Nationwide parks, homosexual nation music, and thirst traps have rather a lot in widespread, at the very least on the web.
Lots of of TikTok posts combining sexually express audio, comical memes and gorgeous views of nature have flooded social media feeds. The viral development coincides with President Donald Trump’s unprecedented funding cuts focusing on federal parks, forests, monuments, seashores and trails.
The message of #ParkTok and #MountainTok is G-rated: to preserve and shield public lands. The raunchy content material is merely a wrapper to lure followers and get that message in entrance of as many individuals as potential.
At first look, the TikTok fan accounts for Yellowstone and Joshua Tree — amongst dozens of different nationwide parks, forests and recreation websites — seem like competing in an unhinged brawl. Some commenters speculate that federal park rangers or advertising and marketing strategists have gone rogue to garner exterior monetary assist.
However the unofficial accounts, that are rising in quantity every day, are run by unbiased content material creators with no affiliation to the federal government. Based on the Nationwide Park Service’s Workplace of Public Affairs, the NPS has no official presence on TikTok, as there are not any phrases of service between federal businesses and the platform.
“Viral tendencies targeted on nationwide parks can definitely enhance park visibility and drive elevated curiosity and consciousness,” the Nationwide Park Service advised CNET in an electronic mail. “We recognize the passion for our nation’s parks and the inventive methods people share their experiences on-line.”
And hundreds of thousands of social media followers say they’re right here for it. Selling the nation’s huge panorama and its preservation for future generations may function a form of non secular uplift in darkish instances.
Nature is attractive; price range cuts aren’t
Far past the racy grownup content material, there is a unifying function to posting movies of cascading waterfalls, colossal bushes, seductive deserts and enchanting wildlife. Researchers have famous that nationwide parks are key to conserving biodiversity and supporting individuals’s well-being. And it appears everybody, not simply nature nerds, can get behind these public lands — US nationwide parks noticed a file quantity of recreation visits final 12 months, practically 332 million.
“Should you truly love all these items, you get hooked up to that magnificence,” stated Kim Tanner, the creator of the Joshua Tree fan account. “And then you definately notice you don’t need that magnificence broken.”
The Trump administration’s 2026 price range plan consists of slashing greater than $1 billion from the Nationwide Park Service. It additionally threatens to axe a whopping $33 billion from nationwide recreation administration packages and conservation and preservation grants. The grants are important to sustaining 433 particular person areas of public lands overlaying greater than 85 million acres, that are managed by the NPS.
The Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation says the White Home’s price range reductions are the most important proposed cuts to the Nationwide Park Service in its 109-year historical past and will “decimate at the very least 350 Nationwide Park websites.” Many have stated Trump is laying the groundwork to dump public lands and switch leisure areas over to state-level administration.
Based on Kristen Brengel, senior vice chairman of presidency affairs for the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation, the NPS has already misplaced practically 2,500 staff, or practically 13% of its workers, in what she calls a “mind belief exodus” of environmental specialists.
“What’s occurring proper now, in making an attempt to dismantle the Nationwide Park Service from the within out, is extra horrific than something we have seen earlier than,” Brengel advised me.
Getting wild for the wild
TikTok is controversial, and so is intercourse. That is exactly why tendencies like these have political capital, able to attracting admirers and haters, and bringing everybody else into the dialog.
“The polarization on social media is reflective of our real-life political polarization,” stated CNET social media reporter Katelyn Chedraoui.
The #ParkTok and #MountainTok creators, a few of whom are former park staff, are all nature lovers who span the political spectrum. Most of the accounts overtly denounce the administration’s threats in opposition to the parks and direct viewers to demonstrations or fundraisers, however the development is not overtly partisan or activist-driven.
“Most of their posts work on a unconscious stage, prompting viewers to consider the nationwide parks and their very own experiences with them,” stated Chedraoui. “It is easy however efficient.”
In actual fact, the TikTok engagement round public lands originated earlier than the price range cuts to the parks. The primary three fan accounts — Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Yellowstone — appeared proper after the elections final November. Managed by three pals who’re avid outside lovers, the accounts put up posts early on that have been a mixture of comedian aid and wilderness awe.
There wasn’t a lot thirst lure content material then. “It was simply waterfalls and vistas and sunsets,” stated Jaime Wash, the creator behind the Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens fan accounts. Then, two of the creators began trolling one another, and people beloved it.
It was faux beef, however the diss-track template grew to become a successful technique. By January, the development began choosing up pace, with extra fan accounts becoming a member of the fray. During the last a number of months, the recognition of the posts has seen ebbs and flows — till pretty not too long ago, when all of #MountainTok and #ParkTok blew up for his or her risqué content material.
Personal components in public lands grew to become a magic system, a form of viral virility, that the creators knew how you can play up. “Social media customers are very used to manufacturers performing unhinged on TikTok,” stated Chedraoui.
A bridge over troubled water
Some critics have slammed the parody accounts, accusing creators of making an attempt to monetize a respectable trigger, or claiming that the sexually charged content material damages the parks’ reputations.
However in keeping with the creators, who collaborate commonly in a gaggle chat, earning profits wasn’t, and by no means might be, their intention. Wash advised me that if at any level they do acquire a payout for the content material, they plan to donate the funds to the parks.
After gaining such an enormous following, Wash stated, she felt it was her accountability to get individuals concerned. In April, the Mount Hood fan account introduced out followers to Portland’s Arms Off protest.
“We’re constructing a neighborhood to indicate that issues aren’t helpless, that change can occur and we’re there for one another,” Wash stated. And moreover elevating the alarm, the posts add comedian aid and leisure to a every day cycle of doomscrolling and anxiousness.
Tanner advised me that #ParkTok and #MountainTok might help open individuals’s eyes, exhibiting how fragile nature actually is. By highlighting endangered animals and the injury from issues like logging, drilling and mining, they might help hundreds of thousands of followers perceive what’s actually at stake.
The stunning energy of social media
Social media acts as a cultural barometer, revealing public sentiment in actual time and highlighting the problems that resonate. Platforms like TikTok additionally give grassroots actions a megaphone, permitting on a regular basis individuals to bypass conventional media filters and converse on to broad audiences.
The NPCA encourages individuals to enroll in motion alerts on their web site to avoid wasting the parks.
“We have seen digital motion result in tangible motion,” stated Sheila Nguyen, affiliate director of communications and engagement for the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation. “The extra individuals who see that social media content material, the larger the pool of people that could converse up and the extra collective impression we are able to have,” Nguyen advised CNET in an electronic mail.
In actual fact, social media publicity has been proven to spice up nationwide park visitation. A 2024 analysis examine discovered that optimistic social media posts that embrace photographs or movies drive the most important will increase in visitation.
“The extra individuals we are able to get into these parks, the higher. That manner, they’ll expertise it firsthand, see it, fall in love with it, after which wish to shield it,” stated Tanner.
The Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation urges individuals to enroll in alerts on its advocacy web page to allow them to increase considerations with congressional representatives. “We really feel that Congress is the most suitable choice proper now to get the administration to again off of those dangerous proposals,” stated the NPCA’s Brengel. “Congress must be pushed to cease a few of these horrible actions.”
Many TikTok creators I spoke with additionally stated they’re advocating methods to carry elected officers accountable.
“It is heartbreaking to suppose the locations that I completely love could by no means be the identical once more,” stated Wash, “and I wish to do something to cease that.”
