A bipartisan coalition of California lawmakers demanded that the Trump administration “halt and reject” a proposed sale of part of Yosemite National Park to a private developer in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday.
The letter followed reporting by NOTUS that revealed National Park Service staff in California and Washington, D.C., have been trying to arrange a land exchange between a Nevada-based company and the federal government.
In the letter, prominent Republicans and Democrats in California’s state legislature told Burgum that “Yosemite is not a subdivision, and it is not for sale.” The lawmakers, led by Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis, cited the Yosemite Grant Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, as the first time the federal government set aside scenic land for preservation and public use.