An internal database anonymously uploaded Monday shows hundreds of educational placards that have been flagged for removal at Acadia and other national parks because of President Trump’s efforts to politically control information available to park visitors.
The database is believed to have been publicly posted online by disgruntled park service employees.
The entries by Acadia park staffers include displays about climate change and indigenous history.
Trump’s March 2025 order instructed the park service to pull displays that “disparage Americans past or living” and distract from the “grandeur of the American landscape.”
At least some of the displays have already been taken down, according to Todd Martin, a regional official for the National Parks Conservation Association, which recently joined a coalition of scientists and historians suing the Department of Interior for the administration’s attempts to “erase history and censor science at America’s national parks.”
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 17 in federal court in Boston.
The database was uploaded Monday by an anonymous user representing “Civil Servants on the Front Lines” and was first reported on by The Washington Post.
It was not immediately clear whether all of the database’s submissions will be removed from the parks, though it appears most of those tied to Acadia National Park have already been taken down from public view. The content, however, remains on the park’s website.
Amanda Pollock, a spokesperson for National Park Service, did not respond to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News in time for publication.
“Americans want the true and full picture of the history of our country and how climate change is impacting our national parks and our communities,” Martin said. “We can handle the truth. We don’t want to see science and history sanitized or whitewashed. Americans deserve to learn those histories and those stories when they visit our national parks.”
Among Acadia’s flagged signage was a multi-exhibit installation at the Sieur du Monts Nature Center about power plant emissions that produce mercury, according to the released files. The exhibit and other climate-related signs at the center were removed last November, Martin said.
Few have noticed the changes because the signs were taken down shortly after the center’s seasonal closure, Martin said.
A display reading “make informed decisions” was also axed from Schoodic Peninsula’s historic Rockefeller Hall. The wooden-framed poster says research is vital for park managers to address a string of modern challenges: climate change, invasive species, diseases and land use changes. That poster was also pulled in November 2025, Martin said.
Cedar tri-pod signs — 30 in total — were removed from the summit of Cadillac Mountain and the Great Meadow last September, about a month before they are usually placed in winter storage.
The signs detailed the mountain’s importance to the Wabanaki nations and the impacts of climate change.
Those signs are not expected to return by Memorial Day, as has historically been the case, Martin said.
The signs at Cadillac Mountain were among the first markers to be censored after the executive order, according to the lawsuit.
“Americans deserve the full truth — these signs were removed with no public comment period, no public input,” Martin said, describing the nature of the coalition’s lawsuit. “It’s in violation of several laws managing the National Park Service. We are deeply concerned.”
The lawsuit alleges Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the park services’ management.
In response to the removals, a local art collective positioned their own colorful signs around Acadia. The group’s social media page shows the hand-painted protest signs set out in the park last fall reading “How is climate changing Acadia?” and “Is Acadia Wabanaki land?”
Those questions were crossed out and “You don’t need to know!” was written below.
Friends of Acadia, a nonprofit that advocates for the park’s conservation, was one of more than 100 advocacy organizations that signed an August 2025 letter calling on Burgum to rescind the order and ensure park managers have full authority to “shape and protect accurate and complete storytelling on public lands.”
“The Department entrusts the National Park Service, one of the nation’s leading storytellings and its other agencies, to interpret and present those histories with honesty, depth and care,” the coalition’s letter says. “Through exhibits, signage, ranger talks and digital resources, our national parks and historical sites preserve our collective memory. They help us understand who we are and who we have been.”
