Just a few days after the National Park System turned 110 years old, documents have surfaced that suggest President Trump intends to sell a small parcel of the system’s “crown jewel.”
According to reporting by NOTUS, a D.C.-based politics publication, and later confirmed by The New York Times, the White House is considering a deal that would give away a parcel of land in Yosemite National Park to a private developer. The news was first reported on Friday by NOTUS. Both reviewed public documents and confirmed the deal with officials at the U.S. Interior Department.
Though the deal has apparently not been finalized, it involves transferring an 83-acre parcel of land at the western edge of Yosemite to a company based in Las Vegas. That company would then construct a road in the area, along with two 40-acre parcels near the park, according to documents submitted to Congress this year. In return, the U.S. government would receive land of equivalent value elsewhere in California owned by the company, which would give it to the National Park Service.
The deal was confirmed by NOTUS through a lawyer representing the company. In a statement to GearJunkie, an anonymous spokesperson for the Interior Department declined to confirm the deal.
“There has been no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome, and claims suggesting the Department is secretly working to hand over National Park Service land to a private developer are false,” the spokesperson said. “If a proposal advances, the Department will follow established procedures to ensure appropriate coordination, transparency and public involvement consistent with federal law.”
No Final Deal — Yet
California Senator Adam Schiff, who has long questioned the Interior Department’s management of Yosemite, released a statement on Friday about the potential deal.
“Yosemite is one of California’s natural wonders. The courts struck this project down once, but this administration appears hell-bent on moving forward,” Schiff wrote on X. “We will fight this again.”
According to NOTUS, the Trump administration has been looking into ways it could cede a roughly quarter-mile strip of land inside Yosemite since spring 2025. The land would go to a company that, through a web of limited-liability companies, is operated by real-estate developer and investment firm Kingsbarn Realty Capital, NOTUS reported.
In its statement to GearJunkie, the Interior Department maintained that any such deal to sell land in Yosemite would follow the law.
“Any land exchange or access proposal involving National Park Service lands would be subject to all applicable federal laws, regulations and Departmental policies, including required environmental review and public notification processes,” the spokesperson said.
However, any deal that sells off even a small portion of Yosemite National Park — considered the “crown jewel” of the nation’s park system — is unacceptable, according to conservationists. Private development of the park should be off-limits as well.
“This is so ridiculous, it makes you sick,” said Don Neubacher, a former supervisor at Yosemite who is now on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. According to Neubacher, a similar land swap proposal was proposed in the early 2000s and was rejected by the Park Service.
