The National Parks in the past year have been through a reckoning. The Grand Canyon has seen ravaging floods in the past week, sparking search and rescue missions and damaging nearly 40% of its sole water pipeline. The national park also saw wildfires on its northern edge in 2025, making the floods the second natural disaster to hit the park in the past year.
But the Grand Canyon isn’t the only national park weathering the elements. Yosemite National Park is battling wildfires and shutting down Highway 140 as a result. Now, the park is on its way to lose even more land, but this time it’s not due to mother nature. According to reports from CNN and NOTUS, the transferring of about 700 feet of the park is reportedly being discussed between the National Park Service and the private developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital in order for the developer to build a road to a parcel of land abutting the national park. In a statement to Fortune, the Department of Interior, which includes the National Park Service, said there has been “no political pressure to reach a predetermined outcome” and that “no final decisions have been made.”
“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,” the statement read. “If a proposal advances, the Department will follow established procedures to ensure appropriate coordination, transparency and public involvement consistent with federal law.”
Kingsbarn Realty Capital told Fortune it has been working on a deal to transact a 700-foot long patch of land for close to a year.
“Kingsbarn owns an approximately 83-acre parcel of land along the west edge of Yosemite National Park, just outside of the Park’s western boundary line,” Kingsbarn Realty Capital said in a statement. “The Company has been engaged in discussions with the National Park Service (NPS) to gain access from the Property to Big Oak Flat Road, which is situated a few hundred feet away.”
The 83-acre parcel of land Kingsbarn owns, generally known as Hazel Green Ranch, is a “historically significant” property as it served as a stagecoach route into Yosemite from the late 1800’s into the early part of the twentieth century. The property was replaced as an entrance to the park when automobiles replaced stagecoaches.
The company is seeking the portion of land to build a road to allow guests and residents of Hazel Green Ranch access into Yosemite National Park, bypassing the current 11 miles of forestry roads to Stanislaus National Forest.
Land use law
The law regarding acquiring public park land is blurred. According to the National Park Service’s FAQ site, “only states, counties, municipalities, and similar government entities may acquire surplus federal property to be used for park and recreational use through the National Park Service Federal Lands to Parks program.”
However, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management states on its website that the department “does occasionally sell parcels of public land” where its “land-use planning finds it to be appropriate and in the public interest.”
The Department further states that the land must meet one of three criteria—the land is scattered with isolated tracts that are difficult to manage, the land was acquired for a specific purpose is are no longer needed for that purpose, or disposing of the land will serve important public objectives, such as community expansion or economic development.
“Hazel Green has agreed to build and maintain this road at its expense to meet all federal, state, and local standards,” Lanny Davis, an attorney that represents Kingsbarn and Pori, told Fortune. “It is good for the environment, keeps cars off the Forest Service roads, and helps ease congestion in, and around, Yosemite National Park. Clearly, these benefits are in the public interest.”
Rather than directly buying the land necessary, Kingsbarn will look to participate in an exchange. The company said it has had a dozen meetings with the National Park Service to find a “legal way” to acquire the land.
“We’ve been negotiating the mechanics of a land exchange that is legal,” Davis said. “A purchase of a right of way or even the actual property from the Park Service is not legal by a private developer. The only thing that’s a legal way of doing it is an exchange.”
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