Statement of Don Neubacher, board member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks and former superintendent of Yosemite National Park, on reports that the administration may give a private developer an easement through Yosemite to provide access to private property:
“Yosemite National Park does not belong to a developer, a corporation, or any administration. It belongs to the American people.
That is why the reported effort to give a private developer an easement through Yosemite to provide access to private property is so deeply troubling and most likely illegal. Yosemite National Park staff have been pressured for close to 20 years to conduct this ownership transfer and have clearly stated the Administration has no authority to conduct this action. Nothing has changed and recently Congress has stated its opposition to this transfer of rights.
During my time as superintendent, I understood that the National Park Service has one fundamental responsibility: to protect Yosemite for the public and for future generations. That means making decisions based on the long-term protection of the park—not the private interests of a company seeking to build a road into a secluded area adjacent to one of America’s most treasured landscapes.
There is a reason the National Park Service has historically been extremely cautious about granting private access through national parks. Once you carve out a piece of a protected landscape for private benefit, you create a precedent that can be extraordinarily difficult to reverse.
This is not simply about a quarter-mile strip of land. It is about whether the boundaries and protections of Yosemite will continue to be protected.
The American people expect the National Park Service to be a steward of Yosemite—not a facilitator for private development.
Any proposal that could alter the character of Yosemite or provide extraordinary private access to land adjacent to the park deserves a transparent, rigorous public process and the highest level of scrutiny. It should not be pushed through quietly under political pressure.
Yosemite has been protected for generations because leaders understood that some places are simply too important to be treated as bargaining chips. That principle should not change now.”