Data Center Doug Burgum Is Shopping Around National Park Land for AI Developers
HELENA, MT – Doug Burgum’s National Park Service is reportedly considering a land swap that would open up Prince William Forest Park in Virginia to a data center developer, according to a new Heatmap News investigation. Interior officials have been quietly negotiating the exchange with Highland Digital for more than a year, working with a lobbyist who previously served as a senior Interior adviser under the first Trump administration, while Burgum’s cronies are stonewalling a congressional inquiry into the deal.
“Data Center Doug Burgum is treating America’s public lands and national parks like real estate inventory to be sold off for Big Tech AI developers. Instead of protecting America’s beloved parks and public lands, Burgum and his cronies have spent over a year negotiating with a well-connected developer behind closed doors, while stonewalling congressional transparency efforts,” said Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks spokesperson. “In complete disregard to the public and the communities who don’t want a massive data center in their backyard, Burgum is cheerleading data center developers, overriding local decisions, and giving away our parks and public lands in the process. Americans deserve an Interior Secretary who answers to the public, not one who treats America’s great outdoors as a ‘balance sheet’ that can be sold off to connected special interests and donors.”
This is not the first wildly unpopular data center project Secretary Burgum has supported. Just last week, Burgum toured a Pennsylvania power plant to champion a nearby 750-acre data center project that remains barred under local ordinances the developer is actively working to overturn. After a community had rejected it, Burgum’s Bureau of Land Management recently approved a request by the developers to swap out a solar project on public lands for the rejected data center development – in secrecy, without public notice, participation, or input. The justification was based on a 2025 executive order issued by President Trump designed to fast-track artificial intelligence development on federal lands and property. The decision is being challenged by the city and advocacy groups.
The secrecy around the data center deals fits a broader pattern of backroom deals, corruption, mismanagement, and waste at Interior under Burgum — a billionaire former real estate developer and tech executive.
A recent Politico story broke news that Interior Department officials are routinely shredding documents and using disappearing messages to keep their communications out of the official record, in violation of the Federal Records Act. “They’re terrified of written records,” one former Interior official said. Burgum is facing numerous ethics questions and inquiries, including over the Reflecting Pool debacle and his meetings with North Dakota officials in violation of his ethics agreement, among numerous others.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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