U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is set today to unveil a new management plan for California’s Yosemite National Park that aims to reduce crowding and traffic congestion in the park, which gets 4 million visitors a year. A centerpiece of the long-anticipated plan is an expanded shuttle bus system intended to cut automobile traffic by 55 percent over the next decade. The plan would also restore 180 acres to a natural state and eliminate a number of roads, parking spaces, campsites, and employee housing units, but it would allow the construction of new cabins and other buildings. Although the Wilderness Society praised the draft plan, the Sierra Club and some other enviros say it permits too much development and doesn’t go far enough to protect the park’s natural resources. Before his death last week, legendary environmentalist David Brower described the Yosemite plan as “greenwash and half-baked.”
