Yosemite National Park
Sierra Sun Times file photo
July 6, 2023 - Yosemite National Park will begin a second round of civic engagement to address improving visitor experience and access to the busy park during peak season. The park is seeking input on several key concepts to address improving visitors’ access to and experience of the park’s most significant resources and features while ensuring that those resources are protected.
The 8-week public comment period begins today and will last through September 6, 2023. A virtual public meeting will be held on July 19 at 4 p.m. PDT. For more information and to submit a comment, please visit the project website.
"The plan will address the intense congestion visitors are experiencing this summer and will serve as a guide to protecting Yosemite's resources and ensuring a high quality visitor experience," said park superintendent Cicely Muldoon. "This is the opportunity to help shape Yosemite's future."
During the first round of public engagement on the planning process December 9, 2022 through February 3, 2023 the park received almost 7,000 comments. The comments helped inform the development of management concepts and refine issue statements. Comments gathered during this period will help the park refine preliminary ideas, strategies, and concepts and will inform the development of future management alternatives.
Yosemite National Park has piloted reservation systems for the last three summers. In 2020 and 2021, the park piloted a reservation system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the park implemented a “peak hours” reservation system due to extensive construction that was going on throughout the park. There is currently no entry reservation system for 2023, allowing the project team to observe and test the efficacy of those changes and document what issues persist after the implementation of these parking lot and roadway configuration changes.
Current information about the public comment period for the Visitor Access Management Plan can be found on the park's website and social media channels.
More Information:
Help us shape the future of visitor access at Yosemite National Park.
Yosemite National Park is continuing to develop the Visitor Access Management Plan amid an extremely busy summer season and is kicking off another round of engagement for Summer 2023.
Please visit the project website for important updates about preliminary management strategies! These preliminary management strategies were built upon input received in the public comment period that occurred in the winter of 2022-2023. They reflect your ideas about how we might address some of the highest priority issues facing the park, its visitors, and communities.
We invite you to join us on Wednesday, July 19 at 4pm PDT for a solutions-based discussion about the preliminary management strategies and how they might be refined and further developed. Meeting info will be posted at Meeting Notices - Visitor Access Management Plan. On July 19 at 4pm, you can join us by following this link: Join this event.
You can learn more about the project by viewing a story map and other materials on the project website, and you can provide feedback to the planning team through a public comment. The project website is parkplanning.nps.gov/YosemiteVisitorAccess and the comment period will be open from July 6 through September 6, 2023.
Thank you for your input and engagement – we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yosemite NP Visitor Access Planning Team
Source: NPS
