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Montana

Groups Sue National Park Service Over Removal of ‘Ideologically Misaligned’ Signs

In Montana, interpretive materials about climate change and how it’s making glaciers disappear have been removed from Glacier National Park

By Ellis Juhlin, Montana Public Radio
National Park Service interpretive poster titled “Witness the Change” about glacier retreat in Glacier National Park. Text explains that since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1800s, glaciers have been melting at an accelerated rate due in part to human-caused warming. Courtesy image

The Trump administration last year ordered the National Park Service to inventory and then remove any signs it defined as “ideologically misaligned.”

Since then, hundreds of signs and informational materials have been removed from parks, monuments and historical sites across the country. Thousands more have been flagged for removal.

In Montana, interpretive materials about climate change and how it’s making glaciers disappear have been removed from Glacier National Park. A sign and brochures about the Baker Massacre of Piegan Blackfeet people, have also been removed from the park.

A coalition of historical groups, parks advocacy organizations and scientists are suing the Park Service, along with the U.S. Department of the Interior over the removals. The groups say failing to share accurate and comprehensive history does not meet the Park Service’s mission as “America’s largest classroom”.

They are asking a judge to block the executive order and reinstate removed signs.

This story originally appeared on Montana Public Radio, which can be found online at mtpr.org. Montana Public Radio is a public service of the University of Montana. State government coverage is funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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