Another Yosemite Protest Planned Amid Government Shutdown

An Occupy Yosemite event took place Friday at the park's eastern end. Now a protest is scheduled for Saturday morning at its western end -- and it's being organized by a former employee.

"We just want to try to be heard and show that [Congress'] inaction is causing a lot of suffering financially for a lot of people," Sean Anderson, who lives outside the park in Mariposa, told KCET. "It's just not good business for the country and local community."

Anderson, a former park archives technician, is planning the 10 a.m. protest with a ranger who is currently furloughed by the government shutdown that began Tuesday. It will take place outside the park at the Arch Rock entrance on Highway 140.

Josh Hart, a front desk clerk at the nearby Yosemite View Lodge, noted that hotel reservations at this time of year tend to slow down, but not at the rate he's seen this week. "Normally we'd have 80 [reservations] a day, now we're down to 30 to 50 a day." He noted that large groups with reservations over the next couple of weeks are canceling.

News of the Saturday's event was first noted in the local Mariposa Gazette.

One thing Anderson hopes people understand is that the protest is not against park rangers, but at Congress. "Being a park service employee," he said, "I understand the dedication that people put to their jobs and how connected they are to the park."

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