WASHINGTON—Not content with literally gilding Washington, D.C.’s monuments, President Donald Trump has angered a federal workers union, environmental groups and California by planning a land giveaway from iconic Yosemite National Park to developer Jeff Poli, who wants to build a private one-mile access road to his lodge and rental cabins outside it.
Outrage from National Federation of Federal Employees President Randy Erwin, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Sierra Club and Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., may not stop Trump and his Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, from agreeing to the deal. Burgum’s spokesman confirmed talks have occurred but claimed any decision will follow proper procedures.
The land swap Kingsbarn Realty Capital owner Poli proposes will let him further develop the Hazel Green Ranch, an 83-acre tract with a lodge and rental cabins just west of the park.
In newspaper interviews, Poli did not say what land, whether near or outside of the park, he would trade for his access road, only that the closest through road to Hazel Green is a Yosemite park road. Right now, drivers to Poli’s development have to travel 10 miles over a circuitous route.
Poli’s predecessors as owners of the Hazel Green site lobbied the National Park Service for decades for the deal, including buying the land for the road. The Park Service, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, refused to sell. It runs Yosemite and other parks.
The land swap is also in line with other Trump attacks on national parks and national monuments, especially in the area between the Mississippi River and the Rockies. And when Trump isn’t trading off national park and monument land, he’s having Burgum remove all references to people of color—especially Black and other enslaved people—from park signs and exhibits.
Poli, in news interviews, claims the access road is environmentally friendly because it would cut air pollution from auto exhaust. He doesn’t mention that it would scar the park or increase the value of the vacation cabins he rents.
Erwin, the NFFE president, whose union represents Yosemite’s rangers, conservationists and other workers, does.
“This deal is a slap in the face to the American people and National Park Service workers,” says Erwin. His union won a recognition election late last year at Yosemite and two other parks, adding 600 members.
“Since 1864, when President Lincoln federally protected the Yosemite Valley, this land has been preserved for the enjoyment and recreation of generations…We cannot allow any national park land, via exchange or otherwise, to be given away in the interest of private profit.
“This backroom deal follows Trump cutting the National Park Service by more than 25%,” or more than 4,000 workers nationwide, Erwin continued. The cuts are among the 300,000 federal workers whom
Trump, trillionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and Trump’s Office of Personnel Management have cut since he returned to the White House.
“It is frankly disgusting” that Trump “can decimate the agency,” the Park Service, “entrusted with the sacred mission of caring for our national parks, while giving away those lands so private interests can reap the rewards.”
It also “would set a very disturbing precedent,” Erwin warns. If Trump can give away a slice of Yosemite to a developer’s quest for private profit, the union leader asks, what park is next? “Our cherished public lands will be sold off left and right.”
NFFE, a Machinists sector, has also established a letter-writing campaign on its section of IAM’s website against the access road.
“The Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle America’s conservation legacy are now taking aim at Yosemite with this secretive, backroom deal that would turn over Park Service land to a private developer,” Mark Rose, Senior Sierra Nevada Program Manager for National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement.
“This is an attack on the American people that own this national park. It would also be unlawful, and a court previously rejected a road development proposal,” in 2012.
“The National Park Service needs to get back to prioritizing conservation, not helping bulldoze land, cut down trees, threaten Yosemite’s wildlife, and increase wildfire risks. Yosemite is already facing an overcrowding crisis due to years of runaway lodging overdevelopment outside of the park. A massive commercial development that can only be accessed from inside the park’s gates will further exacerbate the chaos we’ve seen in Yosemite this year.”
The answer to Erwin’s rhetorical question about the danger to other parks may come from Texas. Former Democratic Rep. Collin Allred is raising the roof over Trump running his Mexican Wall through Big Bend National Park. Allred opposes the wall and Trump’s sweeps of migrants.
“Trump is spending MILLIONS (his capitalization) of your tax dollars to bulldoze through Big Bend, permanently changing this national landmark to build a border wall and enforce his cruel immigration policies. This is just one more example of Trump wasting taxpayer dollars on cruel policies,” he says.
“I refuse to stand by and watch Trump destroy Texas’s national parks, especially for advancement of his cruel immigration agenda. If you’re with me, add your name to a petition,” Allred posted on his website—which is followed by the donations pitch.
To give the Trump regime a little credit, though, the Park Service’s director has put a pause on the Mexican wall construction through Big Bend while he reviews the controversy. That’s because local landowners are upset about it, too.
Left unsaid: Texas is a deep-red state, where Trump got state lawmakers to carve out five new pro-GOP congressional districts. California is a deep-blue state except for inland areas, including around Yosemite. And California redistricted to try to offset the Texan gerrymander.
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