The Trump administration is actively pursuing a deal to transfer a quarter-mile parcel of land inside Yosemite National Park to a Nevada-based private developer, according to reporting by the news outlet Notus.
National Park Service staff have been exploring how the agency can transfer the land to Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a company that already owns an 83-acre plot immediately outside the park's boundaries. The development company's CEO, Jeff Pori, wants to construct a short road connecting that exterior parcel to a central Yosemite route, according to Notus, which cited agency documents and unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.
The exterior land was previously owned by someone who attempted for decades to secure federal approval to build a private resort and construct a private road through the park. That access route would currently require travelers to take a journey more than 10 miles from the nearest park entrance to reach the property and popular park attractions.
Administration officials have proposed that the National Park Service transfer the land in exchange for equally valued land elsewhere in California. According to sources cited by Notus, the interior department's top political leaders support the arrangement, and the situation has created internal tension within the park service.
An interior department spokesperson disputed the reporting. "There has been no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome," the statement said, calling the suggestion that the department is "secretly working to hand over National Park Service land to a private developer" false. The department added that no final decisions have been reached and that any land exchange would be "subject to all applicable federal laws, regulations and Departmental policies, including required environmental review and public notification processes."
The proposal has generated strong opposition from conservation advocates and lawmakers. Jayson O'Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks, characterized the effort as part of a broader "push to sell off public lands and privatize America's national parks" under interior secretary Doug Burgum.
"If mismanaging parks and stealing entrance fees for Trump's DC vanity projects wasn't enough, now Americans find out Doug Burgum and his cronies spent a year secretly negotiating to hand a piece of Yosemite national park over to a well-connected developer," O'Neill said.
Both of California's senators and Democratic congressman Jared Huffman, who represents California's north coast, have expressed opposition to developing the road. Huffman said the parks "belong to all of us" and should "be protected for every generation, not sold off to Trump's ultra-wealthy friends to profit off of."
Yosemite was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and attracts approximately four million visitors annually. The nearly 750,000-acre park in the Sierra Nevada has been protected under federal conservation laws established by the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916.