This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Hundreds of signs across the National Park System have been flagged for removal under guidelines the federal government enacted last year. A recently-leaked database indicates at least ten of these signs are in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
All of the plaques are subject to review and potential removal under Trump administration directives – specifically, an Executive Order from March 27 last year, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Under this order, the Department of the Interior asked staff overseeing national parks, monuments, and other historic sites on federal land to review their signage, and “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.” The order directs changes to be made by July 4, 2026.
Any of the millions of annual visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are likely to come across one of the park’s many waysides, signs, and exhibits. Plaques that face mountain vistas discuss the park’s array of flora and fauna, from bears and bats to trillium flowers. Others explain the hidden history within the park: Civil War battle sites, the graves of enslaved people and poor farmers who once roamed the hills and valleys, indigenous Cherokee historical sites and names. And, still others talk about climate threats to the park like acid rain, invasive pests, and extreme weather.
The Park has made efforts to address these threats through scientific monitoring, education, and even working with regional industries and utilities on solutions to the air quality problem.
The database shows the Department of Interior has flagged signs in the Smokies that are a part of these public education efforts.
One flagged sign, titled, “Blue, Like Smoke,” discusses both the history of the park’s name and its current struggles with visibility and vehicle emissions. “Air pollution’s impact goes far beyond obscuring the view,” the sign reads. “Many plant and animal species in the Smokies suffer from the effects of acid precipitation and high amounts of ground-level ozone. What does the future hold? We don’t know.”
Other signs under review include “Fish Tales,” an introduction to the problems facing native brook trout in the Oconaluftee River, and “The Air We Breathe/The View We See,” two exhibits in the Sugarlands Visitor Center.
The database also targets over 15 signs on the Blue Ridge Parkway in addition to those in the park. The database includes folders with pictures of signs like “What is Bugging the Forest?” and “Forest Decline.” Both of these signs include information about the invasive woolly adelgid, long considered a consequence of warming in the forests. Still others discuss the Trail of Tears and the forced removal of the Cherokee people from their original lands in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Phillip Francis, a former deputy director for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, said the signs reflect decades of work to educate the public about the haze and air pollution that plagued the park for decades.
“Now, visibility is much closer than the way it should be,” Francis said.
But he says he’s worried the effort to remove climate-related signage reflects the Trump Administration’s current attitude towards fossil fuels – one opposed to the types of regulations that have improved air and water quality. “The administration has already pointed out that energy development is a big goal,” Francis said. “I fear that it might be done in such a way that we might return to the days that once were.”
In an email, the communications office of the Department of the Interior told BPR that materials in the database were edited and misrepresented the status of the project, and that the flagged materials are not necessarily destined for removal. “The narrative being advanced is false and these draft, deliberative internal documents are not a representation of final action taken by the Department,” read the statement.
However, park advocates are seeing evidence that certain parks are already taking signage down. The National Parks Conservation Association is suing the Department of the Interior over signage that has already been taken down across the country. For instance, the NPS early this year removed climate signage at the Muir Woods National Monument in California.
The NPS’s next steps are uncertain. After the DOI required parks to submit signs for review, the National Park Service formed a committee for next steps; that committee soon broke apart.
