Court Orders National Parks Signage, Including at Muir Woods, to Be Restored

Parks advocacy groups, which filed a February lawsuit challenging the order, celebrated the decision, especially amid the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

“Today’s court ruling will help protect national parks from the administration’s unprecedented campaign to erase history and science at these one-of-a-kind places,” wrote Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the plaintiff organizations. “National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent. Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history.”

A Department of the Interior spokesperson told KQED in an email that it is weighing an appeal given the ruling is “from a [President] Biden-appointed judge.”

Jon Jarvis, former director of the National Park Service under President Barack Obama, said he anticipates an appeal, but even without one, it’s unlikely the administration will take immediate action to restore removed signs like the one at Muir Woods.

This administration’s NPS has been “kind of a mess,” and has a “pattern of ignoring court decisions,” he said. “And I think implementation of this order will also be very messy.”

The removal process itself has been chaotic since it was announced last year, Jarvis said.

“There haven’t been a wholesale and comprehensive set of decisions made from [the executive order],” he said. “There have been some places that have been, let’s say, more aggressive about it … but in many cases, nothing’s ever actually been done to remove or adjust the signs.” Jarvis praised Kelley’s ruling as “well-justified.” He said it “will go in the sort of annals of park service legal lore,” in particular noting its focus on the park service’s education mission.

“It’s an affirmation of the park services, not only its mission and responsibilities, but its policy and its responsibility to tell America’s story authentically and to ensure that no one gets left out of that story,” Jarvis said.

Parks advocacy groups nationwide have been documenting what has been taken down both physically and digitally on government websites as a result of the executive order. At sites across the state, including at Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, QR codes were posted soliciting public input on what should be taken down.

“The park service took down or revised a lot of signs, and they put them in storage, and they’ll come back out,” he said. “They’re either going to come back now, or they’re going to come back in a few years.”