The George Wright Society champions stewardship of parks, protected & conserved areas, cultural sites, and other kinds of place-based conservation by connecting people, places, knowledge, and ideas. By uniting people from many different backgrounds around a common passion for protecting Earth’s natural and cultural heritage, we create the collaboration needed to meet today’s greatest conservation challenges.
INNOVATING ACROSS BOUNDARIES FOR
Parks • Cultural Sites
Protected / Conserved Areas
We just wrapped up a great week together!
Parkwire, GWS’s daily global digest
of park news • Follow on FB
Latest top headlines • 5 November 2026
On Thursday Trump used the Antiquities Act to declare the White House's Oval Office and adjacent Cabinet Room as Oval Office NMon, apparently to freeze their current configuration, including changes he has made, in place. (He did not extend the same concern to the East Wing, which he tore down and is rebuilding as a ballroom.) https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/05/us/politics/trump-oval-office-national-monument.html
Over vociferous objections from Indigenous people, Minnesota regulators voted to allow a controversial pipeline to reopen near Pipestone NMon. https://buff.ly/ulGlI5X
The likely new Democratic chair of a House committee overseeing NPs is vowing that Trump's diversion of USNPS funds to his pet DC projects will be coming to an end ... even as a federal commission is expected to give final approval to his arch project. https://buff.ly/A54RJfa (and see https://buff.ly/Mp2LNLM)
With the seismic shift towards Democrats in yesterday's US mid-term elections, the National Parks Conservation Association is looking ahead to better times under the new Congress. https://buff.ly/5ysSNvd
Parks Canada is facing steep cuts amid a general federal austerity push. https://buff.ly/cupiPPN
Greenpeace dropped huge blocks of stone from a vessel to the bottom of the ocean inside the UK's Southern North Sea MPA in a bid to stop bottom trawling. https://buff.ly/UbGyO75
Carter G. Woodson Home NHS — the home of the founder of Black History Month — is reopening for the first time since the pandemic after a full renovation. https://buff.ly/vktEYfw
As the annual — and so-far thwarted — negotiations for a possible Antarctic PA get underway, a famed marine scientist is calling for an end to krill harvesting in the seas around the continent. https://buff.ly/gqSqC65
Amid nationwide federal budget cuts, Parks Canada employees have been notified that 500 jobs — some 15% of its workforce — could be cut. https://buff.ly/t4OcTrs
According to the National Parks Conservation Association, over 40 new mining claims have been filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante NMon since Trump reduced its boundaries by over 90%. (That move is still being litigated.) https://buff.ly/sRDV2lB
INSPIRED BY GEORGE MELÉNDEZ WRIGHT
The first-ever biography of our namesake — the visionary who revolutionized management of America‘s national parks
“Emory’s enumeration of Wright’s accomplishments—including a survey of wildlife in Western parks, the first of its kind—is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Highly recommended for nature lovers and park enthusiasts.” LIBRARY JOURNAL
Watch our virtual chat
with author Jerry Emory!
GWS LGBTQIA2S+ AFFINITY GROUP
