By Steve Gorman
Dec 10 (Reuters) – An environmental group filed suit on Wednesday seeking to prevent the U.S. Interior Department from placing an image of President Donald Trump’s face on annual entrance passes for national parks and federal recreational areas that go on sale next year.
Federal law requires the $80-a-year “America the Beautiful Pass” to bear the winning image from an annual photo contest depicting scenery or wildlife in a national park or forest, according to the Center for Biological Diversity’s 16-page complaint.
The winning photo from the latest contest in June, sponsored by the National Parks Foundation, was a picture of Glacier National Park in Montana.
But the Interior Department chose instead to scrap that photo and unlawfully replace it with a close-up of Trump, wearing his trademark blue coat, red tie and scowling expression, next to a likeness of George Washington, the lawsuit said.
Such a move undertaken without congressional approval violates the 2004 Federal Lands Recreational Enhancement Act, it said.
Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, likened Trump’s re-design of the annual parks pass to “the way he slaps his corporate name on buildings, restaurants and golf courses.”
“The national parks are not a personal branding opportunity,” he said. “They’re the pride and joy of the American people.”
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The Trump portrait design was featured on the Interior Department website last month when it announced plans for “the most significant modernization of national park access in decades,” including new digital entrance passes with “updated annual pass artwork.”
The Interior Department, parent agency of the National Park Service, also unveiled its new “America-first” admissions rate, creating a separate, $250 annual entry pass for foreign visitors to U.S. national parks.
The Glacier National Park photo has been relegated to the non-resident pass, the lawsuit said.
Additionally, the agency reshuffled its calendar of admission-free holidays, adding several new ones including Trump’s June 14 birthday. It did away with complimentary entry in observance of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and the Juneteenth holiday recognizing the emancipation of African-American slaves following the U.S. Civil War.
Higher fees for foreign visitors were first ordered by Trump with few details in July, as his administration was seeking to cut national park spending by more than a third. Those cuts were on top of workforce reductions imposed soon after Trump took office.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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