Opinion ID: 3051488
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Interim Limits

Text: [4] The district court properly concluded that the interim limits “do not describe an actual level of visitor use that will not adversely impact the Merced’s ORVs.” Friends of Yosemite, 439 F. Supp. 2d at 1099-1100. The 2005 Revised Plan adopted interim limits for a five-year period to restrict the kinds and amounts of visitor use in the Merced River corridor while the VERP program is being tested. These interim limits include caps on overnight lodging, campsites, day-visitor parking, bus parking spaces and employee housing units. Buses are limited to 92 per day in the Yosemite Valley seg- 4 Although this does not alter our conclusion, NPS is correct that the district court erred to the extent that it interpreted the WSRA to require that a method adopted for addressing user capacity be permanent. An appropriate method must be in place. But, just as NPS has discretion in choosing a particular method of addressing user capacities, NPS has the discretion to make improvements to its method, or switch to a new method, based on new scientific evidence. See Yosemite I, 348 F.3d at 796-97. Furthermore, the very nature of VERP, which we concluded in Yosemite I could be an acceptable method of addressing user capacities if implemented properly, is fluid in that it is an iterative process that improves and adjusts with time. See also Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S. Dep’t of Interior, 376 F.3d 853, 869-70 (9th Cir. 2004); Selkirk Conservation Alliance v. Forsgren, 336 F.3d 944, 965 (9th Cir. 2003). NPS admits, nevertheless, that it has chosen VERP as its primary method of dealing with user capacity issues for the foreseeable future and takes issue with the district court’s proper characterization of VERP as “tentative.” FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE 3081 ment, which according to NPS, is consistent with the number of buses that entered the Yosemite Valley at peak periods such as in the mid-1990s. Day-visitor parking spaces, bus parking spaces, and overnight lodging facilities are set at existing levels. The number of campsites in Yosemite Valley would be allowed to increase slightly during the interim period by 163 sites for an interim limit of 638 sites, a level which, as NPS states, falls below both the number of campsites in the Yosemite Valley prior to the 1997 flood and when the Merced River was designated Wild and Scenic in 1987. Some of the limits, while at existing capacity limits, are below facility levels that existed in 1980, before the Merced River was designated under the WSRA. According to NPS, its choice of interim limits is not arbitrary or capricious. NPS argues that “[i]f the status of the Merced River’s ORVs was sufficient for eligibility in 1987 when Yosemite Valley had more parking spaces, rooms and campsites than at present, it would be improper to simply assume that the lower facility levels permitted under the 2005 [Revised Plan] will ‘degrade’ the ORVs.” Furthermore, NPS argues that its decision is consistent with § 1281(a) of the WSRA because it does not “limit[ ] other uses that do not substantially interfere with public use and enjoyment of” the Merced’s ORVs. 16 U.S.C. § 1281(a). [5] There is no authority for a presumption that holding facility levels to those in existence in 1987, when the Merced was designated under the WSRA, is protective of ORVs or satisfies the user capacity component of the required CMP. See Friends of Yosemite, 439 F. Supp. 2d at 1099-1100. NPS has a responsibility under the “protect and enhance” requirement of the WSRA to address both past and ongoing degradation. Setting interim limits to current capacity limits does not address the problem of past degradation.5 Moreover, nowhere 5 To illustrate the level of degradation already experienced in the Merced and maintained under the regime of interim limits proposed by NPS, we 3082 FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE has NPS shown how its interim limits place “primary emphasis” on the protection of the Merced River’s “esthetic, scenic, historic, archeologic, and scientific features” as required by § 1281(a). And although the WSRA does not preclude basing user capacity limits on current capacity limits, NPS’s decision to base many of its interim limits on current capacity limits was not “founded on a reasoned evaluation of the relevant factors.” See Yosemite I, 348 F.3d at 793 (internal quotation marks omitted). Nor has NPS “articulated a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.” See id.6