Respecting Yosemite’s River

Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa) says he fondly remembers camping along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley as a young man. He is among the fortunate who know waking to the first rays of dawn blushing the rock cathedrals that ring the valley.

Radanovich represents Yosemite and surrounding areas in Congress and is chairman of the subcommittee that oversees national parks. He of all people should understand the hard job of balancing access to the park with preserving its natural splendors, including the Merced River. Still, Radanovich is demanding that the National Park Service rebuild 144 campsites along the Merced that were ripped out by flooding in 1997, even though the campsites degrade the riverbank and block others’ access to the river.

Radanovich may be nostalgic for his riverbank camp-outs, but times change. Many people also fondly recall the nightly fire fall in which a huge pile of red-hot ashes was pushed over the lip of Glacier Point to cascade down the rock face. It was a spectacular but dangerous sideshow. Rangers stopped it in the 1960s.

A Radanovich aide says he gets letters from people wanting the riverside campgrounds restored. But nature did the park a favor by wiping them out. Now the riverbank can be restored and enjoyed by all visitors.

The new Yosemite superintendent, Michael Tollefson, has signaled that he is embracing the spirit of the park plan, which calls for moving more residential and commercial operations -- and vehicular traffic -- out of Yosemite Valley so visitors can have a more natural park. Tollefson says he will live in the superintendent’s house in the valley for only one year and then will move outside the park. That seems to be a good sign that he will fight for the integrity of a plan 20 years in the making.

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Valley restoration projects will be explained during an open house Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Valley Visitor Center auditorium in Yosemite Village. Attendees do not have to pay the park entrance fee.