Public parks should remain open to all, and our nonprofit owners and key partners, including Environment California, are working to raise awareness about a possible land swap that would give a private developer access to Yosemite National Park.
Environment California is urging people to sign this petition to halt a proposed deal with a Nevada developer, which would hand over access to public lands just inside the western boundary of Yosemite. Prior owners have made similar efforts on this parcel for the last two decades.
The new road, near the current developer’s 83-acre parcel outside the park, would offer rare private access to a park – otherwise almost entirely surrounded by national forests – in exchange for transferring land of equivalent value in California to the National Park Service.
Yosemite’s glacier-carved landscape is best known for its massive granite cliffs, such as Half Dome and El Capitan, tumbling Bridalveil Fall and other iconic waterfalls, enormous sequoias, and an array of flora and fauna. Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the country.
The proposed land swap has caused consternation among California lawmakers and officials at the National Park Services, especially coming on the heels of recent National Park Week (Aug. 22-30), where President Trump’s message committed to protecting every acre of our lands and preserving the cleanest air and water in the world.
President Abraham Lincoln, amid the Civil War, signed the Yosemite Grant Act in 1864 to protect the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as the first state-managed park, which was earmarked for public use and preservation. Conservationist John Muir, who walked from San Francisco Bay to the Yosemite Valley, raised awareness about the region’s natural beauty in his writings. He took President Theodore Roosevelt on a camping trip, leading to the creation of Yosemite National Park in 1906.
Our key partners at Environment America are working to stave off other proposals to sell off public lands by federal and state decision-makers. They’ve galvanized public interest and noted the efforts of Congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to oppose this deal. They’ve also been involved with bipartisan measures in the Golden State, where lawmakers in the California Legislature call for the proposed land exchange to be rejected.
Green Century believes our parklands, forests, rivers, deserts, and other public lands, which have been conserved for hundreds of years, should remain in public hands.