Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is vandalizing America’s national parks.
Not symbolic vandalism. Real, deliberate damage to one of our most trusted public institutions.
Under Burgum’s leadership, the National Park Service is being dismantled piece by piece—through political interference, workforce depletion, corruption, and the systematic erasure of American history.
Some of this damage is happening in plain sight. Much of it is not.
Distorting and Politicizing American History
One of the most visible acts of vandalism we have seen in recent months is the deliberate erasing of our nation’s history in advance of the 250th anniversary celebration. A slavery exhibit was removed from Independence National Historical Park. References to Japanese American internment and conflicts with Native Americans have been stripped from sites like Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Climate change interpretation has been removed from Acadia National Park and Fort Sumter. Even the language used to describe LGBTQ+ history at Stonewall National Monument has been altered.
These are not isolated edits. They are part of a broader effort to distort and politicize the American story. In doing so, Burgum is violating the National Park Service’s core mission: to preserve and interpret the full breadth of our history—not just the comfortable parts, but the difficult and defining ones as well.
And let’s be clear, erasing history doesn’t make it disappear. It only makes it easier to repeat. And it harkens back to very dark times in human history.
But what’s visible is only a fraction of the vandalism.
Traumatizing Staff
Behind the scenes, the Park Service is being hollowed out. Since early 2025, nearly a quarter of its workforce has been pushed out, while its budget has been slashed.
The consequences are already being felt.
Staffing shortages and funding cuts have pushed parks to the brink. Reports from last summer showed dozens of sites struggling to remain open and safe while still being required to maintain full public access—even as staffing levels collapsed. The result is predictable: overworked employees, diminished visitor services, and growing safety risks.
Now, even more layoffs are being threatened.
In short, the National Park Service is being forced to do more with less—and visitors are paying the price.
The scope of this vandalism extends even further.
Creating Intentional Chaos
Burgum also instituted a disastrous reorganization within the Department of the Interior, consolidating thousands of employees from Interior agencies into the Office of the Secretary, with no clear management structure and no lines of authority.
In building this bureaucratic empire, Secretary Burgum is further impoverishing the very agencies responsible for carrying out Interior’s mission.
What is Burgum’s ultimate goal with the National Park Service?
Last year, Burgum floated a plan to shutter hundreds of park sites nationwide. Though Congress has not advanced the proposal, the intent was unmistakable: to fundamentally reshape, if not dismantle, the National Park System as we know it.
It’s All About the Money
Burgum views public lands, including our national parks, as an asset to extract money from, not places to protect for the American people.
He has denounced steps taken during the Biden administration to conserve federal lands and waters and withdraw them from economic activity to protect ecosystems and nearby communities. “Was that a theft of trillions of dollars from you, your kids, your grandkids and every American?” Burgum asked. And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, it appears that Burgum has allowed our nation’s 250 birthday celebration to become awash in naked corruption. The Department of the Interior has reportedly diverted $100 million in taxpayer funds—without congressional approval—from a nonpartisan public entity intended to pay for the celebration to a private organization controlled by Trump loyalists called Freedom 250.
This new entity operates without transparency, without public accountability, and without meaningful oversight. It seems to exist to promote a white Christian nationalist view of the United States, to further Trump’s authoritarian push, and as a grift for Trump loyalists who can pay for access to the President through Freedom 250 events.
Taken together, these actions paint a clear picture. This is not mismanagement. It is a deliberate campaign to weaken, reshape, and ultimately dismantle one of the most trusted institutions in American life.
It is vandalism—in real time—of America’s national parks.
Tim Whitehouse is the Executive Director at PEER.