Senate Joint Resolution No. 5

Introduced by Senator Rubio

(Coauthors: Senators Beall, Calderon, Cannella, De León, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Monning, Padilla, Pavley, Steinberg, Wolk, Wright, and Yee)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Gatto and Holden)

February 21, 2013

Senate Joint Resolution No. 5—Relative to Yosemite National Park.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SJR 5, as introduced, Rubio. Yosemite National Park: boundary adjustment.

This measure would declare the Legislature’s support for adjusting the boundary of the Yosemite National Park to include an approximately 1,575 acre area adjacent to the southwest boundary of the park, further bounded by the Sierra National Forest, and owned by 2 landowners who have expressed their desire to add that area to the park to protect the integrity of the Yosemite National Park and the Sierra National Forest. This measure would urge the United States Congress to act expeditiously in adjusting the boundary of the park.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The incomparable Yosemite is a federally
designated national park spanning eastern portions of the Counties
of Tuolumne, Mariposa, and Madera in the central eastern portion
of California. The park covers an area of over 760,000 acres and
reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain
chain; and

WHEREAS, Along with Yosemite’s stunning beauty and vast
mountainous views and spectacular waterfalls, it is one of the
largest and least fragmented habitat regions in the Sierra Nevada,
and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park
has an elevation range from two to 13,000 feet and contains five
major vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodland, lower mountain
forest, upper mountain forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of
California’s 7,000 plant species, about 50 percent occur in the
Sierra Nevada and more than 20 percent are within Yosemite.
There is suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants in the park;
and

WHEREAS, A federal park bill was passed by both houses of
the 38th United States Congress and signed by President Abraham
Lincoln on June 30, 1864, creating the Yosemite grant; while the
Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were initially ceded to
California as a state park, they were returned to the United States
government by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906; and

WHEREAS, Yosemite was named one of America’s first
National Parks in 1890, and remains one of the country’s most
popular natural attractions with over 3.7 million people visiting
Yosemite each year; and

WHEREAS, Rural residential development adjacent to the park
creates resource management challenges for the park, the adjacent
Sierra National Forest, as well as local government because of the
difficulty of providing county services such as fire protection,
water, and road services to such a remote location; and

WHEREAS, There is an approximately 1,575 acre area adjacent
to the southwest boundary of Yosemite National Park, further
bounded by Sierra National Forest, owned by two landowners who
have expressed their desire to add that area to the park; and

WHEREAS, The inclusion of this area within the national park
has been unanimously supported by the Mariposa County Board
of Supervisors and in 2012 United States Congressman Jim Costa
introduced House Resolution 5709 to adjust the boundary of
Yosemite National Park to allow these willing landowners to
transfer this property to the park; and

WHEREAS, The proposed boundary line adjustment
appropriates no funds, but would allow the future acquisition of
these lands using existing programs such as the Land and Water
Conservation Fund; and

WHEREAS, The Yosemite National Park is currently preparing
for a 150th anniversary celebration in 2014; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature supports adjusting the
boundary of Yosemite National Park to include this property to
protect the integrity of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra
National Forest; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature encourages the United States
Congress to act expeditiously on this boundary adjustment; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to each Senator and Representative from California
in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for
appropriate distribution.