Report: Trump administration seeks to transfer Yosemite land to private developer
The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to give a parcel of land inside Yosemite National Park to a Nevada-based private developer, according to a report published Friday by the news outlet NOTUS. The report, citing agency documents and unnamed sources directly familiar with the discussions, says staff with the National Park Service have been exploring how the agency can give a quarter-mile strip to a company operated by Kingsbarn Realty Capital.
The proposal involves transferring a roughly 400-metre (0.25-mile) strip of land inside the park to a company linked through a web of other entities to Kingsbarn Realty Capital. The company already owns an 83-acre (34-hectare) plot of undeveloped land immediately outside the park. The previous owner of that land had hoped to create a resort and unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government for decades to allow him to construct a private road in the park, NOTUS reported.
The current access road to the land, which Kingsbarn bought in 2024, is more than 10 miles (16 km) from the nearest park entrance and would require travelers to take a longer, indirect route to reach popular park attractions. Jeff Pori, the company’s CEO, wants to construct a short road to connect the parcel to a central Yosemite route, according to NOTUS. The land would gain “exceptionally rare private access” to Yosemite if the transfer happens, NOTUS said, citing people familiar with the discussions.
Administration officials have proposed that the park service give up the land in exchange for equally valuable land elsewhere in California, the outlet reported. The interior department’s top political leaders support the proposal, according to sources cited by NOTUS, and the situation has created tension inside the park service.
The report has sparked outrage among National Park Service supporters and environmental advocates. Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks, described it as part of a “push to sell off public lands and privatize America’s national parks.” California senators and Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman have expressed opposition to the proposal.
In a statement to the Guardian, Aubrie Spady, an interior department spokesperson, rejected the reporting, arguing there “has been no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome,” and said “suggesting the Department is secretly working to hand over National Park Service land to a private developer [is] false.” The interior department said no decisions have been reached and any proposal would follow environmental review.
The report comes amid other actions by the Trump administration to roll back conservation protections of public lands. In July, the president slashed two Utah national monuments by more than 90 per cent, and this month his administration moved to end a rule barring logging and road-building in national forests.