‘Under Attack': As Trump Targets National Parks, Supporters Rally in East Bay

Updated 4 p.m. Wednesday 

On Monday morning, a large crowd gathered on the Richmond waterfront outside the Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historic Park visitor center — the same day that the National Park Service turned 109 years old.

The people assembled were there for a day of action called “Protect Our Parks, Save Our Histories,” in protest at attempts by President Donald Trump’s second administration to defund national parks — and what organizers called the White House’s effort to “erase inclusive narratives from public interpretation.”

Many held signs in support of the park service and its staff, while a chain of people held placards that spelled out “PROTECT OUR PARKS.”

For independent historian Donna Graves, who led the development of the Rosie the Riveter site a quarter of a century ago and organized Monday’s day of action outside the museum, the choice of this date was important.

“Rosie the Riveter is celebrating its 25th anniversary,” she said. “Ironically, as it hits that milestone, it is doing so in an atmosphere that would not have allowed this park to be born.”

Or as retired National Park Service employee and event co-organizer Naomi Torres said: “National parks are under attack.”

‘That’s not American’

The rally follows seven months of actions by the Trump administration that parks leaders say have eroded staffing levels, morale and public trust in national parks.

These include the February firing of over a thousand NPS staff across the country as part of a broader plan to cut federal spending. Although the parks service was authorized to reinstate those probationary workers, permanent staffing at national parks around the United States has fallen 24% since Trump took office, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

In March, Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” aimed at the “distorted narrative” that Trump claimed was permeating the United States’ national parks, monuments and other federal institutions like the Smithsonian.

The order included a directive for parks staff — and visitors — to flag any content on display within national parks that “inappropriately disparage[s] Americans past or living”. According to the New York Times, the Trump administration said it would finalize this review on Sept. 17.

The Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historic Park was established in 2000. This site focuses not just on the local community’s role in supporting the war effort, but also the stories of those fighting for their freedom at home, like incarcerated Japanese Americans, the LGBTQ+ community and Black Americans facing housing discrimination — an educational focus that Graves and other advocates fear could put this park in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s review.

According to Richmondside, a handful of staff members at the park even briefly removed an exhibit focused on the LGBTQ+ history of the region back in January, before putting it back up a few days later.

One of the speakers at Monday’s event was Flora Ninomiya, who was incarcerated during World War II alongside her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans.

Her story is part of the fabric of history, she said, and is at risk of being lost if funding gets cut from national parks — and if certain narratives are erased.

“I think it’s really critical, especially at this time when our government is taking immigrants, many of them who are legally here,” Ninomiya said. “That’s not American. That is certainly not what I want my government to be doing.”

‘Dismantling an institution’

Jon Jarvis, who served as director of the National Park Service from 2009 to 2016 and spoke at Monday’s rally, said the second Trump administration’s attacks on parks are unprecedented.

“Never in my now-almost-50 years of working in conservation have I seen such a direct attempt at essentially dismantling an institution that has served the American people for well over 100 years,” Jarvis told the crowd assembled on the Richmond waterfront.

Jarvis told KQED that the various orders from the administration have created an air of frustration and confusion among parks staff who are dedicated to carrying out their roles as educators and stewards of history. He described Trump’s executive order as counter to the park service’s mission “to tell these stories authentically and based on the best scholarship in science — it’s essentially a violation of that responsibility,” he said.

Jarvis said Rosie the Riveter is among the many smaller national parks sites that some Republicans have proposed offloading to state or local jurisdiction. For him, this place is “a microcosm of all the issues that are facing the National Park Service,” because of its history as a community-led park — making it “in many ways the perfect place” for Monday’s rally, he said.

“When the administration says, ‘We want you to shut the hell up,’ they’re basically telling the community to shut up,” Jarvis said. “And they’re telling this community … that they don’t count, their history is not relevant. It’s a crime.”

This air of defiance was on display among speakers and the assembled crowd at Monday’s event, as attendees held up signs with messages like “Resist” and “History is not just white men.”

“Our parks must remain places where the real stories of our history are told and not changed for political convenience — and you’re not going to let that happen, right?” Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia asked the crowd, who echoed “Right!” in unison.

Kimberley Rodler, a former National Park Service employee and San Rafael resident who was in attendance wearing Rosie the Riveter’s signature red lipstick and bandana, said she is driven to act in defense of national parks by exactly those kinds of stories told at the museum.

“The little things add up,” Rodler said.

Monday’s speakers did not include any current parks staffers, and Torres informed the assembled crowd that staff had requested that anyone visiting the museum that day did not bring their signs or placards inside with them.

The National Park Service told KQED the request was made “to protect the historic resources within the center and to ensure the safety of all park visitors,” in light of the park not having “a designated First Amendment area.”

‘The good, the bad and the shameful’

Over the next few weeks, parks are expected to get the results of any submissions they’ve received about materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans” — and staff may then be asked to revise, remove or cover up any public-facing materials on display.

“I’m not sure how parks are going to handle that,” Graves said. “When I think about Rosie the Riveter, that kind of inclusive storytelling permeates every aspect of the exhibits.”

To Torres, telling the multifaceted stories of American history, “the good and the bad and the shameful,” is the only way to avoid repeating them today. “We cannot move forward as a country unless we think critically about our past and our future,” she said.

Graves agreed, saying that for parks staff, taking down or revising history would be akin to the “moral injury” soldiers face when they have to compromise their ethics in the line of battle.

“We want to tell history accurately,” Graves said. “We want to get the facts straight and the stories correct.”

“It’s about representing so many people who are American, who did build this country and who should be included in the way we tell the American story,” she said.