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

Heading: Yosemite I and II

Text: We have twice previously addressed the issues presented by this action. In 2003, we affirmed in part the Eastern District of California’s findings of specific deficiencies in the 2000 CMP, and remanded for a correction of those deficiencies. Yosemite I, 348 F.3d 789. We clarified our opinion in 2004, and remanded for reconsideration of the motion for 3070 FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE injunctive relief filed by Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth (collectively, “Friends”) in light of the clarification. Yosemite II, 366 F.3d 731. Looking to the WSRA requirement that the administering agency “prepare a [CMP] . . . . [that] shall address . . . user capacities” within three full fiscal years of a WSRS segment’s designation, 16 U.S.C. § 1274(d)(1), we concluded, in Yosemite I, that NPS’s method of addressing user capacities was problematic. 348 F.3d at 797. The 2000 CMP’s primary method of addressing user capacities was through a framework called Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (“VERP”). Id. at 796. “[T]he VERP framework focuses on the prescription and maintenance of selected ‘desired conditions.’ ” Id. To maintain these “desired conditions,” the VERP framework provides for “selecting and monitoring indicators and standards that reflect these desired conditions, and taking management action when the desired conditions are not being realized.” Id. (internal citations omitted). Analyzing the plain meaning of the terms within the phrase “address . . . user capacities” as well the Secretarial Guidelines, we interpreted the requirement to “address . . . user capacities” to mean that the CMP must include “specific measurable limits on use.” Id. at 797 (emphasis added). “[T]he plain meaning of the phrase ‘address . . . user capacities,’ is simply that the CMP must deal with or discuss the maximum number of people that can be received at a WSRS.” Id. at 796 (emphasis added). However, the plain meaning does not mandate “one particular approach to visitor capacity.” Id. Furthermore, the Secretarial Guidelines “interpret[ed] the WSRA to require the preparation of river ‘[m]anagement plans [that] state . . . the kinds and amounts of public use which the river area can sustain without impact to the [ORVs],’ and to mandate ongoing studies to ‘determine the quantity and mixture of recreation and other public use which FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE 3071 can be permitted without adverse impact on the resource values of the river area.’ ” Id. at 797 (quoting 47 Fed. Reg. 39,454, 39,458-59). The Secretarial Guidelines, however, do not require one particular method of limiting user capacity. Id. They do not mandate, for example, a numerical cap on visitors. Id. (“[T]he Secretarial Guidelines do not specify that this obligation can be satisfied only by capping the number of visitors.”). We concluded that the VERP framework, as set out in the 2000 CMP, failed sufficiently to address user capacities because it did not adopt “quantitative measures sufficient to ensure its effectiveness as a current measure of user capacities.” Id. Rather than establish specific indicators or standards to implement the VERP, the 2000 CMP provided “examples” of indicators and standards. Id. at 796. By only providing illustrative standards, “the [2000] CMP fail[ed] to yield any actual measure of user capacities, whether by setting limits on the specific number of visitors, by monitoring and maintaining environmental and experiential criteria under the VERP framework, or through some other method.” Id. This “fail- [ure] to provide any concrete measure of use,” we found, was inconsistent with our interpretation of the phrase “address . . . user capacities.” Id. at 797. We instructed that “[o]n remand, the NPS shall adopt specific limits on user capacity consistent with both the WSRA and the instruction of the Secretarial Guidelines that such limits describe an actual level of visitor use that will not adversely impact the Merced’s ORVs.” Id. (emphasis added). Given that “NPS was supposed to have completed a CMP for the Merced River some twelve years ago,” we indicated that we would expect temporary measures to be implemented as soon as practicable in order “to avoid environmental degradation pending the completion of [the] task.” Id. at 803-04. In particular, we recognized that “[i]f the NPS is correct in projecting that it will need five years fully to implement the VERP, it may be able to comply with the user capacity man3072 FRIENDS OF YOSEMITE v. KEMPTHORNE date in the interim by implementing preliminary or temporary limits of some kind.” Id. at 797. As elucidated in Yosemite II, in Yosemite I, “we held that the entire Merced Wild and Scenic River [CMP] is invalid due to two deficiencies: (1) a failure to adequately address user capacities; and (2) the improper drawing of the Merced River’s boundaries at El Portal.” Yosemite II, 366 F.3d at 731. Because the district court had, on remand, misconstrued our holding in Yosemite I, we explained that “[w]hile we remanded to the district court to enter an appropriate order requiring the [NPS] to remedy these deficiencies in the CMP in a timely manner, we did not otherwise uphold the [2000 CMP].” Id. (internal citations and quotation marks omitted; emphasis added). We concluded that, “[p]ursuant to our original Opinion [in Yosemite I], the [NPS] must prepare a new or revised CMP that adequately addresses user capacities and properly draws the river boundaries at El Portal.” Id. In Yosemite II, we also “grant[ed] a temporary stay of proceedings and an injunction prohibiting NPS from implementing any and all projects developed in reliance upon the invalid CMP” pending the district court’s consideration of the matter. Id.