Administrators for National Parks Service Twitter accounts are refusing to be silenced, and are taking their resistance to Trump to a new account.
The account @AltNatParkSer, which was launched on Tuesday, already has over a quarter million followers as of this writing, and is growing quickly. The account describes itself as “The Unofficial “Resistance” team of U.S. National Park Service. Not taxpayer subsidised!” One tweet says the account is being run by active park rangers in their free time.
Donald Trump previously ordered all National Parks Service accounts to stop tweeting indefinitely when the verified @NatlParkService account retweeted images comparing the inaugural crowds of Presidents Obama and Trump. However, the @BadlandsNPS account, which is the verified account for the Badlands National Park, ignored that gag order and tweeted factoids about climate change that were later deleted. The account for the Golden Gate National Park followed suit.
However, with the advent of @AltNatParkSer, National Parks Service employees vow to continue publishing facts about climate change and resisting President Trump.
The people behind the account explained that their rationale was to do everything they could to protect and safeguard America’s National Parks, saying that climate change was the single greatest threat that national parks face.
In addition to their own gag order, the account also condemned Trump’s silencing of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the EPA’s grant program, both of which research and study how the rapidly changing climate affects everything from the food supply to local wildlife populations.
Aside from the advocacy for science, the account also regularly pokes fun at the new president, and promises that even if the administration fires employees who defy his gag orders, others will continue to rise up.
Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at [email protected], or follow him on Facebook.
