Interior Department issued memo barring all bureaus from confirming deaths or injuries on public lands

In December 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior, under Secretary Doug Burgum, issued a formal internal directive to all bureaus and offices — including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bureau of Indian Affairs — ordering staff not to confirm deaths, suspected fatalities, serious injuries, or "emotionally sensitive incidents" on public lands. The memo states "Interior shall not confirm a death" and "Interior shall not confirm the severity of injuries," limiting staff to confirming only that "an incident occurred," the general location, and that Interior personnel are responding. All information about fatalities is to be routed through the Interior Department's Office of Communications before any disclosure to the public.

Interior manages roughly 20 percent of all U.S. land, including national parks, wildlife refuges, and public lands visited by hundreds of millions of people annually. Previously, National Park Service employees could quickly disclose details of deaths or injuries, often warning other visitors about dangerous conditions in time to prevent additional casualties. Former NPS superintendent Dan Wenk, who served as head of operations for the park system and as superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, said past policy was to "get people as much information as you could give them as soon as possible around an incident."

The real-world consequences of the new policy were documented by The Washington Post when it reported the memo on June 24, 2026. A 72-year-old man died of extreme heat on a popular Grand Canyon trail on June 12, 2026; NPS employees wanted to warn visitors about the hazardous conditions but Interior's directive blocked disclosure. Four days later, on June 16, a couple aged 67 and 68 died of extreme heat on the same trail. At least four additional deaths — at Sequoia, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument — went unconfirmed by any government official under the new policy in the weeks that followed. Interior press secretary Aubrie Spady told GearJunkie the guidance "was developed to create a more consistent approach to incident communications across the Department and is not intended to conceal fatalities or delay information," but declined to restore the prior practice of prompt local disclosure.