ACTION ALERT: Trump Moves to Censor National Parks
Julian Reyes / Union of Concerned Scientists & MoveOn
(April 20, 2026) — The Trump administration’s campaign to rewrite and erase American history at national parks is escalating. The administration is issuing directives to National Park Service staff to remove exhibits across the country—including ones that discuss the history of slavery and enslaved people, civil rights, the treatment of Indigenous peoples, and climate science.
The NPS is one of the country’s largest storytellers of American history, teaching millions of visitors about a wide variety of stories at more than 430 national park sites throughout the US. Will you sign the petition to protect the vital role our parks play?
As a former climate scientist at the Department of the Interior (DOI), I am both saddened and angry to see censorship of relevant scientific knowledge and U.S. history from national parks. The effects of climate change on our nation’s most iconic landscapes and sensitive natural resources are real; deleting references to climate science and impacts does not erase or reduce the harm being done.
Congress has repeatedly established that national parks are a public good, and Congress has been clear that no action may be taken “in derogation of” this purpose, “except as directly and specifically provided by Congress.”1
But the DOI is charging ahead to implement Trump’s dangerous censorship mandate—with often conflicting, contradictory, and confusing statements about what materials are under review and what signs, films, books, or brochures must be removed. The DOI has ignored well-established principles and legal requirements as it strips away vital information at our national parks.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is united with a coalition of organizations committed to protecting America’s national parks, preserving and sharing history, promoting scientific literacy and access, and providing high-quality interpretive materials, and we recently filed a lawsuit to challenge the DOI in court on this issue.
Dr. Gretchen Goldman, UCS’s president and CEO, made our position clear: “The public deserves access to reliable scientific information on climate change from its government. Such censorship by the Trump administration is not only bullying behavior designed to instill a culture of fear and keep the public in the dark, it violates the law.”2
Julian Reyes, PhD, Chief of Staff, Union of Concerned Scientists
Sources:
- “54 U.S. Code § 100101 – Promotion and regulation,” Cornell Law School, accessed March 30, 2026
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/100101 - “Coalition Files Lawsuit to Challenge Censorship, Erasure of American History and Science at National Parks,” Union of Concerned Scientists, February 17, 2026
https://www.ucs.org/about/news/coalition-files-lawsuit-challenge-censorship
