Friends:
After talking with the SF Chronicle reporter who wrote about the National Park Service’s “unsatisfactory” rating of its concessionaire, Aramark, I drafted the op ed below, addressing a few overall management issues at Yosemite. Newspapers have not shown any interest (after all, there are a few other things in the news these days!), so I thought I would post it as a blog. (The NPS review is posted here.)
Note that this latest problem at Yosemite comes at a time when current budget proposals challenge the National Park Service more then ever – see co-chair Angus King’s press release about his interchange with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
Restore Hetch Hetchy has the utmost respect for the Rangers who are the stewards of our natural resources. They need our support and encouragement. Some of the recommendations below apply to Yosemite overall, not simply Hetch Hetchy where we normally focus our advocacy. But Yosemite is one national park. These recommendations are intended to help the National Park Service provide a better Yosemite.
Yosemite Deserves Better, And So Do We
Yosemite National Park is one of Earth’s best known and most revered natural landscapes. Californians are truly fortunate that it’s in our backyard.
Recent news, however, has highlighted the park’s inability to provide the visitor experience we deserve. As we address these short-term issues, let’s not lose focus on the long-term reform that Yosemite needs.
Aramark, Yosemite’s sole concessionaire which operates all of the park’s lodging, food and shuttles, received an unsatisfactory rating from the National Park Service (Yosemite contractor slammed for hospitality failings, including rodents at Ahwahnee, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3/25). Rats at the Ahwahnee may have grabbed the headlines, but the list of Aramark’s transgressions includes lack of maintenance and employee misconduct as well as sanitary violations. Park visitors know, however, that concessionaire services, including those provided by Aramark’s predecessors, have been lackluster at best for several decades.
Aramark’s scathing review comes amidst unprecedented threats to Yosemite’s budget. The wholesale termination of seasonal rangers by Elon Musk’s erstwhile “Department of Government Efficiency” earlier this spring was largely rescinded but many have since moved on to more reliable employment. Ongoing deliberations in Congress threaten cutting a billion dollars from our National Parks budget – a third of the total. Dedicated Rangers will be stretched thinner than ever this summer as they struggle to keep campgrounds open and bathrooms clean (oh, the glory and prestige of working for the National Park Service).
The Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite has been especially neglected. It’s hard to find staffing at the entrance gate. The Hetch Hetchy campground has never been upgraded and is not available to most park visitors. The National Park Service has never allowed boating at Hetch Hetchy, despite the clear intentions of Congress when it allowed the reservoir to be constructed a century ago. Only in 2024 was the dangerous bridge at Wapama Falls replaced – years after multiple hikers had slipped off it to their deaths during the spring snowmelt season. As the National Park Service addresses the visitor experience across Yosemite, they should pay extra attention to the unmet needs at Hetch Hetchy.
And we have an inexcusable leadership vacuum. Nobody currently serves as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Parks and Wildlife. The Director of the National Park Service and Superintendent of Yosemite are held by people in “acting” (i.e. temporary) roles. Further, Yosemite’s Superintendents typically serve terms too short to implement the real improvements that the park needs. Indeed, the last Superintendent lasted less than 4 years and has not been replaced.
Author Wallace Stegner described our National Parks as “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Right now, it’s not possible to say they reflect us at our best.
There’s much that can be done to improve Yosemite, and all our national parks, so visitors, from home and abroad, can enjoy them fully. Our parks are for everybody and we need broad support for their viability. This means long-term budgetary commitment and discipline, combined with visitor revenues and philanthropy (thanks, Yosemite Conservancy!).
Moreover, the National Park Service should make its own structural changes. It makes no sense to have a revolving door for superintendents. Let’s find a visionary and committed 40 year-old to lead parks like Yosemite. This would provide them the opportunity to stay 20 years, to develop and implement plans for improvement, and to take responsibility for their outcomes.
And in Yosemite and other large parks, it makes no sense to have a single concessionaire manage all 12 lodges as well as eateries and other visitor services. Once a contract is in place, there is little incentive to make a better hamburger or provide a softer bed. The result is all too often uninspired food, lodging and transportation. Let’s have different entrepreneurs run the Ahwahnee, the Yosemite Lodge and Curry Village, and see who does the best and attracts the most visitors. That’s the American way, after all.
Yosemite’s short-term budget and concessionaire issues warrant immediate attention. But long-term reform is needed if we are going to get the Yosemite we deserve.
Spreck Rosekrans is Executive Director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, an organization committed to returning the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its natural splendor ─ while continuing to meet the water and power needs of all communities that depend on the Tuolumne River.