Yosemite National Park opens public scoping for Wilderness Stewardship Plan

Yosemite National Park opened public scoping for planning and environmental impact analysis for the Yosemite Wilderness Stewardship Plan. Comments will be accepted through Jan. 29.

Park officials say the stewardship plan, currently managed under the 1989 Wilderness Management Plan, needed an update to incorporate current information about visitor use patterns, methods of managing visitor use, techniques for trail design and construction, and concepts for managing stock in wilderness.

The updated plan will provide management direction and a framework that preserves wilderness in Yosemite. Qualities of wilderness character include natural; opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; undeveloped; untrammeled; and other features of value, such as scientific, educational, scenic or historical values.

This planning effort will incorporate a new policy direction for wilderness management and determine the extent to which commercial services will be conducted at Yosemite.

A public scoping meeting will be held Jan. 20 from noon to 2 p.m. in the Yosemite Valley Auditorium.

Webinars will be held Dec. 16 and Jan. 6 from noon to 1 p.m. and Jan. 12 from 6 to 7 p.m.

For more information: parkplanning.nps.gov/yosewild.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Yosemite National Park opens public scoping for Wilderness Stewardship Plan."