Staff Report –
Former Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher, who spent 36 years with the National Park Service and ran Yosemite until 2016, recently told ABC News that the land swap proposed by the Trump administration with a private developer on the park’s western edge is not something the agency does, period.
The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, where he now sits on the executive council, highlighted the interview Thursday.
The deal involves Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a Nevada firm that owns the 83-acre Hazel Green Ranch just outside the boundary near Highway 120. Kingsbarn wants roughly 1.1 acres of federal land for a 700-foot road linking a planned lodge to Big Oak Flat Road inside Yosemite.
In exchange, the company would buy land of supposed equal value elsewhere in California and hand it to the Park Service.
Interior Department sources confirmed discussions are underway, but say no decision has been made and any exchange would face environmental review and public notice.
Kingsbarn attorney Lanny Davis, whose clients have included Harvey Weinstein, Trent Lott, Martha Stewart and the Office of the President at Penn State University accused of sexual misconduct, calls it an access road under half a mile that would not shrink the park.
Neubacher’s objection is partly about process. He said the company sought congressional approval for a similar arrangement this past year and was turned down, and that the Park Service rejected a comparable proposal in the early 2000s. His other concern is the ground itself, home to Pacific fishers and great gray owls, two of the Sierra’s rarest animals.
Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff oppose the exchange, as does Rep. Chellie Pingree, who argues it serves a private transaction rather than a public purpose.
For a park already straining by staff layoffs by the Trump administration, and record crowds on weekends and holidays after dropping its reservation system, a new private development with its own driveway inside the gate is not what is needed.
Reporting from Active NorCal.
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