as Park officials held a workshop at the Mammoth Lakes Community Center on Forest Trail.
This was one of several outreach workshops held in Yosemite gateway communities.
NPS started working on a “Visitor Access Management Plan” in 2022 as a way to effectively manage an increased number of visitors to the park.
Park visitation has multiplied, at least in part, due to an influx of lodging and short-term rental companies popping up on the outskirts of the park, said Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada & Clean Air Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
Rose and others quoted in this story were in Mammoth on Monday.
These lodging developments are particularly pervasive on the west side of the park, he said.
This increase in visitation has led to road and parking congestion, long waits at entrances, insufficient staffing, vegetation impacts and human waste along roads, turnouts and in parking lots, according to the NPS website.
This summer, NPS released a document with four approaches to solving these problems, one of which will be the chosen to become the “Visitor Access Management Plan.”
Those alternatives (discussed on the jump page – read on!) are still open for public comment through September 30.
NPS expects to announce its plan moving forward later this fall.
“We’ve had multiple periods where we’ve requested comments from the public, and at every stage, we’ve received a lot of comments, basically all different types,” said Erin Gearty, NPS Archaeologist.
In the first public comment period, which was open from December 9, 2022 through February 3, 2023 the park received almost 7,000 comments.
NPS Project Manager Rachel Collins said every comment is read and coded manually.
“It is our commitment to the public that every comment that we receive – that if you guys are gonna take the time to make a comment – we’re gonna take the time to read it,” she said.
Before 2020, there were no reservations required to enter Yosemite.
A reinstallation of this approach, labeled “Alternative A: No Action, Continue Current Management,” in the document, means visitors would continue to access the park on a first-come, first-served basis 24 hours per day.
The National Park Service would close areas of the park when parking areas filled up, NPS stated. Visitors would likely still experience long waits at entrance stations and heavy congestion within the park.
This a reactive approach, not a proactive one, said Lissie Kretsch, NPS Wilderness Education Coordinator. Although it seems like the most laissez-faire solution, it really means front-line staff would be tasked with managing people head-on.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, to manage the spread of the virus, NPS used a reservation system for the first time in Yosemite. Under this system, individuals could only enter the park during peak visitation times if they’d made a reservation online.
These reservations were paused during the 2023 season but reinstated this summer so that NPS could test a day-use peak hours reservation system pilot.
The 2024 pilot program was similar to the COVID-era program, except it included weekend-only periods during the early and late peak seasons, allowed afternoon entries, and increased the number of reservations available.
They are still monitoring the effectiveness of this system.
Other parks, such as Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Acadia and North Cascades have implemented similar reservation systems in recent years.
A version of this model, labeled “Alternative B: Parkwide Reservations – Peak Hours, Daily,” is identified in the document as being the preferred method for managing the park in the future.
Upon initial implementation of this method, reservations would be required from 5:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and are valid for a three-day period, allowing visitors to enter and leave the park at any time within their three-day reservation window.
Visitors with overnight reservations within the park or in Yosemite West would have access to the park for either the three-day parkwide reservation period or the duration of the overnight reservation, whichever is longer.
The other two proposed alternatives detailed in the plan are also reservation systems, but they have caveats.
“Alternative C: Parkwide Reservations – Timed Entry” is a timed-entry reservation system, in which visitors are required to arrive at the park during their designated window of time.
The final option, “Alternative D: Yosemite Valley Access Reservations – Timed Entry” only requires people to book reservations for Yosemite Valley, the most popular area of the park.
While this alternative would restrict Yosemite Valley access, it would allow people unable to secure a reservation to explore other areas of the park.
All of the alternatives prioritize maintaining nonrecreational pass-through travel for locals, access to privately owned land, commercial visitor services and access for tribal groups.
They all also aim to improve visitor communications, technology and transit services.
Regardless, implementing one of these strategies will have a cost, and those are resources the NPS doesn’t necessarily have delegated yet.
“You will never find a park superintendent who doesn’t say we need more money,” Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon said. “We are working really hard to figure out funding sources to improve the communications technology at the gates.”
The budget for NPS was cut last year, and is likely to be either cut or maintained this year, Rose said. Even if the budget stays the same, though, NPS programs will still take a hit because of inflation.
There are some saving graces. For example, the Great American Outdoors Act took on some infrastructure issue costs. And 80% of the entry fee for the park goes directly to Yosemite programs.
But these advancements are expensive, and implementing them might mean cutting programs elsewhere, Rose said.
On top of that, staffing is a major issue. Due to the rising cost of living and housing shortages, the Yosemite administration can not presently fill all of their positions, said Joe Meyer, Yosemite Chief of Staff.
“It’s a battle,” Muldoon said. “It’s a constant battle.”
