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UPDATED: "Unofficial" National Park Service Twitter Accounts Challenge Trump Administration

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Published Date

January 25, 2017

Editor's note: This update cites another unofficial NPS Twitter feed, and outlines how the NPS Arrowhead logo can be used.

This national park Twitter feed ain't rogue. It might better be viewed as "the resistance."

After a former employee at Badlands National Park in South Dakota fed a short series of climate-change related tweets that were quickly taken down, a collection of active National Park Service employees has banded together to launch AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) on Twitter, a feed those behind it bill as, "The Unofficial 'Resistance' team of U.S. National Park Service. Not taxpayer subsidised! Come for rugged scenery, fossil beds, 89 million acres of landscape."

Among the initial tweets were:

Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS. You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!

All Americans should review .@NASA's Images of Change to see how climate change is affecting our planet http://climate.nasa.gov/images-of-change?id=594#594-three-gorges-dam-bri...

We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We'll fight climate change denial

This account should not have to exist & we are sorry for any problems we are causing our colleagues.  But we didn't start this. #resist

These four tweets were quickly removed from Badlands National Park's twitter feed on Tuesday.

The account quickly gained more than 440,000 followers.

As to the Badlands situation, that park's Twitter feed on Tuesday contained three climate-change related tweets and one noting the Park Service's mandate to preserve landscapes and their natural resources.

"Several tweets posted on the Badlands National Park's Twitter account today were posted by a former employee who was not currently authorized to use the park's account. The park was not told to remove the tweets but chose to do so when they realized that their account had been compromised," a Park Service official said. "At this time, National Park Service social media managers are encouraged to continue the use of Twitter to post information relating to public safety and park information, with the exception of content related to national policy issues."

Another Twitter channel with a similar bent, NatlParksUnderground (@NatParkUndrgrnd) also has surfaced. Among its initial tweets was one that said, "We encourage all agencies under the gag order of the Trump administration to go #underground, get the info out, and resist, resist, #resist."

National Park Service officials in Washington declined to comment on the two sites. However, the first might run into trouble for its use of the NPS Arrowhead logo.

Agency regulations specific that, "(U)nder no circumstances is the Arrowhead symbol to be employed in any manner which would malign or denigrate the NPS or its employees. No reproduction of the symbol is permitted which in any way changes the wording or design elements found therein. The use of the symbol on souvenirs or other items or merchandise presented for sale to the public by private enterprise operating either within or outside of areas of the National Park System will not be authorized. The symbol will not be authorized for use in a manner that would imply endorsement by the Service of a product, service, or enterprise which the Service has no authority to endorse."

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Comments

As with any fascist regieme, they will try to suppress the truth with lies...or should I say "alternative facts."


Thank you for believing in us to believe in you...


Bravo!  Must resist the Borg!


 It is a PRIVATE endeavor.

Is that not the NPS logo they are using?  Do they have rights to that?


Who said anything about being scared?  What is pathetic is that you would cheer on the theft of government property.  I'm sure you would be the first to complain and call for the shut down of the account if someone was using the logo to expose the manufacturing of the numbers and the plethora of inaccurate AGW predictions.


His and Putin's idol/puppet in the WH can't resist a negative tweet or song or comment without an emotional overeactio.


Who said anything about being scared?I just noted the theft of federal property which you seem to condone.  You would likely be the first to complain and screem for the shutting down of the account if somebody used the logo to distribute information about the manufacturing of temperature data or the plethora of failed AGW predictions (the real science).  Heck remember the Yosemite trademarks?  Everyone here had a hissy fit and DNC arguably had a legal right to those.


Sorry, but its not the "official NPS" account.  So, whatever floats your boat.  I'm not cheering this either, but if they start posting facts and scientific related information related to parks, then maybe i'll listen.  I'm willing to give anything a listen if it is going to inspire and make me think about subjects in a new manner.. If you must know, I don't take you seriously either and think you are a misguided narcissitic boomer that obviously needs to find a new hobby.  You also don't inspire me, nor tingle my brain with information that I would find useful, while you constantly troll this site into oblivion.

If trump wants to supress facts and data, then I will refuse to take him or his administration seriously either, and will then seek out "alternative means" to achieve knowledge.  


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