Trump administration faces backlash over Yosemite park giveaway
A news outlet claims the government has been quietly working to transfer a roughly 400-metre strip of the park to a Nevada-based company
The National Park Service had been holding talks with Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital to build an access road from a 33-hectare (83-acre) private property just outside the park to Yosemite’s entrance, in exchange for land elsewhere, lawyer Lanny Davis said.
The news was first reported by NOTUS on Friday. The government had spent over a year quietly working to transfer a roughly 400-metre (0.25-mile) strip of the park to Kingsbarn, according to the news outlet.
It caused an uproar among conservationists and opposition Democrats, who have fiercely objected to moves by the administration to roll back protections of public lands – including pushing to reinstate road building and logging in national forests.
But Davis, who described himself as a lifelong “progressive Democrat”, framed the road as a green move, on the grounds that it would shorten trips to and from the currently undeveloped property, cutting emissions compared to the current circuitous route.
“Without a direct access route, every trip from the Hazel Green area requires a significantly longer drive – twice as long, at a minimum – on unpaved forest roads and thus more air pollution,” Davis said. “The new access road would be safer for drivers and generate substantially less vehicle emissions.”