When the administration announced that the 2026 National Parks Pass would feature the president’s face instead of a park — bypassing the legal requirement for a public photo competition — Jenny McCarty decided to do something about it.
Jenny is the artist behind Sage Leaf Studio, and what she created was simple: a sticker. Beautiful park artwork to cover the front of your pass. What happened next was anything but simple — the stickers went viral, strangers started showing up at her kitchen table to help pack orders, and 100% of the proceeds went straight to national park nonprofits.
This is the story of what happens when one person uses their gifts for good.
A note from Missy: I love this episode because Jenny reminds us that protest doesn’t have to look one way. It can look like art. It can look like strangers around a kitchen table finding hope together. It can look like a sticker on a park pass. Jenny is a biologist turned artist, and every painting she makes has hidden elements — a reminder that nothing in nature exists in isolation. That’s exactly how I feel about this movement.
Episode Guest
Jenny McCarty
Sage Leaf Studio
Key Topics
- The 2026 park pass controversy: administration bypassed the legal requirement for a public photo competition; the design was supposed to feature Glacier National Park. Center for Biological Diversity has filed a case against the Department of Interior.
- Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth removed as free park days; replaced by Flag Day and the president’s birthday
- Jenny’s sticker solution: clear sleeve is safest — mount on sleeve to show pass is unaltered
- Some rangers told stickers void the pass; others given discretion — ask the first ranger you encounter and always be kind
- 100% of proceeds donated: $16,000 to NPCA in December; January proceeds going to Center for Biological Diversity
- Volunteer packing parties: strangers showing up at Jenny’s kitchen table — finding hope, community, and empowerment through peaceful protest
- Jenny’s background: MS in stream ecology, biologist — science and art are not opposites; hidden elements in each painting to represent interconnected ecosystems
- Next painting: Yosemite National Park
- Sticker fulfillment handed off to a retired park ranger in California
Episode Transcript
Face Value — The Battle for the 2026 NPS Park Pass
The Parks Podcast, Episode 61 | Jenny McCarty, Artist & Owner, Sage Leaf Studio
How the 2026 Park Pass Design Broke Federal Rules
Missy Rentz: I am so excited to welcome today’s guest. Jenny McCarty is joining me. Jenny is the artist behind Sage Leaf Studio. Jenny, welcome to The Parks Podcast.
Jenny McCarty: Thank you for having me, Missy. I’m so excited to be here.
Missy: Tell me about the 2026 park pass situation and what it is that you created to deal with it.
Jenny: The 2026 America the Beautiful park pass design features the current president’s face rather than a park. And that is actually against the rules — it is written into the rules of the parks pass that the design is selected by public vote on a photo competition. Photographers submit their photos of the National Park selected for that year. In 2026, it was supposed to be Glacier National Park. The winning design gets to be on the front of the parks pass. So not only was the 2026 design going against those rules — there’s actually a case right now being brought by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Department of the Interior for breaking these rules — but it was also, in my opinion, a slight to art and artists and to the people that submit photos every year. It was quite a slight to the arts community.
Missy: That is such a good point. And I think for park goers, the park pass has become a collector’s item. I love getting it every year and I use them as Christmas ornaments at the end of the year.
Jenny: Oh, that’s a great idea — I love your idea of turning them into Christmas tree ornaments so much better than what we do. We’ll have to steal that from you.
Missy: Okay, so they came out with this — I think it was late November — and there was a huge uproar, not only about the park pass but also because they announced they were removing Martin Luther King and Juneteenth as free park days and instead putting Flag Day and the current president’s birthday as free days. So you presented this sticker solution to go on the face of the card. But then shortly after that, the administration started to come up with new rules and said your park pass isn’t going to be valid if you have a sticker. So then you had to pivot.
Jenny: We actually anticipated that they might say that. On the parks pass, if you look in small lettering, it says something like, any alteration of this pass might void the pass. We knew that previous guidance had more to do with the back of the pass where the signature and the expiration date are — those are the important details. Historically, rangers have actually enjoyed seeing stickers on the front. People collect stickers from the different parks they visit all year long, just making it a little personalized. So stickers had never historically been a problem. Knowing this administration, we knew that might change. So we encourage people from the get-go that there are a few different ways you could choose to adhere a sticker to the front of your pass. Either directly on the pass, or the sticker company we worked with perforates the back in a way that you lift up the sticker to show the diamond underneath — still proving it’s a valid pass. And then the third option was mounting the sticker on a clear sleeve and putting your pass in the sleeve so you could easily pull it out to show it hasn’t been altered in any way.
Missy: Where can we get a sticker?
Jenny: You can get a sticker on my website at thesageleafstudio.com. I am also on socials — Sage Leaf Studio or Jenny McCarty Art. And I will say — you’re actually the first to hear this — we’re working on a potential collaboration with another artist who’s already mounting art to sleeves, and she might be taking on the option of already-mounted sleeves for people to get. It’s not official yet, but we might be releasing already-mounted sleeves.
Missy: Jenny, what other challenges might people have when they go to a park with the sticker and these rules are or aren’t in place?
Jenny: Right now our guidance — it goes out with every sticker order — is to make sure you understand the rules and regulations that the park rangers are dealing with. It might mean that you should be mounting it on a clear card sleeve so that it doesn’t alter your pass in any way. Some rangers have received guidance that it’ll invalidate the pass, but the guidance is also that it is up to the ranger’s discretion how they want to handle any kind of alterations. So just know the risks before you mount a sticker directly to your parks pass. Ask the first ranger you talk to and make a decision from there. And the most important part — the park ranger in the booth is your friend. They don’t like these changes to rules and regulations more than you do. Please just be kind to them, be respectful. They’re dealing with a lot right now. They’re probably having a more frustrating day than you. Just be kind.
100% of Proceeds Donated — and Packing Parties as Community
Missy: This is not money in it for you — you are donating 100% of the proceeds to National Park nonprofits. What organizations are you supporting?
Jenny: We’re really excited and proud about the donation we’ve been able to make so far. Just in the month of December, we donated $16,000 to the National Parks Conservation Association — which is awesome. They are the nonprofit preferred by most park rangers we talk to. They do great work. We’re listening to our community about where they want to see those dollars dedicated. And in January we’re on track to make a very big contribution — it’ll likely go to the Center for Biological Diversity, who’s leading the charge against the Department of the Interior for the 2026 design.
Missy: Fantastic. And I think people love to know that not only are they protesting by putting a sticker on, but they’re protesting by donating to these organizations who are doing a lot of work on our behalf to fight for our public lands.
Jenny: Definitely. I think that was one of the most important things that helped our stickers go viral in the first place. People realized it was more of a movement and a resistance — something they could do in peaceful protest. At the end of the day for me personally and for my family, it is so much more important to us to support National Parks and something that is so deeply ingrained in our family history than to keep anything for ourselves. The whole point was to support our national parks, and giving 100% felt right.
Jenny: On top of that, I also don’t want to diminish the volunteer hours that have been contributed. We have had four packing parties where we have anywhere from six to eight people dedicating two to four hours of their Sundays. It’s got to be in the hundreds of hours of volunteers at this point — some of which we didn’t know before they came. They’re just strangers that reach out and say, hey, I want to help. And these volunteers come and it creates such a sense of community. People who come in feeling dismay find hope — like they’re touching envelopes that are going all over the country to people that value and love the same things that they do. And we’ve watched these people leave with so much joy and hope.
Jenny: And they have felt empowered to go join other movements that maybe they were uncomfortable about joining before. One of the sentiments we’ve heard over and over again is people felt nervous to protest out in person. They’re not necessarily comfortable with big groups or loud noises, and this felt like a comfortable, peaceful way to protest. So after they’ve had this introductory experience, they feel empowered to go find somewhere else to spend more time.
Missy: This podcast is geared towards teaching people why our parks are here and how to use them. And I think in this time, we also collectively have to teach people how to protest — because for many decades we have not had to do this. And you have demonstrated through your art that one person can make a big difference in a movement.
Jenny: Hugely so. And I hope if anybody takes anything away from my message on this podcast — every person has skills and gifts and talents that, even if they’re dedicating a little bit of that energy and their time towards good right now, I think it collectively will go a very long way. So I challenge people to use their skills, their gifts, their talents, and figure out how they can leverage those for good and joy and love right now.
Art as a Tool in Movements
Missy: I want to ask about how art plays a role in movements.
Jenny: Ooh, that is a good question. I think art is incredibly important in movements. Artists see the world in different ways — how it is, how it could be. Art communities often are mixing pots of lots of different ideas, backgrounds, people from very different walks of life with unique views that don’t necessarily trend with the normal. So it’s pushing cultural boundaries and opening up views on what could be — but also highlighting cultural weaknesses and injustices that are happening. And at the end of the day, depending on what art you’re working with, it impacts people in different ways. My medium is visual and there are a lot of visual people out there. For some people, auditory is so important — creating music, thinking about artists that were really big in the sixties and seventies and helped push movements with their lyrics. Writing is incredibly important. Dance, acting — it all plays into opening our minds to what could be.
Jenny’s Background — Science, Art, and Interconnected Ecosystems
Missy: You are a biologist, yes? And a stream ecologist?
Jenny: Yep, yep.
Missy: Those are not necessarily things you’d associate with art and artists. Can you share a little bit about your journey and how they all collided into parks, nature, and art?
Jenny: Definitely. I honestly think most scientists have some sort of artistic element to them. I think that science and the creative mind actually fit very well together. But like most people in that realm, when I was a kid, I loved the arts — and in many ways I was educated away from the arts. I also loved science. I was told that art was not a good way to make a living, and I was just as passionate about science. So I went that direction professionally. And in many ways I’m glad that I did because having such an intensive science background — with a master’s in stream ecology — it helped to inform how I make art now. In my thirties, like a lot of people, I had developed a career and I looked around and was like, wait, what do I do for fun again? And so I picked up a paintbrush again. And I was able to draw on my science background to paint the things that I want to paint — places that I have had experiences in. Denali, for instance — I was doing field work up there for my career, and I got to backpack through Denali several times. That’s where the background picture from that painting came from — a trip with my dad and my brother when they came up to visit me.
Jenny: Similarly, my ecology background — the materials I choose are eco-friendly because I really care about my impact and my footprint. And in my paintings, there are lots of hidden elements — the goal is to remind people that it’s not just one animal in the foreground. Animals are connected to entire ecosystems and other species that all interact with each other in the background too.
Missy: I’m going to have to go look because I’ve spent some time exploring them and trying to put myself in those moments. For me, nature is that reconnection with life, and I think your paintings put me back into my childhood love of being in nature. That’s a gift that you give to us through your art.
Jenny: Thank you. I’m glad to hear that — that’s the goal, to remind people of the joy and the wonder found out there.
Speed Round
Earliest park memory?
My earliest park memory is at Great Sand Dunes National Park. My family goes there most years in the spring. I must have been nine or 10, and we were there with several other families all sitting around the campfire. The kids are playing and the parents are having a good old time. It just was a place where we’d all get together and it felt like there were no other cares in the world.
What made you love the parks?
For me, I think it’s a connection to nature, but really it’s family memories. National Parks are a legacy in my family. My grandparents took my dad and his five siblings to Yosemite multiple times in a little Shasta trailer. Then my dad, in his younger years, spent a lot of time through Wyoming and Montana and the West exploring. And then he instilled that love of National Parks in us. And so my brothers and I were very lucky to visit National Parks with him all over the continental West — and now today we still travel to National Parks. My dad books us trips and we go. Now my siblings have kids and so the grandkids are there too. It’s just a legacy thing. Very strong family bonding time and memories.
Favorite thing to do in a park?
In a weird way, a lot of park time is people time for me — usually when I’m going to parks, it’s with other people. So it’s quality people time. Also people watching in a packed campground is great.
Park on your bucket list?
White Sands National Park because it’s a close one we could get to and it looks beautiful and like it belongs on another planet. And Gates of the Arctic because that would be such a high, lofty goal of a National Park to get to — way up there.
Three must-haves for a park visit?
I’m not going to say the normal ones because I’m sure everybody says hiking boots, backpack, et cetera. So I’m going to say my camera, my travel paint kit — which I love to bring — and a good sun hat.
Favorite campfire activity?
S’mores. Eating s’mores. Definitely.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
Tent campers. (Note: her cat made a cameo climbing up her back during recording.)
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
Without trekking poles.
Favorite trail snack?
I love candy — like a blow pop, lollipop, or some licorice.
Best animal sighting?
A bull moose making his mating call at Rocky Mountain National Park during the elk rut. We went on a beautiful day hike and there was a bull moose. I have never seen a bull moose call, and it’s like this very deep, guttural, low tone. That was so cool to see for the first time. (Also loves pika — “the cutest little things and you have to earn seeing them.”)
Favorite sound in the park?
The pika squeak. It’s so cute.
Greatest gift the parks give to us?
I really think that the parks are an egalitarian place. Entry fees are so low. They were created for all Americans, no matter your background, no matter your economic status, your race — all those things don’t matter in a National Park. They are for all of us, and I think that is the greatest thing about National Parks. Everybody loves them. I’ve had conversations with people from all types of backgrounds that have wonderful memories of National Parks, and it’s just a great way for all of us to connect as humans that enjoy this planet.
Missy: Jenny, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your talents and gifts with us. Thank you for showing us how to protest in a unique and artistic way, and maybe most of all, thank you for letting us have a beautiful scene on our park passes in 2026.
Jenny: Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you Missy, so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Missy: Absolutely. Thanks for listening to this episode. Until next time — we’ll see you in the parks.
Music for The Parks Podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. Follow us @TheParksPodcast or visit TheParksPodcast.com.