Mercury News editorial: McClintock’s Yosemite blunder needs correcting
Mercury News Editorial
June 26, 2014
San Jose Mercury News
U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock was a tea party kind of guy before there was a tea party. He has been pandering to the extreme right and blowing off his constituents — who are mere Republicans — by failing to get behind a 1,575 acre expansion of Yosemite National Park in Mariposa County.
McClintock makes speeches generally opposing public ownership of land, but he says he’s not totally opposed to this purchase. He just has some conditions for supporting the legislation that needs to pass Congress.
Not good enough.
McClintock should be out in front of this, leading the way for the National Park Service to buy the exceptionally scenic acreage available from two willing sellers. One of them, the Pacific Forest Trust, acquired its 793 acres 10 years ago specifically for the park. It can’t afford carrying costs any more and needs to sell by the end of the year, if not to the park then to private owners who could develop the land into 19 ranchettes.
McClintock doesn’t trust the park service. He’s still outraged by a proposal to ban bicycle rentals in Yosemite, even though it was dropped when the public protested. He says he wants a plan for the land before he decides on the purchase, but the park service can’t legally spend money, which is to say time, on a plan for land it doesn’t own.
The district McClintock represents is as Republican as Santa Clara County is Democratic. But the Mariposa County economy relies on tourism — the drawing power of magnificent Yosemite.
Residents and businesses there suffered irreparable harm last fall when McClintock joined the majority in Congress and shut down the government, including the park. This turned off the flow of income to communities like a drought turns off Yosemite Falls.
On the Yosemite plan, McClintock is on the receiving end of letters from the Republican county Board of Supervisors and a variety of Republican lawmakers.
While the park service can’t do a detailed plan, it wants to develop trails and badly needed campsites, finally replacing some that were lost in the last valley flood and never rebuilt near the river. Campsites are opportunities for low- and middle-income families to enjoy the park.
One U.S. senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, has a bill to expand the park boundaries to include the two properties. The state’s other senator, Barbara Boxer, is a co-sponsor. But it won’t pass the House over the district congressman’s opposition.
A Republican, Abraham Lincoln, first set Yosemite aside for protection 150 years ago, and Republicans and Democrats alike have been proud to add to it.
Instead of hemming and hawing, McClintock should grasp this opportunity to make a significant contribution to Yosemite. His tea party friends will fume, but millions of future park visitors will be grateful. As will his district voters this fall.