SAN FRANCISCO – The 1997 floods in Yosemite Valley disrupted the expectations of park visitors, as well as the operations of local businesses.

Yet, there was a silver lining to the storm clouds that produced those floods – a historic opportunity to transform into reality what had long been a grand, but elusive vision for Yosemite – a more vibrant Yosemite, where natural processes operate freely.

A Yosemite with less asphalt, fewer automobiles, less development, less congestion and an enhanced visitor experience. A Yosemite to be enjoyed by people from all over the world.

Fortunately, the National Park Service seized upon this opportunity by undertaking a three-year planning process that culminated in the adoption of the Yosemite Valley Plan. Intellectual honesty, rigorous analysis and extensive public participation characterized this planning process.

The proposed centralization of day-use parking to a 500-space lot is of vital importance if congestion is to be reduced in Yosemite Valley. It is not only an answer to those handful of days when gridlock is achieved, it is also an answer to the numerous days when automobile congestion, while short of absolute gridlock, renders a visit to Yosemite Valley an exercise in frustration.

Under the final plan, there would be 500 campsites in the valley. Assuming a two-night stay, that is enough for 30,000 families or groups of friends to camp out over a four-month summer camping season. Add in the 1,065 other campsites within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, and there is enough for a total of 94,000 camping opportunities during a four-month period.

Under the plan, the mix of overnight accommodations in Yosemite emphasizes those at the lower end of the cost scale. Of 1,461 total overnight opportunities in Yosemite Valley, 1,179 are campsites, rustic tent cabins, and economy-scale cabins, or 81 percent of all overnight accommodations. Only 282 beds, so to speak, would be at the upper-cost levels.

Without question, the Park Service has more than adequately found a way to accommodate camping and low-cost overnight accommodations in Yosemite.

The time has come to realize that at 4,480 acres, Yosemite Valley is a finite place with real limits.

For years, Yosemite Valley was expected to be all things to all people, with far too much infrastructure stuffed into the place – parking lots, roads, pizza parlors, a bank, a beauty parlor, a gas station, campgrounds, offices, hotels, snack bars, restaurants, gift shops, a maintenance shop, bathrooms, bridges, a museum, a church, hiking trails, bike paths, tent cabins, grocery stores, swimming pools, skating rinks, signs, stables, employee housing, water systems, sewage systems and a Laundromat.

The Yosemite Valley Plan sought to reverse that trend. Yosemite’s time has come. Let’s get the job done and done right as set forth in the Final Yosemite Valley Plan

Jay Thomas Watson is the California/Nevada Regional Director for The Wilderness Society.