When pondering a new National Park Service “America the Beautiful” annual pass one would be forgiven for expecting images of the beautiful National Parks on the passes, but not this year.
Everyone in America knows that the country’s versatile and beautiful national parks are something to brag about. The range of scenes of nature vary from red rocks to wild waves, lush mountains and beautiful wildlife. However, this year there has been a change in the NPS annual passes, where no beautiful scenes are revealed, only an image of US President Donald Trump’s face.
Lovers of the national parks have already taken note of the new annual passes, with many placing a sticker with a natural scene over the image of Trump’s face. Now, to keep the president happy, the National Park Service has updated its policy to discourage visitors from “defacing” a picture of Trump on the latest annual pass.
However, not only have park lovers reacted by covering his face with a sticker, there are now sticker protests being held, and even a lawsuit from a conservation group.
The new $80 annual America the Beautiful pass offers visitors access to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites. While since 2004, the passes have typically showcased beautiful landscapes and iconic wildlife, selected through a public photo contest, this year is different. Previously, past winners have featured beautiful images on the passes of bison roaming the plains, or shots of the Grand Canyon, or Arches National Park.
This year, there are no beautiful images of nature, just side-by-side portraits of Presidents George Washington and Donald Trump. As the passes were released, they have quickly attracted criticism from park goers, leading to a wave of “do-it-yourself” resistance.
Photos have been shared on social media revealing that national park cardholders have quickly covered the image of Trump’s face with more appropriate stickers of landscapes, wildlife and yellow smiling emojis. Some have even completely blocked out the face of the whole card, and the backlash has inspired a growing sticker editing campaign.
However, it isn’t just about blocking out Trump’s mugshot, and is more about doing good. As noted by NPR, Jenny McCarty, a longtime park volunteer and graphic designer started selling beautiful custom stickers, sized to directly cover 47’s face, while 100 percent of proceeds go to conservation nonprofits. “We made our first donation of $16,000 in December,” McCarty said. “The power of community is incredible.”
McCarty does stress that the sticker movement is less about politics and more about the neutrality of public lands, where everyone is welcome.
“The Interior’s new guidance only shows they continue to disregard how strongly people feel about keeping politics out of national parks,” she said.
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After noting the changes to people’s annual passes, the National Park Service had to update its card policy this week to warn people that passes that have been “defaced or altered” may no longer be valid. This comes at a time when the sticker movement has grown across social media, not only doing good, but making life more beautiful.
Admittedly, the National Park Service has long said that passes can be voided if the signature strip is altered, but now the guidance has been amended to specifically include stickers or markings on the face if the card.
Reportedly, it is will be up to the discretion of park service officials to determine whether a pass has been “defaced” or not. Meanwhile, a further update says park officials now have leeway to reject an annual pass if a sticker leaves glue residence behind.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC, opposing the new pass design. The group points out that the image of Trump violates a federal requirement that the annual America the Beautiful pass display a winning photo from a national parks photo contest. For 2026, the winning photo was of Glacier National Park, but it never made it to the passes.
