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
Parkwire, GWS’s daily global digest
of park news • Follow on FB
Latest top headlines • 16 January 2026
Although Trump claimed no knowledge of the Heritage Foundation's right-wing Project 2025, a new analysis says it is guiding the administration's approach to public lands. https://buff.ly/ERVVC02
Responding to Trump's elimination of free entry to NPs on Martin Luther King Day, California Governor Newsom announced that California's SPs will waive entrance fees on the holiday. https://buff.ly/kDQRDWd
One of Europe's leading cultural heritage networks has expressed "deep regret" over Trump's withdrawal from ICCROM, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. https://buff.ly/0wkX47x
A restoration project on one of the islands in Ecuador's Galápagos NP is turning out to be larger and more complicated than expected. https://buff.ly/sLGmQqD
Burgum has ordered USNPS officials to examine hunting and fishing rules in NPs where such activity is allowed with an eye toward relaxing them. https://buff.ly/gRb2bU6
DOI will organize its own Trump-aligned America 250 celebration distinct from Congress' non-partisan commission's plans. https://buff.ly/bqYpcqC
New figures provide the clearest view yet of Trump cuts to federal employees: an overall reduction of 22%, with cuts to several DOI land-managing agencies at close to that level. USNPS was down 14%. https://buff.ly/25JPdD2
Trump withdrew the US from the UN climate change treaty, as well as from a host of other international environmental and humanitarian organizations, including the US state membership in IUCN, the principal international NGO in parks and protected/conserved areas. https://buff.ly/4pGvta1
The rollout of Trump's $100 surcharge to foreign visitors to US NPs is causing entrance delays, confusion, and anger. https://buff.ly/GQh7Kvy
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
