It took less than a week for Boulder artist Jenny McCarty’s new project to evolve from good-hearted “micro-activism” to a national phenomenon that’s tapped widespread anger with recent changes to the National Parks Service.
“With the design that came out for the 2026 National Parks passes, they took away people’s ability to vote on the photographs they love most,” said McCarty, a Boulder water-resource manager who’s been painting images of nature ever since attending Clear Creek High School in Evergreen. “These stickers are a way to celebrate our democracy and the ability for people to choose.”
McCarty — who paints striking, watercolor nature scenes with intricate textures and vibrant colors — created her own stickers that neatly cover images of President Donald Trump’s face on the 2026 America the Beautiful National Parks Pass, the new designs for which were unveiled just last month.
She objects not only to the politically driven imagery, which places Trump’s face side-by-side with George Washington in the center of some cards, but also the larger cuts and threats to America’s 400-plus national parks, monuments and other properties. She’s not the only one. This month, a public lands group, the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior over the design of the new park passes, saying physical changes violate an act that relies on an annual photo contest that is supposed to determine the images — and to highlight nature over people.
McCarty is selling her stickers through her Sage Leaf Studio website at $6 a piece, and since launching on Dec. 10, she’s been struggling to fill the more than 1,000 orders that have arrived. With “every dollar” going to the National Park Foundation, the vinyl, full-color stickers depict 34-year-old McCarty’s paintings of a brown bear against a verdant field and Denali’s mountain majesty; a furry pika — a much-loved resident of Rocky Mountain National Park — with a flower in its teeth; and a wolf howling majestically against the Grand Tetons.
She’s heard directly from dozens of people that her project has given them a channel for peaceful protest in the face of alarming federal policy changes toward public lands. The Colorado native’s own experience started with frequenting national parks with her father while growing up — she believes she’s named after Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming — and living and working around them in Wyoming, Montana and elsewhere. (The avid hiker and camper dubbed Rocky Mountain National Park her “home park.”)
A California sticker manufacturer and former park ranger has offered to take on printing duties if McCarty becomes overwhelmed, she said, and others have reached out with various offers of support. As of this week, however, she has not heard from the NPS or any other governmental agency about her artistic civil disobedience. She added that if park rangers won’t accept the sticker-covered pass, people can simply apply the stickers to a clear credit card holder.
McCarty this week launched new versions of the stickers, with labels for Senior and Military passholders in addition to the standard Resident passes, based on feedback and her drive to make the stickers accessible to all. She’s getting overwhelmed with messages via her website and her Instagram profile, she said. And that’s a good problem to have.
“I’m just one person in this, and it couldn’t have happened without many people,” she said. “I’m blown away by the number of people who see this as a chance to use their voice and choose things they want to see. The National Parks are our lands and every single one of us owns them. … I get so much joy from art and the National Parks, and this has been a great way to combine my passions.”
Environmental groups have repeatedly raised objections in the past year to the White House’s drive to open National Parks to oil drilling, road-building and other development, as well as laying off employees and cutting budgets.
In June, a nonpartisan U.S. Senate rulekeeper blocked Republican-backed public land sales of more than 14 million acres in Colorado that were eligible as part of a larger Western lands provision. A budget bill had called for the sale of between 0.5% and 0.75% of the 438 million acres managed by the BLM and USFS, The Denver Post has reported.