A host of interpretative and educational roadside and other displays are set to come down or have already been purged in Glacier National Park under a Trump Administration directive.

The move, first reported in the Washington Post, is apparently  in response to President Trump’s Executive order from last year on “restoring truth and sanity to American history.”

According to former Superintendent Jeff Mow as well as another source who was described the list for Glacier, that includes displays on climate change, wolves, the Sherburne Dam in Many Glacier and the Park’s  Headwaters Podcast, which is featured on Glacier’s home web page.

Mow said the displays that were put up during his tenure were in response to questions from the public.

“I don’t know if (the administration) understands we were responding to the interest and curiosity of visitors,” he said last week.

The Park Service has taken a broad approach to the directive and in the past six months have submitted displays that might be considered in violation of the directive, including subjects like climate change.  

Having said that, discussions on climate change in the Headwaters Podcast, which is produced by Glacier National Park staffers, remained up on Apple’s Podcast page. But season 6, which included interviews on fire management in Glacier and World War II conscientious objectors were taken down, reportedly back in December.

Mow said the physical displays are often being taken out of context and are designed to give history and interpretation to what people are looking at as they stand in the physical location in Glacier.

He said it’s part of the administration’s top-down approach.

“Shoot first, ask questions later,” Mow, who is also the vice chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, a parks advocacy group of current, former, and retired employees and volunteers of the National Park Service, said.

He noted that the administration then finds itself regretting decisions after the fact.

“It’s the epitome of Washington bureaucracy,” he said. “They make decisions and they don’t have a clue of what’s going on, on the ground.”

He noted that parks like Glacier took pains to “put the facts out there and let people decide for themselves.”

“My sense is that might not be good enough for this administration,” he said.

While some parks have already dismantled physical displays under the order, more than a few of Glacier’s displays are in remote locations this time of year due to roads being closed and snow.

Mow retired at the end of 2021 after eight years at the helm of Glacier.

A timeline for removal of some of these displays was not immediately available, though season 6 of the Park’s Headwaters podcast apparently was taken down in December.

The Department of Interior issued the following response to questions on Glacier’s displays and podcasts.

“(The President) directed a review of certain interpretive content to ensure parks tell the full and accurate story of American history, including subjects that were minimized or omitted under the last administration. That includes fully addressing slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, and other foundational chapters of our history, informed by current scholarship and expert review, not through a narrow ideological lens,” it said. “Some materials may be edited or replaced to provide broader context, others may remain unchanged.”