America’s National Parks are amazing - I have now been to four! When I first moved to the US and knew nothing about them, I was amazed by the contradiction between what I thought of (and is) a massively capitalist society and the conservationist ideology the Parks represent.

The Parks system protects 50M+ acres of nature. They have been called “America’s Best Idea”: a pioneering experiment in public ownership + celebration nature. The Great American Outdoors Act, the most imp conservation bill in decades, had bipartisan support under *this* admin!

Yet, like everything in this country, the history of the Parks is complex, exclusionary and violent. The notion of the Parks as pristine wilderness being saved unaltered for future generations is blatantly false. These lands were home to thriving Native American populations.

The idea of wilderness had no space for the communities that already lived there - they had to be expunged. In America’s Manifest Destiny, Native Americans could neither be stewards of America’s expanding frontier nor have any “right place in the landscape”

This has been a moment of reckoning for icons like John Muir, father of the National Parks. It’s important because even nature has historically been a canvas for white masculinity (primarily) to flex. Even today 77% of National Park visitors are white. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/americas-national-parks-face-existential-crisis-race/story?id=71528972

My trips to Yosemite and Death Valley were rejuvenating and fulfilling in so many ways. They were also an opportunity for education and learning; a reminder that the history and policy of even a no-brainier like conservation is fraught and complicated.