DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Our National Parks

As of May 2026, the Trump administration is enacting significant changes to national parks, focusing on restructuring historical exhibits to emphasize American achievements, resulting in the removal of hundreds of displays regarding slavery and climate change. These actions, alongside a 25% reduction in staffing since 2025 and proposed 2027 budget cuts, are damaging to our National Parks.

https://ncph.org/history-at-work/trumps-attacks-on-national-parks-is-an-attack-on-public-history/

This is tragic for every American and for Our National Parks which has been an American treasure since 1916.

It makes me sick.

Millions and millions of people from all over the world come to Our Parks. We all have benefited from the foresight of Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt and other Presidents who have protected these magnificent displays of our county's beauty .

Now we have this corrupt criminal destroying what belongs to all of us.

Trump administration finalizes plan to open pristine Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas drilling

JUNEAU, Alaska — The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation's environmental jewels.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision Thursday that paves the way for future lease sales within the refuge's 1.5 million-acre ( 631,309 hectare) coastal plain, an area that's considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich'in. The plan fulfills pledges made by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the refuge to possible development. Trump's bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, passed during the summer, called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over a 10-year period.

Burgum was joined in Washington, D.C., by Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state's congressional delegation for this and other lands-related announcements, including the department's decision to restore oil and gas leases in the refuge that had been canceled by the prior administration.

A federal judge in March said the Biden administration lacked authority to cancel the leases, which were held by a state corporation that was the major bidder in the first-ever lease sale for the refuge held at the end of Trump's first term.

Leaders in Indigenous Gwich'in communities near the refuge consider the coastal plain sacred, noting its importance to a caribou herd they rely upon, and they oppose drilling there. Leaders of Kaktovik, an Iñupiaq community within the refuge, support drilling and consider responsible oil development to be key to their region's economic well-being.

"It is encouraging to see decisionmakers in Washington advancing policies that respect our voice and support Kaktovik's long term success," Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp. President Charles "CC" Lampe said in a statement.

A second lease sale in the refuge, held near the end of President Joe Biden's term, yielded no bidders but critics of the sale argued it was too restrictive in scope.

Meda DeWitt, Alaska senior manager with The Wilderness Society, said that with Thursday's announcement the administration "is placing corporate interests above the lives, cultures and spiritual responsibilities of the people whose survival depends on the Porcupine caribou herd, the freedom to live from this land and the health of the Arctic Refuge."

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584883/trump-alaska-wildlife-refuge-oil-gas-drilling

There is much more to the article at the link provided.

Different people have different priorities. The preservation of these wonderful gifts of nature God has blessed us with isn't very high on some people's priority list. Instead they wish to kill renewable energy and exploit our land handing it over to the uber wealthy oil companies.

Murica!

I cannot put into words how angry I am.

right from the playbook that piggy seemed to know nothing about

Project 2025 proposes a massive overhaul of federal land management, aiming to pivot the Department of the Interior from conservation toward energy extraction. Key proposals include repealing the Antiquities Act to reduce national monument sizes, increasing oil/gas drilling in protected areas, and reversing the "30 by 30" land protection goal.Key Impacts on National Parks & Public LandsReduced Protections: The plan advocates for reversing national monument designations and shrinking boundaries to open lands to mining and drilling.Increased Drilling/Mining:
Project 2025 calls for expanding resource extraction in areas currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and near national parks.Repeal of Antiquities Act:
The plan suggests repealing the 1906 Act, which allows presidents to designate monuments.Personnel Changes:
It proposes replacing career staff with political appointees and restructuring the Department of the Interior to prioritize resource extraction over conservation.Wildlife Impact: .
It suggests weakening the Endangered Species Act and removing protections for species like grizzly bears and gray wolves.
Budgetary ContextAs of March 2024, the National Park Service proposed a budget of $3.57 billion for FY 2025. Project 2025, however, focuses on reducing federal footprint and increasing industry access, which contrasts with typical conservation-based park budgeting.

This is something I hope Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and everyone else should fight against.

Then trump has the audacity to put his picture on Park passes and now passports.

If any American looks into all that had to happen in order to have National Parks. I think they would want to protect this incredible resource.

He wastes billions on a war he promised not to be engaged in.

U.S. national debt has surged to over $39 trillion, having grown by approximately $2.77 trillion in the past year alone.

And now he is out to destroy what has been in place since 1916 for all Americans.

One may begin to think the things he is doing has nothing to do with "All Americans".

If they belonged to us we wouldn't have a pay to enter.

Technically you don't have to pay to enter the Smokies by charter mandate. The work around is if you park for over 10 minutes you have to purchase a parking sticker.

I know most people have been to one of the parks but most only one or two of them, and then only once or twice.