The National Park Service has long provided park websites in other languages — like Spanish, Russian or French — in a nod to the millions of visitors of diverse background who descend on parks each year. But now those websites also include one sentence in English.
NPS this week added a disclaimer to emphasize that English is the “official language and authoritative version of all federal information.”
At least 11 alternative language sites — including for California’s Joshua Tree National Park and Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park, and Lewis and Clark National Historical Park — either have the new language added or are temporarily inaccessible, according to a review by POLITICO’s E&E News and an Interior Department staffer familiar with the change who was granted anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about it publicly. Those three Spanish-language websites each noted that they were last updated Tuesday.
The Interior Department, which oversees the park service, said in a statement that the web updates are part of ongoing compliance with the president’s order last year designating English as the nation’s official language. The agency cited Department of Justice guidance, from last summer, to “minimize non-essential multilingual services.”
