US groups sue to block Trump effort to rid parks of history, science information

Source: Reuters

Updated 1 hour ago


BOSTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Groups representing park conservationists, historians and scientists filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to prevent President Donald Trump's administration from scrubbing information from parks and monuments, after exhibits and signs touching on topics like slavery and climate change were removed. The National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History and four other groups argue in a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court that the U.S. Department of the Interior is engaged in a "sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science."

The lawsuit argues the department is removing signs and exhibits from parks in violation of mandates from Congress governing how more than 430 national park sites should be operated and has adopted an unlawful policy that lacks any reasoned explanation for why various signs and exhibits must be removed.

"Censoring science and erasing America's history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for," Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement. The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The case was one of two filed on Tuesday challenging changes the department had implemented at national monuments and parks under its jurisdiction as part of Trump's broader agenda. Several community organizations filed a lawsuit in New York arguing the department had unlawfully removed the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, the first national monument dedicated to the LGBTQ rights movement.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-groups-sue-block-trump-effort-rid-parks-history-science-information-2026-02-17/