A section of Yosemite National Park could be cordoned off for private development at the request of the Trump administration, a national news outlet reported Friday.
NOTUS, a watchdog political news organization, reported Friday morning that Trump officials may be working with a private Nevada-based company to exchange roughly a quarter-mile strip of Yosemite for an undetermined parcel of California private land.
Citing “four people directly familiar with discussions, as well as agency documents,” NOTUS said the Trump administration had been in talks with real estate and investment firm Kingsbarn Realty Capital since spring of 2025.
The Nevada-based company reportedly owns 83 acres of land just west of the National Park, and Kingsbarn CEO Jeff Pori allegedly wants to build a road connecting the plot with a main road within Yosemite, NOTUS wrote. Paving over the acquired strip of Yosemite land would allow visitors on Kingsbarn’s land to reach the National Park’s landmarks much quicker than they would be able to as it stands now, according to NOTUS.
Sources speaking to NOTUS said the firm’s request is “backed by the full weight of the Interior Department’s top political leadership,” a claim the department pushed back against Friday.
In a statement to multiple outlets including Outside Magazine, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said: “This story relies on anonymous allegations to manufacture a political narrative that simply is not true,” according to Outside. “There has been no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome, and claims suggesting the Department is secretly working to hand over NPS land to a private developer are false.”
A department spokesperson doubled down in a statement to the New York Times, saying, “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.”
Kingsbarn Realty Capital had not publicly addressed the claims as of Friday afternoon.
CA Democrats, environmental orgs react
California political leaders and environmental organizations quickly responded to the bombshell report, vowing to fight the deal before it goes through.
Sen. Alex Padilla in a post to X linking to the New York Times’ reporting wrote: “Yosemite is not for sale.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael and ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, issued a statement on X Friday morning saying the parks do not belong to private developers.
“These places should be protected for every generation, not sold off to Trump’s ultra-wealthy friends to profit off of,” Huffman wrote. “I will fight this, both for Yosemite and for every treasured park that would be up for grabs if this domino falls.”
Environmental nonprofit Sierra Club stated that the deal would break a government commitment of more than 150 years, which promised to maintain Yosemite for “the public good.”
“For more than 150 years, each generation has carried forward the responsibility to protect this sacred landscape and pass it on intact,” Sierra Club executive director Loren Bradford wrote in a statement. “The Trump administration is betraying that legacy by trying to hand parts of Yosemite to a private developer. We will use every tool at our disposal to stop this corrupt giveaway.”
According to the Sierra Club, a federal court struck down a similar bid to build a road on National Park land to the same 83-acre plot more than a decade ago, after National Park Service officials fought the request alongside the environmentalist group.
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