Dear Superintendent McPadden,

We are writing to formally oppose the removal of Yosemite National Park’s entrance reservation system and to demand that controlled entry remain in place for peak visitation periods, including Firefall and the summer season. 

Your recent announcement that no reservations will be required for the Horsetail Fall/Firefall event, and your public statements questioning the value of a summer reservation system, signals a reversal of a visitor management strategy that has already been tested, withdrawn, and reinstated due to the documented negative impacts of its removal.

This cycle is not theoretical. In 2023, the removal of summer reservations led to severe congestion, safety risks, resource damage, and widespread operational strain. In 2024, reservations were reinstated precisely because those outcomes were found to be unacceptable and unsustainable. This sequence exists in recent institutional memory and provides an empirical basis for policy. Choosing to disregard this data is indefensible and negligent.

Furthermore, Firefall reservations have never been revoked since their implementation in 2023. Even in a year when the National Park Service allowed uninhibited summer access, it still considered managed entry appropriate for the Firefall event.

Yosemite is one of the most heavily visited national parks in the world, with fragile meadow systems, limited infrastructure, narrow roadways, and constrained emergency response capacity. High-impact visitation without controlled access predictably results in:

• Traffic gridlock that impedes emergency vehicles
• Overflow parking resulting in resource destruction
• Unsafe pedestrian conditions along road corridors
• Concession overload and degraded visitor experience
• Increased tension between visitors, staff, and surrounding communities

The reservation system is not a perfect tool, but it is currently the only mechanism that meaningfully regulates volume in a way that protects both the park and the life within it – guests, staff, wildlife, and sensitive habitat. An unregulated visitor access system severely (and avoidably) degrades the quality of the Yosemite experience for everyone. It is your duty as Superintendent to lead this park in a way that provides an experience that is memorable for the right reasons, not for a stressful, crowded day that will mostly consist of waiting in lines rather than enjoying the park.

Simply utilizing targeted personnel deployment during peak visitation will not alter the structural relationship between volume and capacity. Staffing levels are already strained. Physical enforcement cannot scale to the volume Yosemite receives during peak events and seasons, even at full staffing. Relying on personnel alone to manage overcrowding is neither realistic nor responsible, particularly in light of recent staffing reductions and ever-growing visitation pressure. At best, this action plan reduces, if not outright removes, National Park Service staff’s ability to perform any other job duties outside of crowd control. At worst, it could put NPS staff’s safety at risk.

The reservation system functions as a necessary governance tool that aligns visitor volume with ecological and operational limits. It reduces stress, increases predictability, and supports long-range planning for visitors, staff, concessioners, and gateway communities.

We are asking you to maintain the reservation system as a baseline visitor management tool for Yosemite National Park, including during the Firefall event and the peak summer season. Do not repeat recent history by removing the park’s only current entry management system, a decision path this agency already reversed in response to negative operational and resource impacts. 

Yosemite National Park is not an appropriate testing ground for ideological preferences surrounding public land access. It is a globally significant, ecologically sensitive public trust that requires disciplined, data-informed management. We demand that you steward it accordingly.

Sincerely,

[Signatories]

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This petition will be sent directly to the Superintendent's Office in Yosemite National Park.

Header photo by Takashi M, CC BY-NC 2.0.