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."
Comments
1: I'm partial to BadHombreLandsNPS @BadHombreNPS mostly for the name.
2: EC is absolutely correct, given all the "visual identity program" rules on the arrowhead, all of these #AlternativeNPS sites need to stop using the NPS arrowhead. Someone needs to photoshop a parody arrowhead, perhaps with the Sequoia cut and falling (even though the wood is too brittle to be merchantable), or perhaps the bison upside down or being shot in a pen. That would be a parody arrowhead and fair use. [As should be the arrowhead with a black band or "Alternative" across it, but that's not very creative, and perhaps harder to defend in court.]
3: I'm not involved with any of these feeds. I don't even look at them during work hours or from GFE. But yes I do have offline backups of ~7TB of historic climate data.
4: In my job I continue to do science to inform management (& interpretation) of park natural resources. I do not expect anyone to tell me I have to stop. I will be as disciplined as necessary to stay within the law. The natural resources I've committed to transfer unimpaired to future generations are more important than short-term gratification, although others with other jobs and allegiances may make different judgement calls.
4: My personal, outside of working hours, public contributions have been in terms of tools for doing better natural resource science. They turn out to be used a lot by FS, state, tribal, & Canadian colleagues who can't see my content inside the DOI firewall. However, I may start putting science results up on my personal sites, too. When I do, I will make sure all NPS data are already available to the general public, which makes it legal in my capacity as a private citizen.
5: I find Al's assertion that President Trump is a supporter of National Parks "if not totally convinced of climate change" disingenuous at best, and #AlternativeFacts at worst, except it isn't a fact, just a assertion without any evidence or argument by someone who I used to respect as a historian. Historians provide evidence or argument for their claims and interpretations. There is no evidence that President Trump is even partially convinced of climate change, or even interested in empirical evidence one way or the other.
I suggest they just invert the Emblem - maybe reverse the lettering - and post it like the American Flag as a "distress" signal...
I've read only part of Thunderbear 302 --- only as far as the beginning of the Safety Message. But I'll finish it before bedtime.
P.J. Ryan is a genius. His writings should be spread as far and wide as possible.
I wonder if there is any way they could be syndicated or something so they might be reprinted in newspapers around the country -- or world for that matter?
Does anyone out there know if or how that could be done?
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Tomp's advice above sounds great. Love the idea of an alt.arrowhead with environmental symbols in distress. Is there an artist in the crowd?
Tomp2, I have a salient fact--Ryan Zinke, who in Congress openly expressed his love for the national parks. Now, tell me what fact you have? None that I can see, except your assertion that I am the one being "disingenuous."
Now, sign your name and we'll talk. In the meantime, I don't want or need your "respect." Stand up and be counted, I believe the saying goes. Anyone can talk from his backside, as you are doing here. "There is no evidence that President Trump is even partially convinced of climate change?" Okay, we may agree that a newspaper is hardly "evidence," but this is more than you have.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/17/trump-warming-to-rea...
Don't want to believe the Chinese? Ah, but everyone was so willing to believe the Russians. In short, you will believe what you want to believe. A "recovering academic" indeed.
Thanks for the reminder about Thunderbear, Lee! I hadn't read him in several years. A good way to unwind with a few laughs after a stressful day (completely unrelated to the new administration).
We will not go silently!
Please take the fake news to the underground where it belongs. The climate change scam is over but please feel free provide your alternative views and data on your own dime and time.
if, by any chance, the DT administration should defund national parks, I would still pay any amount to go to them. They are our national treasure.... Keep on Brothers and Sisters.....