New National Park signage asks public to flag negative content

The Department of the Interior is requiring the National Park Service (NPS) to post signage at all sites across the country by June 13, asking visitors to offer feedback on any information that they feel portrays American history and landscapes in a negative light.

Additionally, Bowron’s memo gives the parks until mid-July to conduct a review of all public-facing images, descriptions and other content that might be disparaging.

The review affects other Department of the Interior groups besides the Park Service – the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But it excludes properties located on Native American lands unless they fall within National Park Service sites.

But others have voiced concern about these developments.

“It’s pretty dangerous when you start rewriting history,” said Theresa Pierno, CEO and president of the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent national parks advocacy noofit. “ It’s so important that we learn from our history. To think that that could be erased or changed because visitors might prefer that story not be told – or not be told accurately – is frightening.”