Opinion ID: 3051488
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Addressing User Capacities2

Text: The 2005 Revised Plan, pursuant to the ROD, adopts VERP as its primary method of addressing user capacity. NPS argues that the district court erred in finding that the 2005 Revised Plan did not remedy the deficiency we found in the user capacity component of the 2000 CMP. According to NPS, sufficiently specific measurable limits on use can be found in (1) the Wilderness Trailhead Quota System; the Superintendent’s Compendium limits; (2) the new VERP indicators and standards; and (3) the interim limits imposed by the User Capacity Management Program.
Superintendent’s Compendium [1] The district court properly concluded that neither the Wilderness Trailhead Quota System nor the Superintendent’s 2 While we have not required that NPS set a numerical cap on visitors but rather that it “deal with or discuss the maximum number of people that can be received at” the Merced, Yosemite I, 348 F.3d at 796, as counsel for Friends alluded to at oral argument, numerical limits on visitor use is commonly used by agencies in order to protect our natural environment. See, e.g., U.S. Air Tour Ass’n v. FAA, 298 F.3d 997, 1011-12 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (allowing numerical cap on the number of commercial air tours over the Grand Canyon and noting that “[l]imiting the number of visitors at a given time in a national park is a standard measure used to protect park resources”); Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness v. Dombeck, 164 F.3d 1115, 1128-29 (8th Cir. 1999) (upholding the U.S. Forest Service’s EIS where nine out of ten alternatives placed limits on visitor use at or below current levels). 3078 FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE Compendium3 are “persuasive as to whether the 2005 Revised Plan adequately addresses user capacities.” Friends of Yosemite, 439 F. Supp. 2d at 1096. Although they are steps in the right direction, both these methods for addressing user capacity “predate the 2000 [CMP] and were relied upon by [NPS] in support of that plan” to no avail. Id.
[2] The district court correctly found that VERP does not properly address user capacities because, by not requiring a response to environmental degradation until after it already occurs, it is reactive and thereby violates 16 U.S.C. § 1281(a) and the Secretarial Guidelines, 47 Fed. Reg. at 39,458-59, interpreting the management principles of § 1281(a). NPS argues that the district court based its holding on a legally incorrect view that the WSRA does not allow reliance on a program that monitors particular indicators, such as VERP, because such a program is, by definition, “reactive.” According to NPS, that ruling is contrary to our holding in Yosemite I, where we held that NPS could address user capacities with a VERP framework that monitors and maintains environmental and experiential criteria. See Yosemite I, 348 F.3d at 796-97. NPS further contends that the district court’s ruling incorrectly requires NPS to set specific limits on the number of visitors, even though we stated in Yosemite I that a numerical cap is not required. NPS misreads the district court’s analysis, and its argument is therefore flawed. The 3 The Wilderness Trailhead Quota System imposes limits on the number of overnight users allowed within the wilderness segments of the river, which comprise 51 of the 81 miles of the Merced under NPS management. It has been in place since the 1970s. The Superintendent’s Compendium limits the time and location of specific activities, or imposes limits on the number of people allowed to engage in specific activities. For example it includes limits on overnight group size, day use group size, stock animals per group, stock animal travel areas and areas of non-motorized water craft use and fishing. FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE 3079 reason the district court found that the revised VERP was reactionary was not because a framework that monitors and maintains is inherently reactive and thus can never be proactive. Rather, the revised VERP at issue was found to be reactionary, and thus responsive after-the-fact to already occurring degradation, because it does not “ ‘describe an actual level of visitor use that will not adversely impact the Merced’s ORVs.’ ” See Friends of Yosemite, 439 F. Supp. 2d at 10981100 (quoting Yosemite I, 348 F.3d at 797). NPS next argues the district court incorrectly stated that the VERP as set out in the 2005 Revised Plan “is not oriented towards preventing degradation.” It contends that the indicators and standards established in VERP trigger action prior to degradation of ORVs. In support, NPS asserts that (1) the indicators and standards are set conservatively so that, although management may not act before the indicators and standards are exceeded, action will be taken before there is degradation; (2) the text of the 2005 Revised Plan provides that “[i]ndicators, which are measurable variables, are determined first; standards quantifiably define the acceptable conditions (i.e., measured values) for each indicator. . . . [which] are set at a level that will protect and enhance the Merced River’s [ORVs]” (emphasis added); (3) NPS does not choose a particular indicator unless that indicator is “[a]ble to provide an early warning for resource degradation”; (4) management action may occur before a standard is exceeded because “[t]he process of monitoring and its relationship to management actions can be likened to a traffic signal . . . . A yellow-light condition occurs when monitoring shows that conditions are approaching the standard. This early warning sign may call for implementing proactive management actions to protect and enhance the [ORVs]”; and (5) the district court’s conclusion is at odds with this panel’s decision in Yosemite I. [3] That an indicator may be able to provide an early warning, does not mean that it does in practice. A standard must be chosen that does in fact trigger management action before 3080 FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE degradation occurs. Also, that an early warning sign may call for the implementation of proactive management does not provide much assurance that such implementation will occur. Despite NPS’s statements to the contrary, in Yosemite I, we did not foreclose a later finding by the district court that the VERP system remains problematic even if VERP does not rely on examples instead of actual indicators and standards. Currently, VERP requires management action only when degradation has already occurred, and it is therefore legally deficient.4
[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