A dozen press freedom organizations are asking for more transparency around deaths and injuries in national parks.
They’re urging the U.S. Department of the Interior to reconsider a December 2025 memo, which reportedly restricted National Park Service staff from telling the public about “fatalities, suspected fatalities, serious injuries, or emotionally sensitive incidents,” the Washington Post reported in June.
“Being transparent about deaths and injuries in the parks is not going to lead to more people dying or being injured, but being silent about it might,” said Anne Marie Tamburro, press freedom counsel for the Society of Professional Journalists.
That group was one of the many that signed onto the Aug. 12 letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, urging him to reconsider the policy. They also sent it to senators in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and other states with high national park visitation numbers.
Tamburro said it’s unclear how many deaths and injuries haven’t been reported publicly this year, but she did know of one clear example in Yellowstone National Park. In July, a video went viral of a bison charging a visitor in a campground in the park and throwing him about eight feet into the air.
Yet, the park never issued a press release about the incident, which led to the man being hospitalized with a fractured hip and broken femur, he later told several news outlets.
”There's not a lot of information about why this could be happening, what maybe visitors could have done differently … to avoid provoking the bison, or avoid being attacked by them,” Tamburro said.
In addition to her public safety concerns, Tamburro also said the Trump administration may be violating public employees’ First Amendment free speech rights.
In a statement, however, an unnamed spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said the narrative being presented is “false and reflects a significant mischaracterization of the Department's guidance.”
They added that the department will respect investigative processes and privacy considerations.
“Interior remains committed to providing timely and accurate information while ensuring families are notified first,” the statement said. “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.”
The agency did not respond to two emailed requests to provide a copy of the initial memo but did confirm its existence. The original Washington Post story didn’t include a copy of the memo, and the Society of Professional Journalists also doesn’t have a copy. The Mountain West News Bureau submitted a public records request for the memo.
Out of the millions of people who visit national parks, an average of 270 people have died each year from 2007 through 2025, according to the most recent federal data. That number peaked in 2018, with 396 reported deaths.
July is the deadliest month on average across the National Park Service system, which correlates with a high influx of visitors, as well as the frequency of drownings and heat-related deaths.
The federal data doesn’t show any deaths since February. So far, 20 have been reported this year.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Yosemite National Park in California have seen the most fatalities since 2007.
The most common causes include driving, hiking, swimming and suicide.
Yellowstone’s sister park, Grand Teton National Park, has an agreement with Teton County to share information around accidents and deaths, so the local sheriff and coroner are often in the know, according to KHOL, the community radio station in Jackson. Yellowstone does not have any such agreement.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
