Almost every member of an advisory board created to care for America’s national parks has quit in protest after Trump administration officials refused to meet with them or allow them to hold a single meeting last year.

Ten of the 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board handed in their resignations on Tuesday, expressing their “profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside”.

“[O]ur requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new Department team are clearly not part of its agenda,” board chairman Tony Knowles wrote in his resignation letter, co-signed by eight other board members.

Another member, Carolyn Hessler Radelet, submitted a separate letter of resignation. Two of the resigning member’s appointments had already expired, according to the Interior Department.

Interior Department spokesperson Heather Swift said the Department “welcomed” the resignations, and would now “fast-track filling these new vacancies with people who are actually dedicated to working with the Department to better our national parks”.

National parks Show all 9 1 /9 National parks National parks Vew of the Half Dome monolith from Glacier Point at the Yosemite National Park MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images National parks View of Delicate Arch sandstone rock formation at Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah, 1960s. (Photo by Harvey Meston/Getty Images) Getty Images National parks A view of Denali, formerly known as Mt. McKinley, on September 1, 2015 in Denali National Park, Alaska Lance King/Getty Images National parks The Lower Basins Zone is outlined by the white rim edge as seen from the Murphy Campsite on the White Rim Trail on October 26, 2007 in Canyonlands National Park, Utah Doug Pensinger/Getty Images National parks A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above the hoodoos named Thor's Hammer (L) and the Three Sisters (R) early on August 13, 2016 in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah Ethan Miller/Getty Images National parks Visitors explore The Narrows along the Virgin River Sean Gallup/Getty Images National parks GRAND CANYON, AZ - MARCH 20: People take the first official walk on the Skywalk, billed as the first-ever cantilever-shaped glass walkway extending 70 feet from the western Grand Canyon's rim more than 4,000 feet above the Colorado River, on March 20, 2007 on the Hualapai Reservation at Grand Canyon, Arizona. The building of the Skywalk on Hualapai Indian tribal land 90 miles downstream from Grand Canyon National Park has stirred controversy with some tribal elders and environmentalists who have condemned it as a desecration of a sacred American landscape. The $40 million glass and steel platform will open to the public on March 28 when visitors will be allowed to take the lofty walk at a cost of $25 per person plus the cost of a Grand Canyon West entrance package, a total of about $75. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Getty National parks The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, June 22, 2011 REUTERS/Jim Urquhart National parks Lava flows into the ocean from Kilauea Volcano at Volcanoes National Park near Volcano, Hawaii June 6, 2004 Marco Garcia/Getty Images

The National Park System Advisory Board counsels the Director of the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior on issues from national landmarks to climate change. The board is supposed to meet twice a year, according to Mr Knowles.

But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke suspended all outside committees in May of last year to review their “charter and charge”. As a result, this year’s board has yet to hold a single meeting with Mr Zinke, or even among themselves.

"If they're not going to meet with us, fine. That's their prerogative," Mr Knowles said in an interview with Alaska Public Radio. "But we wanted to make a statement as a board as we left what our concerns were."

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Ms Swift said the Department had worked with the board as recently as 8 January to renew its charter and schedule a meeting. She added that former Interior Secretaries Sally Jewell and Ken Salazar had attended only one meeting with the board during their tenure.

“We welcome [the board members’] resignations and would expect nothing less than quitting from members who found it convenient to turn a blind eye to women being sexually harassed at National Parks and praise a man as ‘inspiring’ who had been blasted by the inspector general for ethics and management failures, all while taking credit for the extensive work of private companies during the NPS centennial celebration,” Ms Swift said.

The “inspiring” man appears to be a reference to former National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, who was officially reprimanded for ethics violations in 2016. The Parks Service also faced a number of workplace sexual harassment complaints that year. The Service’s then-deputy director of operations called the allegations a "wake-up call" and promised to bring back "a culture of transparency, respect, and accountability".

The remaining members of the advisory board are Harvard University public finance professor Linda Bilmes and University of Maryland marine science professor Rita Colwell. Ms Blimes told the Washington Post she is conducting research funded by National Parks Foundation and wanted to finish her project.

Mr Zinke has completely disbanded two advisory bodies over the last year. He replaced the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council with the Hunting and Shooting Sports Conservation Council, which focuses on “promot[ing] opportunities and expand[ing] access to hunting and shooting sports on public and private lands".