YOSEMITE FOR SALE?

The Trump administration is weighing a land exchange that would transfer a strip of Yosemite National Park to a Nevada-based private developer, according to documents first reported by NOTUS and reviewed by multiple news outlets. 

For more than a year, the administration has quietly worked to cede a strip of land inside Yosemite National Park to the Nevada-based developer, and the developer’s own representative now says the deal is nearly done. The National Park Service has been in discussions with Kingsbarn Realty Capital about a land swap so the developer can build an access road “under a mile” to connect to Yosemite’s entrance.

Kingsbarn owns an 83-acre parcel historically known as Hazel Green Ranch near Yosemite’s western boundary. As part of the deal, Kingsbarn would purchase land of equal value elsewhere in California and hand it over to the park service. The proposal has been in the works since spring 2025, and would have the Park Service either give up the strip outright or surrender an interest in it in the form of an easement.

The deal immediately drew criticism from conservation groups. 

The Sierra Club called it a “corrupt back-room deal” that would break with a longstanding commitment to “protect Yosemite for the public good” by handing over national park land to a developer, and the National Parks Conservation Association said the proposal “attempts to dismantle America’s conservation legacy.” 

Don Neubacher, a former Yosemite supervisor now on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, called the plan “so ridiculous, it makes you sick,” and noted a similar proposal had been raised in the early 2000s before being rejected, first by the park service and later in court. 

A spokesperson for the Interior Department said no final decision has been made, adding that any land exchange or access proposal involving park service lands would be subject to federal law, environmental review and public notification requirements. Kingsbarn’s attorney, Lanny Davis, framed the proposal as environmentally beneficial, saying the shorter access route would reduce driving and vehicle emissions.