Protect Our National Parks!

Protect Our National Parks! 

Our National Parks are under assault. Fragile resources are at risk and history is being erased. Please take action. Here are two ways, both provided by our allies at the National Parks Conservation Association, that you can stand up for our parks and our collective history.

#1 Close the Parks to Protect the Parks. The federal government has shut down. Unfortunately, our parks should too. We cannot stand by and watch history repeat itself…

When Congress fails to do its job and fund the government, the law requires that federal workers are furloughed until congressional funding is restored. However, the administration intends to keep some parks partially open – despite not having enough staff to safeguard the parks. We’ve seen the consequences of this approach before in Death Valley, in Joshua Tree, and in so many other parks.

The damage that occurred in our national parks – to fragile natural and cultural resources and vulnerable park infrastructure – during the latest federal government shutdown in 2018 and 2019 took months to recover from. And in some cases, the damage was irreparable. Americans should brace themselves for more of the same if parks remain open and unprotected as this shutdown drags on.

Please take action via this link provided by the National Parks Conservation Association.

#2 Protect our History. The Administration continues its assault on the truth and its push to erase narratives that don’t comport with its narrow and revisionist views of history and science. Physical signs and digital text that were recently removed include:

• Hawai’i Volcanoes’ climate change information, including the damage the native ecosystem has suffered from a century-long history of drought.
• Stonewall National Monument’s webpages were scrubbed of any mention of the trans community, including webpages about activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, key players in the Stonewall Uprising.
• Lake Mead’s webpage on its shifting environment, including more intense weather events, rising temperatures, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers, and rising levels of carbon dioxide related to climate change.

We encourage you to fill out and share this link that demands Congress protect accurate science and our collective history.

News Staff