Jacking Up Prices, Censoring Bookstores - But Worst Part Of Assault On NPS Devastating Loss Of Institutional Knowledge

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It began with a blitzkrieg of mass firings, buyouts and forced retirements. Within six months, 24 percent of the park system’s permanent staff, about 4,000 people, was gone, according to internal data analyzed by the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. Public workforce data released by the federal government in January shows a one-year reduction of 16 percent, or 3,076 people. Gone were 100 park superintendents, as well as legions of biologists, archeologists, climate specialists and other scientists and managers who monitored the health of the parks, planned for their future and accounted for most of the agency’s in-house human expertise.

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The White House, at the same time, found new targets in the parks. It went after climate-change awareness, jacked up park admission fees for foreign visitors and began removing interpretive signs regarded as potentially hurtful to the feelings of white people. The president last March issued an executive order, called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” that requires parks to “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people” and eliminate signs that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

Since that order, references to climate change and rising seas have been removed from a national park in South Carolina that includes Fort Sumter, the island fortress in Charleston Harbor that was the site of the opening shots of the Civil War. An exhibit about George Washington’s ownership of slaves has been taken down at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. Gift shops across the parks service have been told to review books for “anti-American” content, and the Trump administration has posted signs in parks asking visitors to report anonymously any interpretive information they perceive as “negative about the past.”

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“What you’re seeing is unprecedented in terms of organizational chaos and uncertainty,” said Jeff Mow, who until four years ago was superintendent of Glacier National Park and a 33-year veteran of park service. He is now vice-chair of the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “You are seeing huge disruptions that are damaging critical science. They [Trump appointees] come in and break things—and see what happens.” And morale among park rangers and other staff? “I think it is lower than it’s ever been in the history of the park service,” said Ed Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers and a second-generation park service veteran who grew up in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and retired as superintendent of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. “I’m 84 years old,” Wade said, “and I have been around the parks all my life, and this past year was unquestionably the worst in the history of service. It’s heartbreaking and unforgivable.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27012026/the-biggest-tragedy-of-trumps-gutting-of-the-national-park-service/