Did you plan on going to a national park or national historical park this year? The Department of Interior, and the Trump administration may interfere with that.
National parks offer several days throughout the year to be free for everyone, and it’s greatly utilized. The Trump Administration has announced that they will add President Donald Trump’s birthday to the list of free entries, but five other days that were formally free have been removed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The days that were removed were Martin Luther King Jr .Day, the first day of National Park Week, Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act, and National Public Lands Day.
People were quick to notice that dates that involve Black history were several of the chosen to be removed. Many regular visitors to the parks were outraged when seeing this, viewing national parks as places that should be accessible to everyone, and that these removals indicate otherwise.
Parks have also been removing historical signs that the Trump administration stated were “anti-American ideology” and they aim to “restore truth and sanity to American history” by removing/editing signs. The locations of these signs are in Grand Canyon, Glacier, Big Bend, Zion, and Grand Teton.
Independence National Historical Park was one of the locations affected by this order. The sign that was removed was part of an exhibit on slavery. The exhibit showed the lives of the enslaved people at President George Washington’s residence in Philadelphia. Slavery was a very real part of America, nothing that was on the sign was misleading or historically incorrect.
Not only have historical signs been removed, but signs regarding climate change are being removed. Signs were removed from Acadia National Park that show the climate change that has been affecting the park for years. Acadia is one of the most vulnerable parks as the park is rapidly being affected by climate change and locals.
“Americans come to our national parks for honest, authentic experiences and we are capable of hearing about our tragedies and victories alike there,” said National Parks Conservation Association Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Kristen Brengel.
