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Secret proposal would give developer access through one of America’s most treasured National Parks
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has spent over a year quietly pressing the National Park Service to give up land inside Yosemite National Park so a private developer can build a road connecting its own property to park land, according to a new investigation from NOTUS. If approved, the corrupt back-room deal would break with a commitment dating back more than 150 years to protect Yosemite for the public good.
The reported effort also comes to light just three days after the National Park Service marked its 110th anniversary, and directly contradicts the promises from Trump and Interior Secretary Burgum to safeguard America’s national parks. Just days ago, Trump publicly pledged to protect the nation’s lands, even as his administration was working behind closed doors to make Yosemite available for private development. According to NOTUS, an appraisal of the property within Yosemite is already underway.
The proposal resurrects a decades-old bid to build a private road through Yosemite to the same 83-acre property. The Park Service repeatedly rejected that effort, and the Sierra Club helped defeat it in federal court.
In response, Loren Blackford, Sierra Club Executive Director, released the following statement:
“Yosemite is not Donald Trump’s to give away. This secretive deal betrays the purpose of our national parks and the promise our government has kept since Abraham Lincoln to protect Yosemite for the public and for generations to come. For more than 150 years, each generation has carried forward the responsibility to protect this sacred landscape and pass it on intact. 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.”
Image by Timothy lee from Pixabay
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