CURRENT ISSUES
Timeline of Lawsuit
c 1/97 Yosemite flood followed by repair of El Portal Road to pre-flood condition. Subsequently, NPS decided to redo the entire 7 mile stretch and widen it. No plan disclosed to the public.
c 5/98 Friends of Yosemite Valley obtain a court order requiring the National Park Service to hold off development of lodging for visitors and park employees near the edge of Camp 4 until further planning reviews are performed.
c 8/98 County of Mariposa sues National Park Service over El Portal Road project with respect to construction schedule and its impact on the local economy due to long-term road closures. Request for injunction. Lawsuit thrown out.
c 8/98 Sierra Club sues National Park Service concerning Lodge Plan; Judge Breyer actually walks the property and rules that Housing and Lodging Plans are all part of activity in the Valley—and rather than being considered separately, should all be under the same NEPA umbrella. Groundbreaking for lodge put on hold.
c 2/99 Sierra Club and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth (MERG) file a lawsuit challenging the National Park Service (NPS) decision to "engage in a massive road widening project along the federally protected Wild and Scenic Merced River Corridor of Yosemite National Park. The El Portal Road Plan involves widening 7.5 miles of the 70-year old mountain road from the park's western boundary on Highway 140 into Yosemite Valley by way of a "design-build" project, the first design-build project in the National Park System. (A design-build project allows construction to begin before project design is completed; the contractor has full responsibility for the design, construction, and mitigation.) Plaintiffs sought an "order maintaining the status quo, to enjoin defendants from taking any steps toward the continued construction of the El Portal Road Improvement Project until such time as there can be a hearing on the issues in the case; the defendants have not followed all proper procedures under National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and its regulations requiring them to prepare a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) adequately addressing all of the potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts reasonably likely to occur as a consequence of the project." Judge Anthony Ishii denied injunction declaring undue hardship on the community of Mariposa; however, substantial evidence was presented documenting lack of environmental compliance on the part of the NPS so follow-up hearing was scheduled for June.
c 7/99 Follow-up hearing in response to Sierra Club/MERG lawsuit challenging the National Park Service's apparent lack of environmental compliance with respect to the El Portal Road Construction Project: Judge Anthony Ishii rules National Park Service negligent in failing to file Merced River Management Plan as required under Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; Merced set aside in 1987 under Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) —both Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and USDA Forest Service (USFS) had management plans on file for parts of river running through their respective jurisdictions but not NPS. Since the Merced River runs through heart of Yosemite, NPS ordered to complete Merced River Management Plan (MRP) and withhold all other plans from release to public; NPS requested 12 months to complete. Judge allowed completion of Segments A, B, C; put Segment D on hold.
c 8/16/00 Friends of Yosemite Valley (FOYV) and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth (MERG) file lawsuit in Fresno Federal District Court to halt implementation of Merced River Management Plan/EIS claiming plan would set the stage for more degradation and allow for a rash of commercial development within Yosemite Valley.
c April 2001 Hearing to amend MRP lawsuit to include the Yosemite Valley Plan (Park Service opposed and Court denied Plaintiffs' motion on the basis that it would serve judicial economy to proceed with the 2000 Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) litigation first and separately from litigation over the Yosemite Valley Plan (YVP).)
c 11/06/01 Trial date for Merced River Plan lawsuit
c 3/22/02 Ishii rules on MRP lawsuit upholding most of the 2000 MRP, but held that the NPS failed to amend the General Management Plan (GMP) to be consistent with the MRP.
c May 2002 Plaintiffs appealed the district court's decision to the Ninth Circuit Court
c March 11, 2003 Ninth Circuit Court hearing in San Francisco
c October 27, 2003 Appeals Court ruling concluded "that the CMP violates the WSRA by insufficiently addressing user capacities and improperly setting river area boundaries within El Portal. We remand for the district court to enter an appropriate order requiring the NPS to remedy these deficiencies in the CMP in a timely manner. Inasmuch as the NPS was supposed to have completed a CMP for the Merced River some twelve years ago, we would also expect that the NPS would implement, as soon as is practicable, temporary or provisional measures designed to avoid environmental degradation pending the completion of its task."
c March 26, 2004 District Court denied Plaintiffs' Request for Relief for an injunction, allowing seven projects which all involved development and destruction of vegetation and wetlands within the Merced River Corridor to go forward.
c April 7, 2004 Plaintiffs requested injunction pending appeal from the lower court; lower court denied request on the same day.
c April 13, 2004 Plaintiffs filed emergency motion for injunction with Ninth Circuit
c April 20, 2004 Ninth Circuit clarified their October 27, 2003 Opinion: "entire [2000] Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan ("CMP") is invalid due to two deficiencies: (1) a failure to adequately address user capacities; and (2) the improper drawing of the Merced River's boundaries at El Portal. While we remanded to "the district court to enter an appropriate order requiring the [National Park Service] to remedy these deficiencies in the CMP in a timely manner," id. at 803, we did not "otherwise uphold the [CMP]." "Pending the district court's reconsideration of this matter, we grant a temporary stay of proceedings and an injunction prohibiting NPS from implementing any and all projects developed in reliance upon the invalid CMP."
c July 6, 2004 District Court ordered the NPS to comply with the Ninth Circuit's April 20, 2004 Order and create a "new or revised CMP" and to "comply with NEPA by issuing a supplemental EIS" and to revise the Park's GMP. Enjoined Lodge, Curry, Camp 6; let Resource Building, and Curry Employee Housing go through; modified injunction on Utilities project.
c October 26, 2005 District Court vacated injunction claiming a revised MRP had been completed; complaint on merits of 2005 MRP would have to be filed separately.
c November 11, 2005 Plaintiffs filed First Supplemental Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief against the 2005 CMP/ROD.
c July 19, 2006 District Court ruled 2005 MRP/CMP to be invalid; Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework inadequate as primary user capacity tool; range of alternatives too narrow; no-action alternative inadequate.
c November 3, 2006 District Court placed injunction of park projects until completion of new CMP.
Signatories to Amicus Brief for the
Yosemite Lawsuit
Sierra Club
Idaho Rivers United
Riverhawks
Smith River Preservation Project
Colorado Plateau River Guides
Waterkeepers Northern California
Bluewater Network
Environmental Protection Information Center
Hells Canyon Preservation Council
Wilderness Watch
Utah Environmental Congress
Sequoia Alliance
Wild Wilderness
Native Forest Council
High Sierra Hikers Association
Native Forest Protection Alliance
Helping Our Peninsula's Environment
Boulder Environmental Activist Resource
Responsible Consumers of Monterey Peninsula
Parkwatch
Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and Environment
Center for Environmental Health
Wetlands Action Network
Salmon Protection and Watershed Network
Save the West!
Wildlaw
Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce
Tuolumne County, California
Madera County, California
Eastern Madera Chamber of Commerce
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
Robert Brower
Michael Frome
Utah Rivers Council
Friends of Arizona's Rivers
Living Rivers
Humboldt Watershed Council
Glen Canyon Action Network
Northwest Rafters Association
Friends of Santa Clara River
Friends of the Earth
Center for Biological Diversity
Forest Guardians
Oregon Natural Desert Association
American Lands Conservancy
Committee for Idaho's High Desert
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center
Yosemite Area Audubon
Native Forest Network
Siskiyou Regional Education Project
Voice of the Environment
Western Land Exchange Project
The Ojai Coalition
Global Exchange
International Rivers Network
Friends of the Clearwater
Earth Island Institute
American Land Conservancy
Martin Litton
Dan Hamburg
Kate Crockett
Barbara Brower