Trump vowed to protect 'every acre' of U.S. lands. Days later, the government is considering carving off a piece of Yosemite for private developers

Just days after making the statement, his administration is actively considering a land exchange with a private real estate developer, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, which owns an 83-acre property in the Stanislaus National Forest just outside Yosemite’s western boundary.

Kingsbarn Realty Capital wants to build a private-access road connecting its property to a service road within the national park, making it easier for residents to reach Yosemite’s major attractions.

Under the proposal, the developer would acquire interest in an 11-mile strip of Yosemite land and provide another parcel of comparable value in exchange — although, at the time of writing, the exact replacement piece of land has not been finalized.

Inside the Yosemite controversy

Yosemite spans nearly 750,000 acres of diverse terrain, meaning the area under consideration represents only a fraction of the national park’s size.

An attorney for Kingsbarn Realty Capital told the Los Angeles Times that the plan is “environmentally friendly” because it significantly reduces the amount of driving required of the private development’s residents to reach Yosemite.

Conservation advocates, however, argue that relinquishing any federally protected piece of land to a private development project could establish a troubling precedent.

Congressional Democrats, including Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California, are amongst those who have objected to the project after it was brought to their attention by the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

“The Land and Water Conservation Fund exists to acquire land and interests in land in order to safeguard natural areas, water resources and cultural heritage — and to provide recreation opportunities for all Americans,” Padilla said in a statement to the LA Times. “Projects should be chosen on merit, not on an applicant’s connections to high-ranking Trump administration officials.”

According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by the LA Times, Kingsbarn Chief Executive Jeff Pori is a donor to Trump and the Republican National Committee. And, according to reporting by NOTUS, Trump administration officials have allegedly pressured the National Park Service to approve the deal despite previous proposal rejections. Similar efforts to secure direct access to Yosemite for the property were already rejected by the federal government — including under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

In a statement to the LA Times, the Interior Department, which includes the National Parks Service, denies that the White House has applied inappropriate political pressure to close the deal, adding that NOTUS’ reporting “relies on anonymous allegations to manufacture a political narrative that simply is not true.”

The bigger picture

Yosemite is not simply a stretch of scenic federal property. Indigenous people, including the Ahwahneeche, have lived in the region for at least 8,000 years, and the National Park Service recognizes seven tribes with traditional associations to the park. Yosemite itself acknowledges that Native people were violently displaced from the park during the 1850s, after the arrival of settlers and the Mariposa Battalion. By 1910, over 90% of the original Ahwahneeche inhabitants were dead or missing.

That history makes the prospect of carving out Yosemite land to facilitate private development particularly intriguing, especially coupled with Trump’s recent decision to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” The lake’s original name has Indigenous roots, and leaders of both the Wendat Nation and Seneca Nation have condemned Trump’s move as an erasure of Indigenous history and culture.

Of course, the name change coincided with the U.S.’ ongoing trade war with Canada. But the administration’s pattern of reducing the amounts of public land and actions against preserving it is difficult for critics to ignore.