Yosemite National Park needs protection from man-made threats 135 years later

Yosemite National Park turns 135 this year. For many Californians it may feel distant by miles, but near at heart. 

Its rivers irrigate our farms, its forests clean our air and its wildlife capture our minds and hearts. For Latinos — even those who have never visited — Yosemite flows through our lives: in the water we drink, the food we grow and the landscapes we cherish. We are in Yosemite’s history.

Yet this anniversary should give us all pause, because today Yosemite and the lands that hold so much rich history are under threat. 

An icon of that history, George Meléndez Wright, fought for the park long ago. Hired in 1927, Wright was the first Latino naturalist in the National Park Service. 

He saw how mismanagement was threatening park wildlife. When Congress refused to fund a survey of the wildlife there, Wright funded it himself. His “Fauna No. 1” report became the park service’s first science-based wildlife plan, an authoritative text that guided its wildlife management for more than 30 years. 

By age 27, Wright had reshaped the park service’s mission for generations to come. Two mountains were later named after him.

Wright’s story is more than a footnote. His values — humility before ecosystems, scientific integrity, respect for life — remain vital to Yosemite’s future. They matter more now as climate change, habitat loss and mismanagement intensify. 

Today Yosemite faces a danger Wright never could have imagined: the erasure of its human stories and the dismissal of park staff.

A park under pressure

In March, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14253, which he called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It directs federal agencies, including the Interior Department, to purge “improper ideology” from parks, museums and monuments.

Translation: Narratives that confront slavery, Indigenous dispossession, colonial expansion or racial injustice could be treated as improper. Latino histories, migrant perspectives and environmental justice struggles — inherently complex and contested — may be erased.

The Interior Department already has issued Secretarial Order 3431 to implement the mandate. With vague terms like “divisive narrative” and “shared American values,” officials now have broad discretion to soften or delete inconvenient truths. 

In Yosemite, museum exhibits and interpretive signs are under review. The park’s official story risks being sanitized into scenery alone, stripped of labor, conflict and resistance.

These ideological pressures come as the park service faces severe staffing and budget cuts. 

In early 2025, about 1,000 employees — nearly a quarter of its workforce — were laid off. In Yosemite, biologists and watershed scientists have been reassigned to clean bathrooms or staff entry gates.

A coalition of 40 former national park superintendents warned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that parks are opening without enough staff to maintain safety, protect habitats or prevent vandalism. Garbage is piling up, trails are decaying and wildlife goes unmonitored. 

With fewer staff to steward, research, interpret and educate, all visitors bear a risk.

Latinos already face barriers to accessing parks — cost, language, transportation. Executive Order 14314, dubbed “Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks,” will add to that by increasing park entrance fees for “nonresidents,” which will impact many Latinos in California. 

Environmental groups such as the national GreenLatinos urge California’s congressional delegation to demand transparency before park narratives are altered. Elected leaders also should fight agency cuts and firings and defend Wright’s vision of science-based stewardship, which cannot survive without trained staff and adequate funding. 

Americans should reject any policy that “restores truth” by erasing complexity. If executive authority can decide which histories and people are permissible, then our collective national memory and national parks become hostages to politics. 

Yosemite’s future anniversaries will matter only if both land and story are protected. Let’s insist the next 135 years be written by many hands, many voices, all truths.