Petition to return campgrounds removed from flood.
Posted:
Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:58 pm
by mark
For anyone interested, there is a petition to return the flooded campgrounds, while also asking the park not to remove the North Pines camground as is planned at the following website:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-y ... mpgrounds/
Your participation is greatly appreciated!
Replacing the campsites that were removed
Posted:
Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:49 pm
by mark
Some people have asked why a campground should remain in a seasonal flood zone. And, these campgrounds were in fact located in an area that can flood about once ever fifty years or so. That is very true.
This is actually not a problem anywhere I've seen where many other
campgrounds are located in seasonal flood zones.
Look at the campground for example at Gualala River in Northern
California. They need to evacuate the campground whenever it rains
hard. That's never kept people from camping there. We left only hours
before the river crested the banks years ago. The campgrounds didn't
wash away.
Campgrounds don't wash away. They are coordinates on a map. If camp
tables move around, go and collect them like they did in 1997 in
Yosemite Valley. They piled them up, and made it look like a disaster
zone, rather than put them back where they belonged in the
campsites.
• Before the 1997 flood: there were more than 800 family
friendly auto-based campsites in Yosemite Valley.
• After the flood: 500 campsites will remain—a loss of more
than 40% of camping opportunities in Yosemite Valley.
• Of these 500 sites, only 330 will be auto-based sites
creating even fewer opportunities for young families, the
disabled, and the elderly.
As part of the emergency flood appropriation, Congress gave the
National Park Service funding to repair these campgrounds in Yosemite
Valley--not to eliminate them.
• We oppose this arbitrary action by the National Park Service.
• We request that Lower River, Upper River, and a portion of
Lower Pines Campgrounds be reinstated with family
friendly auto-based sites, as was the case pre-flood;
request that North Pines Campground remain as currently used.
If you agree, please go to the website posted above in the post before this one, and click on the link for the petition if we value camping in
Yosemite for future generations.
Thanks,
Mark Sutherlin
Posted:
Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:22 am
by dan
Here's a website for Yosemite Valley Campers Coalition:
http://www.yosemitevalleycampers.org/
After the 1997 floods, the Park Service closed the River campgrounds, but promised to replace the sites, and were appropriated money from Congress to do this. Now they are trying to close the North Pines Campground also.
Update
Posted:
Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:08 am
by petho
I am reading this thread for the first time and I see that the dates are older. What is the current status of this situation?
Posted:
Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:16 pm
by Wickett
I have never come across this thread either, I signed it. Hopes it helps.
Posted:
Fri Jul 16, 2010 9:02 pm
by hotrod4x5
Well it's been three years since this thread and 13 and a half years since the flood. North Pines was not closed, and in fact, I never heard that rumor, I think it was false.
I doubt very much that after this long they will replace the flooded sites. It would have been much easier the spring following the flood, now they would have to do a lot of brush clearing.
Posted:
Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:08 am
by mark
For anyone interested, this subject is not yet over. The petition location has changed, and the new location is posted below.
The Park is making plans now to decide what to do, so nothing is in ink yet.
The petition is not just about North Pines, but also to return the flooded campgrounds:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-y ... mpgrounds/
The
http://www.yosemitevalleycampers.org website, for the Yosemite Valley Campers Coalition is undergoing some revisions, and is not yet up to speed, but check back in a week or so and it should be working.
There is another forum that often discusses these topics at
http://www.yosemitecampers.com
Posted:
Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:16 pm
by hotrod4x5
You could have one million signatures, and the government is going to do what it is going to do regardless.