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Washington, D.C. — As this summer's record-breaking travel season continues, the Trump administration is carrying on its campaign to erase history in our national parks. Following executive orders targeting NPS displays that supposedly "disparage" Americans, rangers and former staff warn of irreparable losses as millions of visitors encounter censored exhibits. At sites like Harpers Ferry, Zion, and Mammoth Cave, the administration's feedback systems — meant to let guests flag "un-American" content — have backfired, flooded instead with comments blasting the White House for trying to "whitewash" history and misusing NPS staff time while amenities like sanitation facilities fall into disrepair. The erasure isn't limited to signage. NPS's own review found Trump's proposed 250-foot triumphal arch near the National Mall would damage dozens of historic sites, and internal records now contradict the administration's justification for cutting Bears Ears National Monument by more than a million acres.
Meanwhile, wildfires and climate change push park resources to the brink. New research warns climate change is driving wildfire risk well above natural levels in national parks. And as extreme summer conditions raise the danger for millions of visitors, the Department of the Interior is doubling down on a policy barring NPS staff from disclosing visitor deaths and severe injuries — a break from decades of transparency resulting in Yosemite's silence after multiple recent fatalities.
This newsletter is brought to you by ANPR, a coalition of former and current national parks staff — ranging from maintenance workers to biologists — that aims to support and protect the National Park Service by highlighting its employees’ diverse stories. As millions of Americans take advantage of all that our country’s public lands have to offer, this newsletter will elevate key stories and reports of the ongoing crisis for our national parks.
Censorship Continues in the National Parks:
SFGATE: National park ranger quits, tours visitor centers to fight censorship
By Kylie Mohr | July 31, 2026
Dalley is worried about the cascading consequences of park censorship and what will happen now that the public’s access to facts and historical narratives is limited. “There are millions of people who are coming to these sites today who are not getting the full story,” she said. “That’s an irreparable loss to me.”
While she’s hopeful that a later administration could eventually put the signs back, Dalley points out that this would require complete records of all removals — as well as adequate staff to create those records. In the meantime, Dalley said, she’s aware of park staff putting “dozens” of exhibits under creation on hold. “They’re waiting for this administration to go away so that they can continue the work,” she said. “The chilling effect is real.”
America433+ aims to combat these challenges through a mixture of in-person and virtual workshop events. The organization’s first “teach-in” happened at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, where photographs and information related to slavery were removed last summer. Dalley and others, including partner organizations Public School Strong, Zinn Education Project and Race Forward Action Network, spoke with visitors about how “what they were seeing in the parks was a censored experience, and explaining to them about what was being left out.”
Lexington Herald Leader: Visitors to Mammoth Cave asked to comment on ‘un-American’ signs. It got rowdy
By Beth Musgrave | August 3, 2026
When visitors to Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park were asked by the federal park service for feedback on signs that could be perceived as unpatriotic, they had a lot to say.
None of it was about problematic signs.
Instead, visitors blasted President Donald Trump, praised the beauty of the park and urged the park service not to “whitewash” history, according to a database of more than 35,000 comments submitted by federal parks visitors from June 2025 to January 2026.
The Travel: Zion National Park Rangers Are Causing Concerns To Visitors With QR Code Signs For Anti-America Content
By Alessandro Passalalpi | August 3, 2026
QR code setups at Zion National Park are causing frustration among guests. The setup aims to let visitors submit public feedback on historical exhibits, allowing them to flag if they feel exhibits are negative about America, its history, or do not focus enough on the beauty of the landscape.
However, many visitors feel as though the U.S. government is giving Zion the cold shoulder in other areas that need more care, like its toilets, which have resulted in "traumatizing" discoveries from visitors.
Along with the toilets, there is the feeling that park rangers could be making better use of their time, instead of reviewing information about disparaging history. So far, hundreds have responded to the QR code setups, but the responses haven't exactly matched what the government intended with last year's Executive Order.
Wildfire Danger Grows as Federal Response Comes Under Strain:
San Francisco Chronicle: California man charged with arson as wildfire damages structures near Yosemite
By Aidin Vaziri | July 29, 2026
Tuolumne County prosecutors filed arson charges Wednesday against a Sonora man accused of starting the Dove Fire, as authorities confirmed for the first time that the wildfire damaged and destroyed structures near the Sierra foothill city about 70 miles west of Yosemite National Park.
Jacob Williams Hoskins, 30, was charged with one count of arson and one count of recklessly causing a fire, District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke announced Wednesday morning. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Tuolumne County Superior Court.
The Dove Fire burned 226 acres southwest of downtown Sonora and was 80% contained as of Thursday, according to Cal Fire. Evacuation orders and warnings remained in effect in neighborhoods around the fire.
Phys.org:: Climate change increases wildfire risks in Yosemite and other national parks
July 30, 2026
New UC Berkeley-led research indicates that continued climate change could severely increase wildfire above natural levels in Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Lassen Volcanic national parks.
The study, which was published in Environmental Research Letters, also provides data to help park managers reduce risks by proactively targeting natural fire to decrease understory fuels.
"Fire is natural and necessary for forest health in California, but human-caused climate change is increasing wildfire above natural levels," said lead author Patrick Gonzalez, an associate adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. "Through this work, I aim to help National Park Service staff, who have previously told me of the need for park-specific data to inform field decisions on fire management that account for climate change."
Stateline: Wildfire veterans fear federal tactics, extreme fires could put crews at risk
By Alex Brown | August 4, 2026
As millions of acres burn across the western United States, some wildland fire veterans are fearful that aggressive fire suppression tactics ordered by the Trump administration — coupled with extreme, fast-moving blazes — could put firefighters in danger as conditions escalate this month.
Those extreme weather conditions fueled disaster in Eastern Washington Saturday when a fast-moving wildfire jumped the Spokane River and swept through neighborhoods of Spokane, destroying more than 600 structures and forcing 60,000 residents to evacuate. Incident Commander Tom Clemo called the blaze “probably the largest, most destructive fire in Washington’s history.”
No deaths have yet been reported in Spokane, but Mayor Lisa Brown told local journalists the city is “still assessing the potential for lives to be lost.”
“There is not a fire department in the U.S. that can handle a wind-driven event this size,” said Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Lance Dahl to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
E&E: Forest Service advances probe of Trump wildfire plan
By Marc Heller | August 5, 2026
The Forest Service will pay a North Carolina consulting firm nearly $1.2 million to evaluate the Trump administration’s proposal to hand over wildfire management to the Interior Department — a shift that looks unlikely to happen in this session of Congress.
The agency said it signed a $1.16 million contract with the Research Triangle Institute — which has a background in government work — to study the implications of the wildfire consolidation. The move appeared in the administration’s budget requests for fiscal 2026 and 2027.
The study is targeted for completion by Feb. 15, and lawmakers have made clear they won’t let the plan advance without it, so any big move for wildfire management appears headed to the next Congress and possibly a new Democratic majority in the House, if not the Senate.
Secretary Burgum Prohibits NPS Staff From Confirming Deaths in National Parks:
St George News: Department of the Interior changes policy about reporting deaths, injuries in national parks
By Grace Hansen | July 25, 2026
Deaths or severe injuries that happen in national parks across the country, including Zion National Park, will no longer be allowed to be confirmed or directly announced to the public by park staff or other Department of the Interior employees.
During a phone conversation with St. George News, Bill Wade, the executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, said this procedure marks a shift in longstanding practice to be as transparent as possible.
“Always in the past, in my experience anyway, the park service has tried to provide accurate, truthful and unbiased information about incidents that occur in parks and to provide as much information as they can,” Wade said. “But now it seems that they are being required not to do those things.”
The Travel: Yosemite National Park Keeps Quiet Over Tourist’s Death Following Interior Department’s New Communication Ban
By Coco Dollanganger | August 3, 2026
The American public is used to learning about incidents, including deaths at national parks, as officials communicate them through news or press releases. For instance, in June, Grand Canyon National Park was able to release information about the separate deaths of three visitors, and even warned travelers of heat-related incidents that could be life-threatening, reaffirming the dress code policy in the summer.
This time, Yosemite National Park remains silent about the two recent separate deaths in the park, and has not issued a public statement about the case. This undermines the National Park Service's long-standing disclosure policy to release as much available information as possible.
However, Yosemite's silence about the deaths of visitors may be in line with the internal memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service (NPS), directing all staff to stop disclosing information about the deaths and injuries of those who visit the national parks.
Other Reports Coming Out of National Parks and Public Lands:
WyoFile: Shuttered National Parks Traveler editor talks Trump pressures, media struggles
By Katie Klingsporn | July 31, 2026
When he started considering hanging up his hat, Repanshek, who will turn 70 in November, said he hoped to hand the Traveler off to another entity willing to take it into the future. Efforts to secure that were fruitless, however. The site halted publication at the end of June.
The Traveler’s demise creates a void for people like Nyberg who strive to be up to speed on parks and public lands.
“There was no better publication for me to basically have my thumb on the pulse of what was going on nationally,” she said. “It was a go-to resource for me, and still is.”
CNN: Fat squirrels, rowdy bears and burned-out rangers: How Trump policies are scrambling America’s national parks
By Isabelle Khurshudyan, Abigail Roedersheimer, & Kaanita Iyer | August 1, 2026
More than a year after the Trump administration laid off around 1,000 NPS employees, national parks are straining under a staff shortage amid sweeping changes from the White House. Tourists are flocking to parks this summer in near record numbers, due in part to the removal of the timed-entry reservation system at some parks. Fishing access has been expanded, hunting restrictions lifted\ and limits on off-road vehicles rolled back.
Making matters worse, a larger portion of the entry fees Sam and others collect is being diverted away from national parks, and back to Washington, DC.
Rangers, experts and local business owners who depend on the parks told CNN that while the White House has tried to prioritize the visitor experience by making parks more accessible, the changes – rolled out suddenly and without much notice – coupled with staff shortages have sent a delicate ecosystem into disarray.
New York Times: Park Service Finds Trump’s Arch Could Detract From Dozens of Historic Places
By Emily Badger | August 3, 2026
President Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall triumphal arch would change the skyline of Washington to such an extent that it would intrude on views at dozens of historic sites around the capital, according to an assessment by National Park Service staff.
It would disrupt the symbolic relationship between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, obstruct sightlines from the Kennedy Gravesite and Robert E. Lee’s home, and alter what official documents call “one of the most magnificent” views in Washington at the National Cathedral four miles away, the Park Service said.
The assessment of the arch’s impact on surrounding historic properties is a key step the administration must complete before the project can receive final approval by the National Capital Planning Commission, which could come as soon as its next meeting on Sept. 3
New York Times: Documents Undercut Trump’s Claims About Bears Ears National Monument
By Maxine Joselow | August 3, 2026
When President Trump sharply reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by more than 1.2 million acres, he claimed it was necessary because recreation was virtually impossible within the site’s boundaries.
“You can’t go hunting, you can’t go fishing, you can’t do anything, you can virtually not even walk on it,” Mr. Trump said during a ceremony in the Oval Office last month.
The No. 2 official at the Interior Department, Kate MacGregor, chimed in, saying, “That’s exactly right, sir, so you are remedying that today.”
But recreation has been allowed in Bears Ears since President Barack Obama designated the monument in 2016. And government documents reviewed by The New York Times show that Trump administration officials were briefed on recreational opportunities inside the monument about a month before the Oval Office event.
The Hill: Park Service finds Trump’s arch would adversely affect dozens of historic sites around DC
By Ryan Mancini | August 3, 2026
The National Park Service (NPS) found that President Trump’s proposed Triumphal Arch would adversely affect dozens of historic sites around Washington, D.C.
The NPS listed nearly 40 locations across the city after the agency asked outside groups to comment by last Thursday after reopening its public comment for its assessment. The list includes several major buildings, districts and landscapes.
Several Arlington historic sites, including the Robert E. Lee Memorial, along with the Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Pentagon, the George Mason Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall Site and National Mall Historic District, are among the 37 sites “adversely affected” by the arch.
E&E: Dems attack Trump’s 90 percent land cut to Utah national monuments - E&E News by POLITICO
By Heather Richards | August 4, 2026
Thirty-seven Democratic senators are denouncing President Donald Trump for downsizing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.
In a Tuesday letter, the lawmakers said the White House’s removal last month of nearly 3 million acres of protected land in the two monuments risks the “destruction and loss” of the archaeological and cultural resources in those areas.
“Each monument is a living cultural landscape with deep spiritual and ancestral importance to multiple Tribal Nations,” the lawmakers wrote. “These places are not abstractions on a map; they are homelands and sacred sites that deserve enduring protection.”
New York Times: Inside the Oval Office Showdown Between Trump and Jeanine Pirro
By Tyler Pager, Glenn Thrush, and Katie Rogers | August 4, 2026
Jeanine Pirro had had it up to here with Doug Burgum. The famously voluble U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia strode into the Oval Office late Monday with her future on the line and the interior secretary, whom she privately called an incompetent liar, in her cross hairs.
A few hours earlier — in front of the cameras, from the Resolute Desk — President Trump had accused Ms. Pirro, an ally and friend from New York going back decades, of “folding like an umbrella” and “choking” after she withdrew charges against a man accused of destroying the lining of his beloved but shoddily renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Why was he so angry at her? Because Ms. Pirro had dared to publicly demolish one of his most cherished narratives, promoted by Mr. Burgum, that vandals — and not a contractor hired by the Interior Department to do a rushed job — had defaced a Washington landmark.
Buffalo Toronto Public Media: Only one national park site has not received funding this year. It’s in Buffalo
By Erika Kengni | August 5, 2026
However, as of Aug. 5, the site has not yet received the funds it needs from the federal government to keep operating.
“We are the only national park site in the entire country that has not received their operating support for 2026,” said Site Superintendent Spencer Morgan. “We need to receive this by the end of September to make the fiscal year and to ensure that we can pay for our bills and pay payroll.”
Operation dollars have been coming later and later each year, Morgan said. Funds that used to be received in February or March are now being dispersed as late as September.
This year has brought unique complications as well, said Morgan. The White House has used the maintenance money that would go to national parks sites across the country to prepare for America 250 celebrations in Washington, D.C.
“That White House priority list trumps the high and low priority list of the National Park Service,” Morgan said. “So while we are seeing the work that's being done in Washington at some of the federal sites, that's work being done with National Park Service dollars.”
Washington Post: Democrats ask Interior watchdog to investigate response to Reflecting Pool damage
By Dan Diamond | August 5, 2026
The top Senate Democrats on two committees that oversee the Interior Department have asked the agency’s inspector general to investigate whether Interior officials wrongly concealed information about President Donald Trump’s troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool.
The Interior Department had publicly blamed damage to the pool’s new liner on “vandals,” a claim echoed by Trump and prosecutors who pressed charges against several people. The Justice Department on Friday said that Interior officials did not share relevant internal information that indicated the problems were due to contractors’ mistakes and has dropped the cases.
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