“The narrator of our most powerful stories, told authentically”

This is an extract of a statement from Jonathan B. Jarvis, director of the National Park Service from October 2009 to January 2017:

The NPS is the steward of America’s most important places and the narrator of our most powerful stories, told authentically, accurately, and built upon scientific and scholarly research. The Park Ranger is a trusted interpreter of our complex natural and cultural history and a voice that cannot be suppressed.

Edicts from on-high have directed the NPS to not talk about “national policy”, but permission is granted to use social media for visitor center hours and safety. The ridiculousness of such a directive was immediately resisted and I am not the least bit surprised.

So at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta should we not talk about his actions to secure the rights to vote for African Americans in the south, or is that too “national policy”? At Stonewall National Monument in New York City, shall we only talk about the hours you can visit the Inn or is it “national policy” to interpret the events there in 1969 that gave rise to the LGBT movement?

Shall we only talk about the historic architecture of the Washington, DC home of Alice Paul and Alva Belmont or is it too “national policy” to suggest their decades of effort to secure the rights of women can be linked directly to the women’s marches in hundreds of cities last weekend? And as we scientifically monitor the rapid decline of glaciers in Glacier National Park, a clear and troubling indicator of a warming planet, shall we refrain from telling this story to the public because the administration views climate change as “national policy”?

These are not “policy” issues, they are facts about our nation, it is how we learn and strive to achieve the ideals of our founding documents. To talk about these facts is core to the mission of the NPS. During the Centennial of the National Park Service, we hosted over 300 million visitors (now that is huge) to the National Parks and most came away inspired, patriotic and ready to speak on behalf of the values we hold most dear. The new Administration would be wise to figure out how to support the National Park Service, its extraordinary employees and their millions of fans.

As I noted before, the new administration’s hiring freeze meant offers for N.P.S. seasonal jobs were yanked back from successful applicants and new hires are on hold. Since the agency saves money by hiring lots of people only for its busy seasons, and since the federal employment process has a lot of steps to protect the public interest, that freeze is harming normal operations. And around here, many historical parks were planning more than normal operations to commemorate and interpret the Sestercentennial of the start of the Revolutionary War.

In addition, Politico reports, “The Trump administration ordered NPS to report all of its employees currently within a standard one-year probationary period, as well as those hired with money from the Inflation Reduction Act and those employed in programs related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Interior last week gave itself 30 days to end those programs, and Trump has ordered a layoff of people working in those programs across the federal government.” As in other policy areas, this administration is taking a position in favor of homogeneity, inequity, exclusion, and inaccessibility.

The first Trump administration never appointed a permanent director for the N.P.S., producing the longest stretch the agency ever went without steady leadership. It repeatedly proposed large cuts to the N.P.S. budget. I don’t believe the recurrent administration is acting for the benefit of the agency or the American people as a whole.