What To Make Of The Alt Movement Today?
It burst onto the scene 11 months ago at 140 characters per tweet, unnerving some in the Trump administration with its irreverence and pushback, and no doubt concerning top management of the National Park Service. But where is the Alt movement these days?
In short, it seems alive and well, though it has stretched its boundaries, moving beyond Park Service and climate change issues to encompass all perceived wrongs those behind the tweets want to right or bring attention to.
"We started with a really simple message. We wanted a forum to bring awareness to the inequality faced by women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ people in regards to the NPS uniform," NastyWomenofNPS said in replying to a series of questions posed by Traveler. "We grew from there to messaging about those groups and how they faced prejudice as a whole across NPS. As our audience grew, we recognized how important intersectionality is to our resistance, not only from a humanistic viewpoint (the people we report about), but also the spheres in which we do so. While a lot of the content we share is NPS-related, much of it is about politics, civil rights, racism, sexism, conservation...the things we're really passionate about, but on a global stage."
Search Twitter and you can find a range of "Alt" handles that sprang up after President Trump was sworn in back in January. There's Alt US NPS, AltEPA, AltYellowstoneNatPark, altRockyNPS, AltCraterLake, Alt Bears Ears NM, and AltUSFWSRefuge, and then there's BadHombreLandsNPS, which arose after a former Park Service employee with access to Badlands National Park's Twitter account posted climate-change facts several days after Donald Trump's inauguration in January that apparently irked the newly encamped Trump administration.
Not all those groups responded to Traveler's questions about the state of the movement, and those that did did not reveal their true identities or professional positions. But in various forms and messages, the Alt sites seem to have a unifying foundation: Science is real and should be used to inform the public, and those behind the accounts will resist any efforts by the Trump administration to muzzle scientists. That said, there is no coordination between them, Traveler was told.
"We don’t really have a set outline, we go with our hearts and try and speak for our following by addressing concerns and focusing on the most dire action alerts, making those calls is key to the resistance," said "Ominous Ann," the individual behind AltYellowstoneNatPark, in an email.
Some behind the Alt names purportedly are full-time park rangers, others claim to be researchers or seasonals. But some also could just be people hoping to glam onto the Alt movement.
"You can reach most of them through Twitter, but there are only a few that we collectively really trust... A core group we refer to as 'vetted' since a few of us know each other in one way or another through our park work," one of the handlers of Alt US NPS said in an email.
@NastyWomenofNPS - over 70% of our followers are women, and NastyWomen is run by female Park employees (Rangers). 100% legit account
@AltYelloNatPark is dedicated beyond what anyone realizes. Again, 100% legit acct
@BadHombreNPS because they are the original, where the Alts all started. Not 100% sure of their background, but they seem on right path...
@AltHVNP has made a few videos that have been great. If you have not watched the video they did about water, it is fantastic- https://medium.com/@althvnp Watch it...
"Those are the ones we are tightest with. But Rainier, Olympic, Rocky, Lassen are also great accounts," the email continued. "Even some smaller ones like Alaska and BigBend are decent and have rangers I personally know, but there are also countless others run by people just trying to cash in or commercialize it. We are trying to vet what we can without exposing or 'unmasking' anyone in the process."
While the movement's initial focus was intended by some to be non-partisan, skimming through the tweet-stream shows a heavy anti-Trump and anti-GOP slant.
"WTF is wrong with this administation? Seriously, do they just try to piss people off," tweeted Alt US NPS the other day after the Trump administration announced it would reverse the Obama administration's ban on the importation of elephant trophies from Africa.
AltYellowstoneNatPark took aim at U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, for sponsoring legislation to dismantle the Antiquities Act that presidents have used since 1906 to establish national monuments, urging followers to flood the congressman's office with phone calls.
"Rob Bishop still needs more calls. This despicable bill he's forwarding gives 45 (President Trump) permission to reduce and destroy our National Parks, Forests and Monuments," went the tweet.
Another one from AltYellowstoneNatPark noted that, "It has become apparent that we who are the NPS can no longer maintain our tradition of silence and neutrality on political matters and still effectively protect our National Parks and Forests."
BadHombreLandsNPS also encouraged calls, in one case to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
"Hate to break it to you homie - but @SecretaryZinke is politicizing our public lands by acting more like a Fossil Fuel Industry lobbyist than secretary of the doddamn @Interior," they tweeted in reply to one follower who took exception to BadHombreLandsNPS's infusion of politics into their feed. "Call his office. Write his office. Make damn sure that @SecretaryZinke knows we will hold him fully accountable for his actions. If he violates the oath he took, we push to #impeach him."
The number of followers to these Twitter accounts ranges greatly, but combined the number is fairly substantial. NastyWomenofNPS has more than 19,550 followers, BadHombreLandsNPS nearly 212,000, Alt US NPS more than 24,500, and AltYellowstoneNatPark almost 60,000.
Park Service officials and managers have warned employees not to start Twitter accounts in the Alt mode, according to NastyWomenofNPS, who added that staff have "faced scrutiny and judgment from coworkers if you are suspect."
The individual behind AltYellowstoneNatPark identified themselves as a researcher, and "as such there’s not much NPS can do to quiet my political activities other than deny a permit or ban me from the park. Which does happen, so I’ve been very careful to maintain my anonymity, although a number of our contributors are in similar positions and have been open about their identities and not seen any negative repercussions."
"I’d have to say," they went on, "thus far, NPS has been nothing but fantastic about the whole thing and I’m very appreciative about it as I consider it one of the primary goals of any good researcher to preserve the environment we study for future generations. We cannot do that in these trying times without addressing the political arena as it affects those environments. Scientists need to step up and lead the way to responsible conservation as a first step to studying the environments they know best. We’re the first to see negative effects, we need to also be the first to stand up. I give Badhombres a lot of credit for breaking the silence."
While these feeds are just a handful among the nearly 1 billion Twitter accounts, they hope to have a lasting impact.
"I hope the critical thinking, analysis, and attention continues far into the future," said NastyWomenofNPS.
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Are All Alts Part Of The Movement?
While the thrust of the Alt movement seems straightforward, concerns have been raised over AltYellowstoneNatPark's pleas for donations to pay for travel expenses, winter gear, fuel, housing, and more.
"Ominous Ann," who claims to be conducting research in Yellowstone National Park, has raised at least $11,000 via GoFundMe and PayPal pages, and has tried selling photographs to generate funds.
"Miles behind on winter supplies, we need pretty much everything in the way of winter gear, fuel, transportation & housing. It's a rough slog," he/she tweeted in late September. "Imagine the fuel bill to heat an old log cabin when it's -40 degrees outside."
Several days later they tweeted again, with a link to a GoFundMe page included.
"We've had some unforeseen expenses with the early onset of winter and another big storm rolling in," read the tweet. "Your continued support is essential to our efforts both in the resistance and in science."
Other tweets mentioned having to "abandon the car here n (sic) order to get home B4 d (sic) snow hits," and needing to "Get the RV home before the snow really hits. Winter hit early and we've gotta get the Rv out ASAP."
And there were pleas for folks to buy cargo blankets from Amazon and ship them, requests for batteries for a digital camera, gators, even food. At one point in his/her GoFundMe campaign Ominous Ann asked for funds to buy a snowmobile, saying, "We need you now more than ever as we can only conduct an abbreviated study without the B.A.T. snowmobile."
Ominous Ann told the Traveler all the funds raised through these efforts were to support research in the park.
"As you know, its (sic) pretty expensive to stay in the parks or the surrounding area so yeah. No one is raising money as some form of self enrichment scheme. Thats (sic) nuts, never happened," they wrote.
However, they also said they didn't have a formal grant proposal and no formal budget.
"I knew roughly how much I needed and went for it hoping I'd be able to fund this. I treated the money like a grant in case someone like yourself came along asking questions," they said in an email.
Were those pleas really for donations to support research, or was it all a guise? Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk wants to know.
"The trouble with these GoFundMe sites is they're buyer beware," Superintendent Wenk said Friday during a phone conversation.
Anonymity makes it hard, if not impossible, to deduce the legitimacy of Ominous Ann's campaign. He/she was evasive Friday in an email exchange to identify the type of research they were supposedly conducting in Yellowstone. Four times we asked specifically what the project involved, and four times the question was dodged.
"We've identified the research to a number of people including other park scientists, certain vetted accounts, as well as some associated with the project," they said. "I have in the past offered to answer that question by putting you (sic) in touch with some of these folks who are in the know, who can confirm that there is a project, and that it has yielding (sic) some very interesting preliminary findings. The effort has always been to avoid aggravating the tenuous relationship between the NPS, our political activities and our continued work in the park. Its (sic) why the ALTs have remained anonymous.
"I can provide reasonable proof of an important project, but I can't reveal the specific subject of that research without forgoing my anonymity," wrote Ominous Ann. "If he's willing, I could put you in touch with one of the park's better known scientists who's very involved in editing and process guidelines on a volunteer basis with this project. There are others if you feel you need more than just one.
"By protecting my anonymity I am protecting my ability to publish. Journals are as uninterested in politics as the park is. Associating the work with the protest movement I'd be far less likely to find a publishing avenue than if I hang onto my anonymity so I can publish under my real name with no adverse repercussions associated with my political activities."
While Traveler asked to be put in contact with "one of the park's better known scientists" involved with the project, Ominous Ann did not immediately respond Friday. Late Saturday evening they emailed to say that they likely couldn't reach the individual before Monday.
Superintendent Wenk wouldn't completely rule out that the individual was conducting research, because his/her anonymity made it impossible to connect a name to a project. But he was highly skeptical.
"There are just so many things suspicious about this," he said. "At one time she said she was raising money and she was going to donate it to Earthjustice or something like that. Earthjustice never heard of her. We contacted them."
The superintendent also said there were some curious coincidences between correspondence park permit staff had with an individual seeking a permit and posts that showed up on Ominous Ann's GoFundMe campaign.
On September 18 the park by letter declined a permit request for research to an individual, but added that "the park cannot legally restrict you from pursuing publication of your information, especially since it was collected by means that any visitor could use," he said. "Then (Ominous Ann) posted on a GoFundMe site, on the night of September 18, 'I want to really thank all for making my time here possible and tell you some good news. I have permission to publish.'"
The superintendent acknowledged that exchange could be written off as a coincidence, "but it's too close to being a coincidence."
At various points since the beginning of the year Ominous Ann claimed to be pursuing a job with both Forever Yellowstone and Patagonia. They also said they were working on a UNESCO project to win World Heritage status for park units and monuments that didn't already have it, but then "discontinued the UNESCO and the Arts4AltParks campaigns. UNESCO donations were sent to Earth Justice (sic) for the 5 weeks of research they put in and their efforts at the July Meeting which expressed our concerns to the committee."
But as Superintendent Wenk discovered, Earthjustice was unfamiliar with this supposed project. Considered as a whole, the superintendent said he has concerns that the fundraising campaigns by AltYellowstoneNatPark are not legitimate.
"We have no knowledge of any permit that we've denied or things that we've done that meet the circumstances that the person is describing," said the superintendent. "I've asked our law enforcement people to look into this, because I think they're potentially using Yellowstone to defraud people."
Traveler postscript: If any personnel at Yellowstone, or outside agencies, can attest to the legitmacy of Ominous Ann's research, please contact the Traveler. Your identification will remain confidential.
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Comments
Oh hey there "Ann Ominous" or "Ominous Ann" or "Marcus Aurelius Modified" or whatever name you are going by at the moment. Ominous Ann/Ann Ominous, running the Twitter @AltYelloNatPark account is not a female or a Yellowstone National Park Employee employee or representing a group of park employees and scientists in around Yellowstone. His Twitter profile is a masquerade. We agree on one thing - I can well relate to the merits of brave public service having dedicated more than 35 years of my life to protecting America's national parks and assisting park visitors as a National Park Service employee including in Yellowstone National Park. Subsequently doing similar work on various boards and volunteering for non-profit organizations. I don't hide behind aliases and cast gratuitous aspersions. I deal in facts and truth.
In my opinion, the main premise and question of the article is not only valid but timely. The ALT gov sites popped-up as critics of the Trump administration providing information and resistance to inform the public of the administration's political agenda. Even with the brave action of ALT gov sites sharing of redacted science and climate data, social media topics have an extremely short life span. As we approach the one year anniversary of Trump's inauguration, his administration is effectively using their media clout to keep the public's attention to the Presidents nonsensical Twitter bursts. But the question the article poses still remains, what's up with the multiple donation requests from @AltYelloNatPark? Donating to anonymous entities goes against every tip on how not to be scammed. As the adage about Internet anonymity goes, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!"
I'm the chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch and have investigated Democrats and Republicans for decades. I wrote a book about Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this year, a concerned citizen from Greater Yellowstone contacted me about "Ominous Ann" and the AltYellowstoneNatPark Twitter account. The "Ann" story was featured in a lenghty sidebar here. This citizen who contacted me was concerned that "Ann" was a fraud, posing as a Yellowstone researcher and ripping people off by raising funds on GoFundMe. I contacted "Ann" with some polite questions about her research and activities. She pledged to send people my way who could verify her activities. That never happened. I asked her to send me details of her work and some form, any form, of confirmation of her activities. She responded with with a political attack on Judicial Watch--in other words, changed the subject--and blocked me on Twitter. My investigation into the activities of "Ann" continues. I come to no conclusions here but folks should judge the facts for what they are: "Ann" refuses to provide any proof of her research in the park or her indentity; she continues to solicit money; she provided no one who can confirm her story; she attacks anyone who raises questions. Buyer beware.
Normal nutjobs, they should maybe go out and get real jobs, actually do something to contribute to the country. Instead of trying to tear everything down. So very sad..
Did you ever hear back from anyone who could confirm Ominous Ann's research validity? "She" is posting an image on twitter that "she" sent a $10,000 cashier's check to EarthJustice, but what about the other ~$20,000? "She" deletes any comments that dare to ask clarifying questions, but people seem blind to the probable fraud.