Trump Administration Reportedly Eyeing a Land Swap To Give Part of Yosemite to a Private Company

The National Park Service is negotiating a land exchange that could hand a stretch of Yosemite National Park to a private real estate firm, according to a document submitted to Congress. The agency confirmed it is 'working with the landowner on a land exchange' that would allow a company to connect its property to a park service road, opening the door to commercial development inside one of America's most visited national parks.

According to the document, the landowner would need to 'purchase property inside the park or within other NPS units in California' as part of the swap. Separately, the Interior Department told a Senate office that the exchange is a 'priority,' a characterisation that has drawn scrutiny given the political sensitivity of ceding parkland.

The Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, insists nothing is settled. Asked directly about the proposal, it said no final decisions had been made and that 'if a proposal advances, the Department will follow established procedures to ensure appropriate coordination, transparency and public involvement consistent with federal law.'

It went further, pushing back on the framing that has dominated coverage since NOTUS's report landed. '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 department said.

Kingsbarn's Lawyer Defends the Yosemite Deal

Lanny Davis, the attorney representing Kingsbarn, gave a rather colourful account of how the deal came about, and it's not the one you'd expect. 'It wasn't Donald Trump, it was me, liberal Democrat Lanny Davis, former counsel to President Clinton, went to the Department of Interior, and we made the argument that this is a pro-environmental decision to allow this road to be directly built to allow the residents of this privately owned property to gain entrance or exit to the park,' Davis said.

He was adamant the access road poses no ecological threat. 'The road we're building is a direct pathway that does not endanger any endangered species, and is simply a road,' he said.

That framing has done little to quiet the criticism. Democratic senators have been blunt, verging on scathing. Senator Alex Padilla of California called it, without much hedging, 'the most corrupt administration in history' in a written statement to The Hill.

He argued the mechanism at the centre of the swap, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, exists specifically to protect natural areas and cultural heritage, not to reward political connections.

'Projects should be chosen on merit, not on an applicant's connections to high-ranking Trump administration officials,' Padilla said, adding that his office is now working with the Senate Appropriations Committee to try to halt the project before it goes any further.

Wider Backlash Over the Yosemite Land Exchange

A spokesperson for Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee, said he also objects to the exchange. Conservation groups have joined the chorus too, and their language has been pointed.

Mark Rose, senior Sierra Nevada program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, called it 'a secretive, backroom deal that would turn over Park Service land to a private developer,' adding, 'this is an attack on the American people that own this national park.'

Whether the exchange actually happens is still an open question, and the Interior Department's insistence that no decision has been reached leaves plenty of room for the plan to stall, shrink or vanish altogether. What's harder to dispute is that a park established, in part, to keep land out of private hands is now the subject of exactly that kind of negotiation. Congress, for now, is watching closely.