The Guardian
By Amy Qin with graphics by Flávio Pessoa
Fri 7 Aug 2026 08.00 EDT
Save Our Signs aims to document every sign in the more than 400 national parks and historic sites across the country before the Trump administration removes them
Jenny McBurney was among hundreds of people around the world who sprang into action last year when the Trump administration started deleting government datasets and webpages because they included information about “gender ideology”, environmental justice or diversity, equity and inclusion.
McBurney, a government publications librarian at the University of Minnesota, joined the Data Rescue Project, a group that mobilizes volunteers to archive critical government datasets that are at risk of deletion by the Trump administration.
While McBurney was working to archive censored datasets last spring, the Trump administration launched a sweeping campaign to censor American history and science in the National Park Service. National Park Service (NPS) rangers were instructed to flag and remove signs about slavery, Indigenous history and the climate crisis at national parks and historic sites around the country if they “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” or advance a “corrosive ideology”.
McBurney realized that just like government datasets, national park signs also contained public information that was funded by public taxpayer dollars. Why not mobilize people to archive the information at risk of removal on national park signs too?
