Interior spokesperson rejects report as California Democrats object
The reporting, based on agency documents and unnamed sources, describes internal Park Service discussions about how the agency could surrender the parcel to Kingsbarn in a swap, according to Notus. Kingsbarn, a Nevada-based real-estate company, already owns an 83-acre undeveloped plot immediately outside the park that it purchased in 2024. The previous owner of that land had spent decades unsuccessfully lobbying the federal government for permission to build a private road through the park.
Kingsbarn Chief Executive Jeff Pori wants to construct a short road connecting the parcel to a central Yosemite route, according to Notus. The current access road runs more than 10 miles from the nearest park entrance, the outlet reported, requiring travelers to take an indirect route to reach popular park attractions.
Interior Department spokesperson Aubrie Spady rejected the Notus reporting in a statement to the Guardian. “There has been no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome,” Spady said, adding that suggestions the department is secretly working to transfer National Park Service land to a private developer are “false.”
Park advocates pushed back on the reported proposal. Jayson O’Neill, a spokesperson for Save Our Parks, described it as a “push to sell off public lands and privatize America’s national parks” by 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, all while lying to us about protecting them,” O’Neill said. “National parks belong to the American people, not monied developers who are part of Trump’s donor class.”
California Democratic lawmakers also opposed the proposal. Rep. Jared Huffman, whose district includes the state’s north coast, said the exchange would set a broader precedent. “Our parks belong to all of us,” Huffman said. “These places should be protected for every generation, not sold off to Trump’s ultra-wealthy friends to profit off of.” He added: “I will fight this, both for Yosemite and for every treasured park that would be up for grabs if this domino falls.”
Both of California’s U.S. senators have also expressed opposition to efforts to build the road, the Guardian reported.
The interior department said no final decisions have been reached and that any land exchange or access proposal would be “subject to all applicable federal laws, regulations and Departmental policies, including required environmental review and public notification processes.”