Mark Zuckerberg trip to Glacier (NPS)
It is a clone of this request.
| Tracking # |
NPS-2017-01086 |
| Submitted | July 27, 2017 |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: Alexander Rony
To Whom It May Concern:
I. Requested Records
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the following records:
1. The event proposal, and any records of decisions pertaining to it, for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's July 2017 trip to Glacier National Park. The proposal was referenced in Interior Press Secretary Heather Swift's statement to Mic, available at https://mic.com/articles/182356/exclusive-trump-administration-pulled-top-climate-expert-from-mark-zuckerbergs-national-park-visit.
2. Any emails to Public Affairs staff instructing them not to post content related to Mr. Zuckerberg's trip on NPS social media accounts.
3. Emails between NPS staff and Mr. Zuckerberg's advance team. Please search through June and July 2017.
4. Emails to Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow mentioning the terms Mark or Zuckerberg. Please search through June and July 2017.
II. Record Delivery
I would prefer the request be filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not. In the event that there are fees, please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.
Please produce the records on a rolling basis; at no point should the search for – or deliberation concerning – certain records delay the production of others that the agency has already retrieved and elected to produce.
Should you decide to invoke a FOIA exemption with regard to any of the requested records, please include in your response letter sufficient information for an appeal, including:
1. Basic factual material about each withheld item, including the originator, date, length, general subject matter, and location of each item.
2. Explanations and justifications for denial, including the identification of the category within the governing statutory provision under which the document (or portion thereof) was withheld and a full explanation of how each exemption fits the withheld material.
If you determine that portions of a requested record are exempt from disclosure, please redact the exempt portions and provide the remainder of the record.
III. Request for a Fee Waiver
I respectfully request that you waive all fees in connection with this request as provided by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii). The Sierra Club is a national environmental nonprofit with no commercial interest in obtaining the requested information. Our organization intends to analyze and disseminate the requested information free of charge so that the public can be better informed about climate change and the stewardship of our national parks.
The subject matter of the requested records is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations and activities of the government by disclosing the extent to which agency resources were used to keep discussions of climate change away from Mr. Zuckerberg during his noteworthy trip. This has been an issue of debate in the press (see http://wapo.st/2tjXdFp for an example of one highly-read article).
The Sierra Club and its supporters have demonstrated interest and expertise in the subject area, as the organization has well-established programs to reduce climate change and protect wild lands, including our national parks. Our staff and volunteers regularly interact with the department regarding these issues.
IV. Media Requester Status
In addition to the public interest fee waiver, I ask to be properly categorized as a representative of the news media. The bulk of my professional duties at the Sierra Club entails planning and writing content about public policy, including composing mass communications to our followers, analyzing FOIA responses, and coordinating press outreach. Here are some examples that resulted from my work:
https://sierraclub.org/planet/2017/04/hiring-freeze-prevented-epa-filling-hundreds-jobs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/19/nearly-700-vacancies-at-cdc-because-of-trump-administration-hiring-freeze/
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/4480/over-700000-people-tell-government-to-block-seed-mergers
The Sierra Club has the ability and intention to disseminate the information it receives through this request. The information may be shared through emails to an audience reaching into the millions, Facebook and Twitter posts reaching tens of thousands of followers, articles on our frequently-visited website, and analysis provided to the media.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Alexander Rony
Sierra Club
From: FOIA, NPS
Mr. Rory,
Your request has been received and has been assigned tracking number
NPS-2017-01086. All future correspondence relating to this request should
reference this tracking number.
In accordance with 43 CFR 2.15
<http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=0fc3ab3499768eebc2e3691c8cf88dec&rgn=div5&view=text&node=43:1.1.1.1.2&idno=43#se43.1.2_115>
the
National Park Service processes requests on a first-in, first-out basis
within several processing tracks. Your request has been placed in the
normal track. There are currently 1 expedited, 4 simple, and 34 normal
requests ahead of this request in the processing queue. Additionally, we
are notifying you that we have determined that we will need to extend the
basic 20 workday time limit, in order to respond to your request. We are
taking this ten-day extension due to the need to search for responsive
records in multiple offices.
We expect to issue our determination response to you by, to you by
September 7, 2017. If you do not receive our response by that date, you
may consider your request administratively denied and may file an appeal.
You may file an appeal by writing to:
Freedom of Information Act Appeals Officer
Office of the Solicitor
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
MS-6556-MIB,
Washington, D.C. 20240
foia.appeals@sol.doi.gov
The appeal should be marked, both on the envelope and the face of the
appeal letter, with the legend "FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPEAL." Your appeal
should be accompanied by a copy of your original request and copies of all
correspondence between yourself and the National Park Service related to
this request. Please note appeals received after 5 p.m. EST will be
considered to have been received as of the following day.
Additionally, you have the right to limit the scope of your request so that
it may be processed within the time limit or an opportunity to arrange an
alternative time frame for processing the request. Please feel free to
contact me, both as the FOIA Liaison and the person who is processing your
request, to discuss the processing of your request.
You may also contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the
FOIA mediation services they offer. You can contact OGIS at:
Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS
College Park, MD 20740-6001
ogis@nara.gov
1-877-684-6448
Fax: 202-741-5769.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: FOIA, NPS
Mr. Rony,
My apologies for misspelling your name earlier.
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: FOIA, NPS
Mr. Rony,
The information you have requested is available online at:
https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/foia-frd.htm Please let me know if the
posted information does not meet your needs. If we do not hear from you
within 20 workdays we will assume you are no longer interested in this
matter and will close the file on your request.
Should you
feel
that there was a procedural deficiency in this
response
you have the right to appeal. You may file an appeal by writing to:
Freedom of Information Act Appeals Officer
Office of the Solicitor
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
MS-6556-MIB,
Washington, D.C. 20240
foia.appeals@sol.doi.gov
Your appeal must be received no later than
90
workdays after the date of this response. The appeal should be marked,
both on the envelope and the face of the appeal letter, with the legend
"FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPEAL." Your appeal should be accompanied by a
copy of your original request and copies of all correspondence between
yourself and the National Park Service related to this request, along with
any information you have which leads you to believe our response to be in
error. Note, any appeal received after 5 p.m. EST will be considered to
have been received on the next business day.
Additionally, because the National Park Service creates and maintains law
enforcement records, we are required by the Department of Justice to
provide the following information, even though it may or may not apply to
your specific request. Congress excluded three discrete categories of law
enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the
FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV 2010). This response is limited
to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is
a standard notification that we are required to give all our requesters and
should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not,
exist.
Also as part of the 2007 OPEN Government Act FOIA amendments, the Office
of Government Information Services (OGIS) was created to offer mediation
services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies
as a nonexclusive alternative to litigation. Using OGIS services does not
affect your right to pursue litigation.
You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways:
Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
National Archives and Records Administration
Room 2510
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
E-mail: ogis@nara.gov
Phone: 301-837-1996
Fax: 301-837-0348
Toll-free: 1-877-684-6448
Please feel free to contact me, both as the FOIA Liaison and the person
who processed your request if you have any questions regarding this
response.
Sincerely,
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Alexander Rony
Hi Ms. Wilson,
These documents may meet my needs, but I'd like to know how the search was conducted. I noticed that VICE received the same records (https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjj7em/foia-mark-zuckerbergs-meeting-with-federal-climate-scientist-was-objected-to-by-trump-administration-appointees-dan-fagre-usgs-glacier). Were the documents posted on the National Park Service's website in response to my request, or another's? If the latter, what was that looking for? It's likely that theirs encompassed what my request would have found.
Thank you,
Alexander
From: FOIA, NPS
Mr. Rony,
Due to the volume of requests received relating to this issue, we did a
single consolidated search rather that multiple, duplicative searches.
Staff at Glacier National Park, the Intermountain Regional Office, and
staff in our Washington Communications and Director's office search for
responsive records using the following parameters:
- Zuckerberg BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
- "Facebook visit" BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
- "FB visit" BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
- Fagre BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
- Glacier AND "climate change" BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
- "Heather Swift" BEFORE:2017/07/17 AFTER:2017/06/01
Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions you may have
regarding this request.
Sincerely,
c.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Alexander Rony
Thank you for clarifying, Ms. Wilson. I am satisfied that that would resolve items 2-4 of my request. I had one other one that, according to the documents that were released, may not have any responsive records:
"1. The event proposal, and any records of decisions pertaining to it, for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's July 2017 trip to Glacier National Park. The proposal was referenced in Interior Press Secretary Heather Swift's statement to Mic, available at https://mic.com/articles/182356/exclusive-trump-administration-pulled-top-climate-expert-from-mark-zuckerbergs-national-park-visit."
It appears that there was no Special Use Permit request. Was it confirmed that there were no official forms submitted for this trip?
From: FOIA, NPS
Yes, as mentioned in the materials we released. A special use permit was
not required for this visit.
C.
____________________
Ms. Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM
NPS FOIA Officer
12795 W. Alameda Parkway
PO Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225-0287
303-969-2959
Fax: 303-969-2557
1-855-NPS-FOIA
npsfoia@nps.gov <charis_wilson@nps.gov>
From: Alexander Rony
Thank you! You can consider the documents released as having satisfied my request then.
Regards,
Alexander Rony
Files
There are no files associated with this request.