Billy Berler, billy.berler@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In honor of the National Park Service’s (NPS) 110th anniversary, Loren Blackford, the Executive Director of Sierra Club, wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about how the Trump administration has abandoned a long-standing, bipartisan record of supporting NPS and its mission to instead take away protections and sell off our public lands, waters, and special places.
Loren writes:
“Without a functional Parks Service, we don’t have functional parks. And when our public lands, waters, and special places fall into disarray, the administration can fulfill its goal of allowing big corporations to develop whatever they want, wherever they want. This is no secret. Project 2025 laid out this plan, and the Trump administration is following it to the letter.”
Just days after this anniversary, a new investigation from NOTUS revealed that the Trump administration has spent over a year quietly pressing NPS to give up land inside Yosemite National Park so a private developer can build a road connecting its own property to park land – undermining more than 150 years of protecting the park for the public good.
In response, Loren released the following statement:
“Yosemite is not Donald Trump’s to give away. This secretive deal betrays the purpose of our national parks and the promise our government has kept since Abraham Lincoln to protect Yosemite for the public and for generations to come."
Sierra Club was integral to the creation of NPS, with a Sierra Club member serving as its first director. The organization was founded in California with the protection of the Sierra Nevadas and Yosemite at the center of its purpose – helping to defeat previous proposals to build a private road through Yosemite. Over Sierra Club’s 134-year history, the organization has remained committed to protecting our wild and special places and plans to use every tool to ensure places like Yosemite remain accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Loren Blackford is available for interview. Please contact Billy Berler if interested.
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.