Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** National park gift shops directed to report items that ‘disparage Americans’
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Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Bookstore at Arches National Park. NPS/Chris Wonderly ([link removed])
Trump administration officials directed national park staff to review all items in gift shops for “anti-American” content by this Friday, according to reporting from The Washington Post ([link removed]) . The directive instructs park staff to report all retail items that have content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living” or that includes “matters unrelated to the beauty, abundance, or grandeur” of a natural feature in its description.
This directive enforces an executive order ([link removed]) from March seeking to reshape how American history is portrayed at federal institutions, including at national parks and other Interior department sites. The new directive puts park leaders in a tough position, given that many parks have a specific mission to inform the public about the Civil War, Indigenous history, slavery, or other topics that the Trump administration might qualify as a negative portrayal of American history.
“If we have a park that’s telling a difficult-to-hear story but that story is part of history, there’s been no attempt to change that story,” said Julie Thompson ([link removed]) , a spokesperson for Western National Parks, a nonprofit that provides support for many national park gift shops in the West.
Arizona governor, senators question Burgum on response to Grand Canyon wildfire
In a letter ([link removed]) to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Arizona Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly questioned the Interior department’s initial response to the Dragon Bravo Fire ([link removed]) , which spread quickly over the weekend and burned down several structures, including the Grand Canyon Lodge. Though it was started by a lightning strike, park officials initially decided to monitor the fire as a controlled burn. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs ([link removed]) called for ([link removed]) an independent investigation into the federal response, particularly the decision to “manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona
summer.”
** Quick hits
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What could the end of the roadless rule mean for Montana’s national forests?
Flathead Beacon ([link removed])
Why Trump’s fee hike won't solve the problems in U.S. national parks
Forbes ([link removed])
Arizona governor, senators question Burgum on response to Grand Canyon wildfire
GearJunkie ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | NBC ([link removed]) | Fox10 ([link removed])
National Parks brace for full scope of DOGE firings. How this retired ranger is trying to help
San Luis Obispo Tribune ([link removed])
Trump is gutting weather science and reducing disaster response
New York Times ([link removed])
These are the most and least polluted national parks in the U.S.
Washington Post ([link removed])
Utah's public lands lawsuit in limbo for now as judge considers environmentalists' litigation
Utah News Dispatch ([link removed]) | Fox13 ([link removed])
Trump administration wants to increase logging on federal land to reduce fire risks. Not everyone agrees
CBS News ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” This idea that there's some kind of national emergency is laughable. It's really more of a pretext to loot our public lands to benefit very, very few people at the expense of all Americans.”
—Quinn Read, executive director of Oregon Wild, CBS News ([link removed])
** Picture This
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[link removed]
@usinterior ([link removed])
An alpine hike in Denali National Park and Preserve on a clear summer day is what dreams are made of!
@denalinps ([link removed]) encompasses six million acres of public lands and is bisected by one ribbon of road. Along this road, travelers can see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak.
Photo by Daniel A. Leifheit / NPS
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