Feinstein, Costa Introduce Bill to Expand Yosemite

Environment California

Washington, DC – Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Representative Jim Costa (D-CA) have introduced a bill to add 1,600 acres of soaring, conifer-studded hillsides and alpine meadows to Yosemite National Park. The land was originally part of Yosemite, but Congress stripped its protection in a 1906 concession to industrial interests. Feinstein and Costa’s bill would remove legal barriers to righting this historic wrong.

“This is a great day for Yosemite,” said Nathan Weaver with Environment California. “We applaud work by California’s leaders to preserve and strengthen one of the most beautiful places in California and the world.”

The current owners, Pacific Forest Trust and a partnership of private individuals, support the land transfer. Pacific Forest Trust bought its share of the land to protect it from development, according to Paul Mason with Pacific Forest Trust. If passed, the Yosemite National Park Boundary Expansion Act of 2013 would enable the National Park Service to buy the land through an existing program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

A broad coalition of state leaders supports expanding Yosemite. The California State Senate unanimously passed a resolution last week to show support for the expansion. The resolution, authored State Senator Tom Berryhill (R-Twain Harte), had the support of co-authors representing communities as diverse as Bakersfield, Merced, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Redding. The Mariposa County Board of Supervisors, the local government currently responsible for the land, approves of expansion. And so does Robert Hanna, an avid park advocate and John Muir’s great-great-grandson.

“This is an incredible opportunity we have that will no doubt speak to all future generations,” said Hanna. “Like it is for so many others, Yosemite is a special place to me and my family and I look forward to working with everyone to add to its majestic beauty.”

If passed, this historic legislation would improve Yosemite in time for the 150th anniversary of the original Yosemite land grant, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.