Latest news with #NationalParksConservationAssociation
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Emmett Till national monument at risk of removal from Trump's anti-DEI initiatives
Tallahatchie County, Mississippi — There are 138 National Monuments across the U.S., but for the first time in nearly 100 years, they're eligible to be sold for parts. This Juneteenth, some of the protected lands in jeopardy commemorate important moments in American civil rights history, including some newer monuments like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. "We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation," said historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is turning quickly into a dream deferred." Spears advocated for years, alongside several community members, to get federal protections for the areas in Mississippi and Chicago that tell the story of Emmett Till — a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was kidnapped in the middle of the night and brutally lynched in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a White woman while visiting family in Mississippi. "His badly decomposed body was taken from the water, and officials in this area wanted to have him buried immediately to sort of get rid of the evidence," Spears explained. "His mother insisted that he'd be sent back to Chicago, where they had an open casket funeral. And images of Till's badly decomposed body in that open casket really sparked the modern civil rights movement." Protections to preserve this history finally came in 2023, when a monument consisting of two sites in Mississippi and one in Illinois, was designated by former President Joe Biden. One site is located at Graball Landing along the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi, where Till's body was found. The second is at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where his confessed killers were found not guilty by an all-White jury. The third is located at Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till's funeral was held. Spears says he and his colleagues have been working to expand the monument, not remove or shrink it. "Let's make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else's son ever again," Spears said. But just as the stroke of a president's pen preserved these areas, it could now take them away. A legal opinion released by the Justice Department earlier this month gives presidents the ability to revoke or shrink certain national monuments for the first time since the 1930s. The opinion comes as part of a movement against diversity, equity and inclusion, with some land reportedly under consideration to be used for mineral extractions. It's not just national monuments that are at risk. Under newly proposed budget cuts for the National Park Service of nearly $1 billion, Spears says more than 300 park sites would be forced to shut down. Those budget cuts could also potentially see the closure of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, according to Spears and former National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "It's like amputating an arm for a hangnail. It's a complete overreaction," Spears says. Sams says the agency has lost 13% of its staff already since he left his post earlier this year. Sams was involved in the designation of five different National Monuments signed by Biden, including the Till monument. He says if the monument were to close, it would be "very sad and egregious." "People don't like to look at their past when it shows a negative light of who we are, and I can understand that nobody likes to look at their own personal past that may have a negative light, but we also know that in order to learn from our own history, we also have to learn from our past mistakes,' Sams told CBS News. "And we, as Americans, have never been actually scared to do so, and I don't think we should be now. We look at our past, and we know that from our past mistakes that we have become stronger." Currently, the Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument — both located in California — are under consideration for revocation or being sold for parts. The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tāh Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is also under consideration reportedly due to its uranium supply. Judy Cummings is touring America's national monuments this summer with her daughter and granddaughter. They drove from Wisconsin to see the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument sites in North Mississippi. Asked about the potential for sites like this to close, Cummings said, "it makes me want to weep and it makes me furious at the same time." When asked about the potential removal of national monuments, White House spokesperson Anne Kelly told CBS News in a statement, "Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary Burgum is keeping our parks ready for peak season, ensuring they are in pristine condition for visitors, and restoring truth and sanity to depictions of American history in line with the President's Executive Order. The President is simultaneously following through on his promise to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' and restore American energy dominance." And in a separate statement provided to to CBS News, the Department of Interior said: "Under President Trump's leadership, we're advancing strategic reforms to maximize resources and improve park operations. These efforts will make our parks more efficient, better maintained, and more enjoyable for the American people, while keeping conservation efforts strong and effective. By modernizing how we manage assets and facilities, we're ensuring our parks can serve future generations even better." "You can't just do away with more than two-thirds of the National Park System because it makes sense from a government efficiency standpoint," Spears said. "That's not what we want." According to a recent study, about half of the current National Parks first began as National Monuments, including the iconic Grand Canyon. According to Spears, every $1 invested in a National Park site returns about $15 to the communities that it is located in. "That's an enormous, enormous return on investment," Spears said. It is also an investment in the visitors too. "I don't really have words," said Nicole Cummings, Judy's daughter. "I just kind of get goosebumps and it's just really powerful." SpaceX Starship upper stage blows up Hurricane Erick approaches Mexico with destructive winds, major storm surge Biden to speak at Juneteenth event in Texas
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
National monument honoring Emmett Till at risk of removal from Trump's DEI initiatives, budget cuts
Tallahatchie County, Mississippi — There are 138 National Monuments across the U.S., but for the first time in nearly 100 years, they're eligible to be sold for parts. This Juneteenth, some of the protected lands in jeopardy commemorate important moments in American civil rights history, including some newer monuments like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. "We are seeing this effort to erase and reverse history and historic preservation," said historian Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is turning quickly into a dream deferred." Spears advocated for years, alongside several community members, to get federal protections for the areas in Mississippi and Chicago that tell the story of Emmett Till — a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was kidnapped in the middle of the night and brutally lynched in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a White woman while visiting family in Mississippi. "His badly decomposed body was taken from the water, and officials in this area wanted to have him buried immediately to sort of get rid of the evidence," Spears explained. "His mother insisted that he'd be sent back to Chicago, where they had an open casket funeral. And images of Till's badly decomposed body in that open casket really sparked the modern civil rights movement." Protections to preserve this history finally came in 2023, when a monument consisting of two sites in Mississippi and one in Illinois, was designated by former President Joe Biden. One site is located at Graball Landing along the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi, where Till's body was found. The second is at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where his confessed killers were found not guilty by an all-White jury. The third is located at Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Till's funeral was held. Spears says he and his colleagues have been working to expand the monument, not remove or shrink it. "Let's make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else's son ever again," Spears said. But just as the stroke of a president's pen preserved these areas, it could now take them away. A legal opinion released by the Justice Department earlier this month gives presidents the ability to revoke or shrink certain national monuments for the first time since the 1930s. The opinion comes as part of a movement against diversity, equity and inclusion, with some land reportedly under consideration to be used for mineral extractions. It's not just national monuments that are at risk. Under newly proposed budget cuts for the National Park Service of nearly $1 billion, Spears says more than 300 park sites would be forced to shut down. Those budget cuts could also potentially see the closure of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, according to Spears and former National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "It's like amputating an arm for a hangnail. It's a complete overreaction," Spears says. Sams says the agency has lost 13% of its staff already since he left his post earlier this year. Sams was involved in the designation of five different National Monuments signed by Biden, including the Till monument. He says if the monument were to close, it would be "very sad and egregious." "People don't like to look at their past when it shows a negative light of who we are, and I can understand that nobody likes to look at their own personal past that may have a negative light, but we also know that in order to learn from our own history, we also have to learn from our past mistakes,' Sams told CBS News. "And we, as Americans, have never been actually scared to do so, and I don't think we should be now. We look at our past, and we know that from our past mistakes that we have become stronger." Currently, the Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument — both located in California — are under consideration for revocation or being sold for parts. The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tāh Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is also under consideration reportedly due to its uranium supply. Judy Cummings is touring America's national monuments this summer with her daughter and granddaughter. They drove from Wisconsin to see the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument sites in North Mississippi. Asked about the potential for sites like this to close, Cummings said, "it makes me want to weep and it makes me furious at the same time." When asked about the potential removal of national monuments, White House spokesperson Anne Kelly told CBS News in a statement, "Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary Burgum is keeping our parks ready for peak season, ensuring they are in pristine condition for visitors, and restoring truth and sanity to depictions of American history in line with the President's Executive Order. The President is simultaneously following through on his promise to 'Drill, Baby, Drill' and restore American energy dominance." And in a separate statement provided to to CBS News, the Department of Interior said: "Under President Trump's leadership, we're advancing strategic reforms to maximize resources and improve park operations. These efforts will make our parks more efficient, better maintained, and more enjoyable for the American people, while keeping conservation efforts strong and effective. By modernizing how we manage assets and facilities, we're ensuring our parks can serve future generations even better." "You can't just do away with more than two-thirds of the National Park System because it makes sense from a government efficiency standpoint," Spears said. "That's not what we want." According to a recent study, about half of the current National Parks first began as National Monuments, including the iconic Grand Canyon. According to Spears, every $1 invested in a National Park site returns about $15 to the communities that it is located in. "That's an enormous, enormous return on investment," Spears said. It is also an investment in the visitors too. "I don't really have words," said Nicole Cummings, Judy's daughter. "I just kind of get goosebumps and it's just really powerful."
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
New signs at Manzanar internment camp urge visitors to report ‘negative' portrayals
Following an executive order from the Trump administration, new signs have gone up at national parks encouraging visitors to report information at the sites that is 'negative about either past or living Americans.' At Manzanar National Historic Site — where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were confined during World War II due to their Japanese heritage — the signs have prompted serious concerns about an 'attempt to whitewash the history of the United States,' Bruce Embrey said. Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, a group supporting the historic site and involved in its creation, said he and others have 'been worrying about this for months.' 'There's nothing negative about the presentation of our story or the displays at Manzanar. There's truth,' Embrey said. 'And truth is neither positive nor negative.' The signs came after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum released a directive for all national parks to include the signage, which includes a QR code for visitors to scan to report feedback, including about areas of parks that need repairs or improvement, and any signs or information 'that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.' Burgum's directive was part of compliance with President Donald Trump's March 27 executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.' Embrey's mother, Sue Kunitomi Embrey, was known as the 'mother of Manzanar' for her work with the committee to get the site historical designations first at the state level and later nationally. Embrey's mother, who was taken to Manzanar, in Inyo County, at age 19, dedicated herself for decades with other camp survivors to collect stories and documentation of what occurred at Manzanar and other sites where Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated and incarcerated. Dennis Arguelles, Southern California director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an organization aimed at protecting the national parks system, said the 'irony of Manzanar being examined and put under the microscope' is not lost on the organization. Arguelles said. 'We can't help but think that this is an attempt to erase narratives that they don't support,' Arguelles said, 'We're definitely concerned about attempts to erase stories like this that are essential to understanding times in our past when we didn't live up to our democratic ideals.' Embrey said he and other members of the Manzanar Committee are not just offended by the new signage, but also see pushback on discussing the history of Japanese internment as dangerous. Embrey said decades of research by historians and survivors of Manzanar have gone into exhibits on display at the park's visitor center. He emphasized that the information displayed at the site is not speculative or debated, but constitutes an accurate portrayal of what happened at the camp. 'That truth has been widely accepted across the board, Republican or Democrat, until Donald Trump enters the White House,' Embrey said. Arguelles said the National Park Service is left in a difficult position because it cannot disobey Burgum's directive, though it has been charged 'with being America's storyteller and helping us understand our past and all of that past — the good, the bad, the ugly — including darker chapters like the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II' for more than 100 years. 'If this story goes away, if they try to erase histories like this in the National Park system, we're going to be losing a critical part of our American heritage,' Arguelles said. Arguelles said the National Parks Conservation Association is pushing visitors to go to Manzanar and other sites — each of which 'include important historic and cultural connections,' the group said — and register their support for the information the parks provide on the feedback website, rather than complaining about 'negative' portrayals. Embrey was part of a 56th annual pilgrimage in April to Manzanar with thousands of other visitors, where he spoke to the crowds about his concerns with erasing his mother's and other survivors' stories. Embrey said he doesn't see pushback on Manzanar 'in a narrow sense,' instead connecting it to a trend of pushback against the Smithsonian, the story of Cesar Chavez and a push to remove 'transgender' from the National Park Service website on the Stonewall Uprising. 'Don't let Stonewall become precedent,' Embrey said. Embrey said he also sees similarities between how Japanese Americans were 'vilified' more than 80 years ago and how immigrant communities are being treated now. 'When you vilify immigrants as a threat and you talk about them in dehumanizing terms, you give license to violent extremists,' Embrey said. 'And I think it's intentional to terrorize the immigrant communities.' Embrey said that his mother, when she was testifying before Congress in the push to recognize Manzanar as a national historic site, was not trying to portray the United States in a negative way. 'She said that making Manzanar a national historic site will show the world how strong America is,' Embrey said. 'Our objective is simply to tell the truth so that we can be better.'
E&E News
10-06-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
NPS parks get instructions on removing signs that depict ‘negative' history
The National Park Service is rolling out plans to remove, cover or replace signs in national parks and other public lands that don't comply with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's plan to eliminate 'negative' depictions of U.S. history. NPS acting Director Jessica Bowron wrote a memo to park regional directors Monday detailing next steps to carry out Burgum's orders. The memo was obtained by the park advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association and viewed by POLITICO's E&E News. NPS planned to hold a call with superintendents Tuesday to give additional guidance on the reviews and how to respond to content that runs afoul of the orders, according to the memo. Advertisement Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on May 20 mandated two reviews to take place across public lands. One review was to identify 'negative' history on signs, exhibits and other public facing content. The second review was to locate any monuments or descriptions that were altered or removed during the Biden administration.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Facing extinction, rare Florida swamp flower could get more protections
One of Florida's rarest and most beloved swamp dwellers, the ghost orchid, could soon see increased protections under the federal Endangered Species Act. Citing the flower's growing risk of extinction, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced a proposal to list the ghost orchid as an endangered species. The decision is being hailed by experts as a lifeline for the phantom flower after decades of poaching, dwindling wetlands and habitat loss have cut its Florida population in half and plummeted its chances of survival. Federal wildlife experts say there are fewer than 1,000 ghost orchids remaining in the United States, and less than half of those are old enough to reproduce. Globally, the ghost orchid's population has dropped by an estimated 90% in recent decades. 'The ghost orchid is Florida's most famous flower, and it deserves a chance to live,' said Melissa Abdo, the Sun Coast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. A true child of the swamp, the ghost orchid clings high up on ancient cypress trees and pond apples, blooming in the hushed humidity of midsummer. Its white, dangling petals, seemingly aloft in midair, are the reason for its ghoulish name. A proposed increase in ghost orchid protections comes more than three years after a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, including the parks association, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Institute for Regional Conservation, petitioned the feds to add the ghost orchid to the list of endangered species. Jaclyn Lopez, director of the St. Petersburg-based Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University's College of Law, helped file the petition in 2022. An endangered species listing imposes civil and criminal penalties under federal law for anyone who removes the flower from federal or state public lands, according to Lopez. The decision also requires federal wildlife officials to chart a course for its recovery. 'Once finalized, (the Endangered Species Act) listing will ensure a future where wild Florida is enriched and adorned by this beauty,' Lopez told the Tampa Bay Times in a statement. The ghost orchid is found in a small sliver of Florida swamplands, including in the Big Cypress National Preserve, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. Other conservation and tribal lands in Collier, Hendry and possibly Lee counties are also home to the orchid, according to the nonprofit environmental groups. Western Cuba also has a population of ghost orchids, where they're also considered critically threatened, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wildlife officials aren't listing a specific critical habitat boundary for the flower, because they said it could increase the risk of poaching. In 2023, state wildlife officials said they caught people attempting to steal a ghost orchid from public swamplands. The flower's lore, and the thievery it draws, also inspired journalist Susan Orlean's 1998 nonfiction bestseller, "The Orchid Thief." The listing proposal was formally published in the federal register Thursday, beginning a 60-day public comment period ending in early August. The coalition of nonprofits that filed the initial petition underscored the importance of federal wildlife staff as the Trump administration has deteriorated habitat protections and laid off employees with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including in Florida. 'This is welcome news for Florida's famously cryptic ghost orchids,' Elise Bennett, the Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a statement to the Times. But 'with incessant attacks on landmark environmental laws meant to stop species from going extinct, we know our job here isn't done.' The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida's most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here.
