U.S.A. Government Effectively Bans Book About Water from Yosemite

A Bay Area nature writer, Obi Kaufmann, says his 2019 book The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource has been flagged and effectively banned for future purchases at Yosemite’s park bookstores. According to Kaufmann’s Facebook post (read below), while the book hasn’t yet been pulled from shelves, park store officials informed him they will not reorder new copies, meaning it’s being phased out quietly.

The reason for the decision appears linked to a March 2025 federal directive under the Trump administration aimed at reshaping how American history and commentary are presented on federal lands. That directive instructs agencies to remove or revise “negative” content about Americans, and to emphasize the “beauty, grandeur, and abundance” of landscapes and features, potentially displacing works that critically examine environmental degradation or corporate interests. Kaufmann’s book, which examines California’s water crisis and critiques the unlimited‐growth paradigm in a finite ecosystem, seems to have triggered this flagging.

Kaufmann and his supporters view this decision as a form of censorship and a troubling attempt to control narrative in a space that should encourage learning and critical thinking. One advocate described it as “shameful that his work would be banned from national park bookstores,” noting that limiting access to scientific and ecological perspectives threatens public lands, wildlife, and future stewardship. Kaufmann himself called the list of flagged books “consistent, clandestine attempt to exert non‐democratic power and to control the narrative.”

Despite the setback at Yosemite, Kaufmann says he won’t simply accept the outcome quietly: he plans to “bang this drum, however small it may be,” to keep the book available, at his website and independent bookstores. The episode raises broader questions about the role of federal agencies in curating, or censoring, what visitors can read in national parks, and how that may shape public understanding of environmental issues, history and policy.

Several parks have reportedly already removed or covered materials related to slavery, pollution, Indigenous displacement, and climate-impacts because they were deemed inconsistent with the directive’s requirement to highlight national achievement and abundance. This has raised significant concern among historians and park advocates who argue that sanitising these narratives undermines the educational role of our public lands.

Despite the directive, many visitors and historians are resisting the effort. For example, in comments submitted following the installation of visitor-feedback signage, the overwhelming majority urged the park service to keep full, honest accounts of U.S. history, not just uplifting ones. Critics argue that prohibiting or removing content because it describes uncomfortable truths is a form of censorship, and that national parks should be places where the full story, including the painful parts, is told.