Ginny Roscamp, ginny.roscamp@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, DC — This week marked the 120-day deadline in Donald Trump’s executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, requiring public land managers to remove signs and exhibits from national parks and monuments deemed by the Trump administration to “inappropriately disparage Americans”. Sierra Club and other advocacy groups are calling for increased transparency about the order, which effectively whitewashes history on public lands and erases mentions of the impacts of climate change. Working alongside the Coalition for Outdoor Renaming (CORE), this week the Sierra Club helped launch a reporting tool to track removals of signage on public lands.
Only one sign has been confirmed removed so far, for an exhibit at Muir Woods National Monument in California highlighting the violent displacement of Indigenous peoples. Other signage flagged for review includes at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida for mentioning imprisonment of Indigenous peoples and Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina for mentioning rising sea levels. So far, more than 1,000 items have been flagged for review.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration ordered several National Park Service sites to take down materials related to slavery, including a famous 1863 photo of a formerly enslaved man with scars on his back. An Interior spokesperson later denied the move. Representative Huffman, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, highlighted the issue during a hearing on Thursday.
In August, the Sierra Club and CORE sent a letter signed by more than 100 organizations to Interior Sec. Doug Burgum calling for the immediate end to the order, warning that it undermines the department’s responsibility to present the full complexity of American history on public lands.
In response, Gerry Seavo James, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, released the following statement:
“The way we tell history on our public lands, parks, and historic sites has always evolved to include more voices and perspectives, creating a fuller picture of who we are. The Trump administration’s order threatens to reverse that progress behind closed doors, with little transparency about what is being removed or why. The public deserves honesty and accountability, not secrecy and censorship. Protecting our public lands means ensuring they tell the truth that connects us across communities and generations.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.