A group of conservation and historical organizations is suing the Trump administration over Interior department policies that erase history and science from America’s national parks.
The lawsuit filed yesterday lists Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron as defendants. It asks the court to declare that Burgum’s order calling for the review or removal of information or signage at national parks that “disparages Americans past and living” is illegal. Under the order, parks and historical sites across the country have altered or removed content related to racism, slavery, sexism, and LGTBQ+ rights, Indigenous history, climate change, and “other core elements of the American experience,” according to the lawsuit.
“We the people deserve and demand a national park system that tells true stories of Black communities, Indigenous tribes, and countless other fascinating chapters of our history,” said Alan Spears of the National Parks Conservation Association. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”
A separate lawsuit also filed yesterday argues that the Interior department’s decision to remove the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City violated a federal law that allows national parks and monuments to fly flags that provide historical context.
Quick hits
New lawsuits argue the Trump administration is erasing history
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Quote of the day
National parks are not propaganda tools nor should they be used for partisan purposes. They exist to preserve and interpret the full American story, not just the parts that make some politicians comfortable. Erasing history doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it more likely to repeat itself. And harkens back to some very dark and dangerous times in world history.”
—Emily Thompson, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Picture This
A new study has revealed an extraordinary variety of baryte and celestine speleothems in Lechuguilla Cave. These include stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, coralloids, wall crusts, floor crystals, snow, frostwork, and pool crystals. The baryte speleothems are typically made up of pure baryte, whereas celestine is found in the most diverse assemblages of minerals recorded in the cave. This includes the first record of the extremely rare cave mineral strontianite in Lechuguilla Cave. Radiometric dating demonstrates that many of the speleothems started forming during the Pleistocene and are still growing today. The study was led by Max Wisshak @speleophoto (Senckenberg Institute, Germany) and is based on observations and samples from two recent mineralogical expeditions into the cave.
Wisshak M, Birkenstock J, Schröder-Ritzrau A, Frank N, Barton HA & DuChene HR (2026): Exceptional variety of baryte-celestine-series speleothems in Lechuguilla Cave (New Mexico, USA). International Journal of Speleology, 55: ijs2585.
Photos by Max Wisshak
Featured photo: An interpretive sign about Indigenous history at Grand Canyon National Park, Wikimedia Commons