National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Yosemite National Park Summer 2016 Wilderness Stewardship Plan & Environmental Impact Statement Preliminary Concepts & Ideas: Visitor Use & Capacity Why is this plan being developed? The purpose of this planning effort is to review the management direction in the 1989 Yosemite Wilderness Plan and update it as necessary to better align with contemporary use patterns and National Park Service policy. When completed, the Wilderness Stewardship and associated impacts to the wilderness. Plan (WSP) will include a broad array Additionally, new policy guidance will help to of management strategies for addressing identify and evaluate indicators of wilderness topics of interest such as natural resource character and to monitor and manage management, ecosystem restoration, and trail conditions before problems arise. maintenance. Due to the high level of public interest in visitor use and capacity and stock This update to the 1989 plan will provide a use, and due to the complexity of these topics, valuable baseline by which we can evaluate Yosemite National Park will be hosting a series future changes in wilderness character. It of workshops to engage the public to focus on will identify the most effective and adaptable these topics. This is one of three newsletters way to manage visitor use in the Yosemite that outlines the issues related to these topics. Wilderness, and it will reassess the Park’s capacity to set sustainable use quotas. These Levels and patterns of visitor use have refinements will better achieve the National changed since the 1989 Wilderness Park Service mission to provide a quality Management Plan was completed. The wilderness experience for the diversity of stressors facing wilderness resources also today’s users, while protecting this special have changed. New data and methods are place in perpetuity. available to better understand travel patterns TOTAL OVERNIGHT USERS OF THE YOSEMITE WILDERNESS 70,000 60,000 50,000 40 ,000 30,000 PEOPLE 20,000 10,000 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 YEAR Graph illustrating an increase in overall use in the Yosemite Wilderness. Data Source: NPS Yosemite Division of Visitor and Resource Protection, 2016 2 Yosemite National Park | Wilderness Stewardship Plan & Environmental Impact Statement USFS USE IN THE YOSEMITE WILDERNESS 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 PEOPLE 1,000 500 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 YEAR Graph shows that the increase in overall visitation is correlated with an almost tripling of entries by people who obtain their wilderness permit from outside the park. Data Source: NPS Yosemite Division of Visitor and Resource Protection & USFS, 2016 ACCESS TO YOSEMITE JOHN MUIR TRAIL (JMT) THROUGH USFS LANDS 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 PEOPLE & PERMITS 1,000 0 98 992000 01 02 03 042005 06 07 08 092010 11 12 13 14 2015 YEAR Since 2010, permits and people entering the Yosemite Wilderness via the JMT from non-Yosemite lands have more than doubled. Data Source: NPS Yosemite Division of Visitor and Resource Protection & USFS, 2016 PACIFIC CREST TRAIL (PCT) PERMIT TOTALS 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 PERMITS 1,000 0 98 992000 01 02 03 042005 06 07 08 092010 11 12 13 14 2015 YEAR Graph shows the increased popularity of the PCT has impacted use exponentially. NOTE: PCT permits are issued outside Yosemite and are not calculated as part of the quota system. Data Source: Pacific Crest Trail Association, 2016 National Park Service 3 Emigrant Wilderness Hoover Wilderness Twin Lakes Tilden Lake Kerrick Canyon Kibbie Creek Frog Creek Kibbie Lake Benson Lake Benson Lake Matterhorn Canyon Virginia Canyon Lake Vernon Laurel Lake McCabe Lakes Tiltill Valley Rancheria Mountain Rancheria Falls Pleasant Valley Lower Young Lake Cold Canyon Miguel Meadow Conness Creek Waterwheel Falls Cottonwood Creek Pate Valley Glen Aulin Glen Aulin Dog Lake Ten Lakes Ten Lakes Grant Lakes Mono Parker Pass May Lake Elizabeth Lake South Fork Tuolumne River Parker Pass Sunrise Lakes May Lake Cathedral Lakes Rafferty Creek *# Lyell Canyon Vogelsang Evelyn Lake Sunrise Creek Echo Creek Sunrise Lakes Lyell Canyon Yosemite Creek Snow Creek Snow Creek This is a caption, called “Cap- Sunrise Vogelsang tion” in the styles menu. It is in Yosemite Falls a separate text box and the text Half Dome Sunrise Creek *# box starts 1 pica below the bot- Lewis Creek tom of the photograph(s). Merced Lake Donohue Pass Mount Lyell Little Yosemite Valley Moraine Dome Merced Lake Little Yosemite Valley Bridalveil Creek Dewey Point Washburn Lake Illilouette Creek Clark Range Buena Vista Creek Ansel Adams Wilderness Ostrander Lake N Alder Creek Chain Lakes South Fork Merced River Legend Chilnualna Creek Johnson Creek !9 Wilderness Campground Other Discrete Destination Other Dispersed Destination *# Entrance / Exit Quotas John Muir Trail Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail Major Roads 0 10 Kilometers Park Boundary Designated Wilderness Zones 0 10 Miles Map highlighting the high use destinations within Yosemite Wilderness 4 Yosemite National Park | Wilderness Stewardship Plan & Environmental Impact Statement How do things currently work? The Yosemite Wilderness is divided into 53 travel zones that roughly follow the park’s watershed drainages. The capacity for each zone was calculated using a model that combines acceptable social density with measures of ecological fragility to determine how many nightly visitors each zone can sustainably support. These zone capacities are managed indirectly which illustrates how an individual might through a trailhead quota system. By studying perceive the results of these changing wilderness visitation travel patterns, managers conditions. were able to develop a model that predicts where visitors using each trailhead typically The overnight visitor capacity for each zone will travel within the wilderness. This system of the Yosemite Wilderness was developed requires visitors to select an available trailhead based on the number of acres of wilderness, origin for their trips, but otherwise does not miles of trails, desired visitor densities within restrict travel plans. By limiting the number campsites and along trails as well as potential of overnight visitors who may enter the ecological impacts. The diagram shown below wilderness from any particular trailhead on illustrates how the current trailhead quota a given day, managers can limit the number system could, in certain cases such as with the of visitors who will reach the zones that are Sunrise Creek Zone, not sufficiently manage served by that trailhead. use in popular zones. In recent years, use has exceeded established As part of the WSP, the NPS will be capacities in several zones due to increased reevaluating zone capacities using current use and changing travel patterns. On the information and revising the capacities as following page is a sample user narrative necessary. *Backcountry permit holders originate at a designated trailhead outside the boundary of the zone. Yosemite Wilderness Sunrise Creek Zone (Zone Boundaries shown in white (Capacity = 50 Backpackers) Trails shown in grey) = 10 Backpackers Diagram illustrating the current trailhead quota system and a sample high use zone National Park Service 5 What might a wilderness user care about? “I’ve been coming out to Yosemite with friends But sometimes now it’s more frustrating than and family for years – or decades, actually. My rewarding. First of all, you can hardly even parents first took me out to climb Half Dome get into the park with all the traffic and it’s just back in the 70’s and growing up in the Bay about impossible to get a permit to go out and Area, I was just amazed when the sun went escape the crowds in the backcountry. I’ve down and I saw all those stars in the sky. Every waited in line from the crack of dawn in hopes time I’ve returned, either with my partner and of getting the permit to get back to my favorite my own kids or with my best old friends, there’s places, like Sunrise Lakes, only to be told all the that moment when it all just takes your breath trailheads are full. When we’re lucky enough to away. I really believe there’s no place on earth get a permit, it’s like a race with everyone else to more special than Yosemite. beat each other to the limited camp sites. Nowadays there’s a lot more people in I want everyone to have the opportunities I California and in the world so I guess I’m not have had but something has got to be done. surprised that more people want to come and There has to be a balance so that we don’t end experience that special moment like I have. up ruining the magic we’ve come to discover.” What tools are available to manage use? The following are the most common more tightly manage to the capacity of specific management tools available to provide a destinations, namely ‘hot spots.’ Users of variety of concepts for managing visitor use: these destinations would be required to obtain a permit for both a trailhead and the desired Trailhead Quotas destination. This is the current system used with the Yosemite Wilderness. The trailhead quota Zone Quotas system limits use based upon where a user The zone quota offers a tight control of use begins their trip. After the first night, this within specific travel zones by setting limits system allows users to go wherever they wish on how many nights a user can camp inside a within the wilderness after they start from specific zone. A maximum quota would be set a specified trailhead. Most destinations are for the entire zone. Hot spots could require reached from more than one trailhead, so this smaller, site-specific zones in order to address system provides flexible, but loose control areas of high density and use within existing over use.