BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 30, 2025
There are few places more special than Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. On the summit, there are informational signs about the park’s ancestral history, ecology, and how the park is changing due to our warming planet. That is, until the Trump administration systematically removed educational and historical displays from national parks across the country, stripping away factual, science-based information that helps visitors understand the world around them. In Maine, 10 interpretive signs have been pulled from Acadia alone — six climate-focused displays on Cadillac Mountain and four from the Great Meadow. Some explained how climate change is reshaping Acadia. But others were innocuous: One simply asked visitors to stay on marked trails to protect fragile alpine plants; another described the hardy vegetation that thrives in the summit’s extreme conditions. Our parks deserve better. Our visitors deserve better. And our democracy, which depends on an informed citizenry, demands nothing less than the truth. ~ U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, ranking member of the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee