Nationwide Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands. And this yr, it falls on September 28, 2024.
Nationwide public lands embody numerous totally different protected pure environments in America. From nationwide parks, memorials, and monuments, to wildlife refuges, conservation areas, trails, wilderness areas, seashores, lakeshores, and extra, public lands are literally throughout us!
In reality, practically 40% of america is public land, supported by taxpayers and managed by federal, state, or native authorities.
Created by the Nationwide Environmental Schooling Basis (NEEF), Nationwide Public Lands Day goals to rejoice the connection between folks and their neighborhood’s pure areas.
Right here is your information on easy methods to rejoice Nationwide Public Lands Day this yr.
By the best way, a few of the hyperlinks on this article (like books!) are affiliate hyperlinks, which implies if you happen to make a purchase order after clicking a hyperlink, we might earn a fee at no additional value to you. Thanks!
Actions and Concepts: How To Acknowledge Nationwide Public Lands Day
Have fun
Take pleasure in a fee-free day at a nationwide park.
Yearly, the Nationwide Park Service pronounces various “fee-free days” to make sure that our nationwide parks are accessible to everybody.
The excellent news? 310 nationwide park locations are already free every single day. The even higher information? Nationwide Public Lands Day is a fee-free day throughout all nationwide parks!
When you’re able to lace up your boots, give one of many nation’s most historic nationwide parks a go to. Google just lately unveiled some new updates to Google Maps to assist customers determine and navigate by all the greatest “must-visit sights” at every park.
Plus, the Nationwide Park Service has tons of assets to assist make sure you plan forward and have the journey of a lifetime.
Attend a Nationwide Public Lands Day occasion.
Nationwide Public Lands Day brings people, households, and neighborhood teams collectively to assist restore and enhance our beloved outside areas. In accordance with NEEF, during the last decade, over 1,000,000 volunteers have donated practically 5 million hours of their time for public lands on this particular vacation!
You’ll find a full listing of this yr’s occasions by NEEF’s interactive map.
Volunteer & Take Motion
Clear up your native public lands.
Seize a clean-up equipment and decide up litter in your close by public lands.
Higher but, make this a daily a part of your routine! Choose up trash in your each day walks, or rally some pals for a month-to-month clean-up effort. Make at this time’s actions the beginning of one thing much more impactful.
Develop into a volunteer at a neighborhood or nationwide park.
Whereas a few of the hottest parks certain get their share of foot site visitors, there’s one factor each protected pure house wants: extra volunteers.
Whether or not you signal as much as volunteer with the Nationwide Park Service, otherwise you attain out to a native wildlife refuge or conservation house, your time, vitality, and abilities are very important to the safety of America’s wildest areas.
Donate to organizations that shield nationwide parks and public lands.
Initiatives, nonprofits, and funds of all types exist to keep up and shield our public lands. Think about contributing to a few of them throughout Nationwide Public Lands Day.
Urge your elected officers to guard public lands and nationwide parks.
Yeah, which means no extra oil pipelines.
Contact your representatives to induce them to take motion to guard public lands by resisting the development of oil pipelines, holding companies accountable, establishing sturdy sustainability and conservation legal guidelines, and extra.
Be taught
Watch a documentary about our public lands.
Try just a few of our favorites:
- “Public Belief: The Combat for America’s Public Lands” (Patagonia Movies)
- “The Floor Between Us” (Movies For Motion)
- “This Land” (Vimeo)
- “This American Land” (PBS)
- “The Nationwide Parks: America’s Greatest Concept” (PBS)
- “Our Nice Nationwide Parks” (Netflix)
Learn books about public lands and nationwide parks.
Bonus factors if you happen to carry stated books with you whenever you enterprise open air.
Listed here are just a few recs so as to add to your library:
- “Our Widespread Floor: A Historical past of America’s Public Lands” by John D. Leshy (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “The Energy of Surroundings: Frederick Regulation Olmsted and the Origin of Nationwide Parks” by Dennis Drabelle (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis Devoto and the Forgotten Combat to Save the Wild” by Nate Schweber (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “Our Nationwide Forests: Tales from America’s Most Necessary Public Lands” by Greg M. Peters (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “That Wild Nation: An Epic Journey By the Previous, Current, and Way forward for America’s Public Lands” by Mark Kenyon (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “The Hike” by Allison Farrell (Bookshop) (Amazon)
- “You Are House: An Ode to the Nationwide Parks” by Evan Turk (Bookshop) (Amazon)
Learn excellent news about public lands.
A part of the enjoyable of celebrating public lands additionally means celebrating excellent news about nationwide parks and public lands.
Listed here are only a few to get you began:
Be taught extra in regards to the historical past behind America’s public lands.
All U.S. public lands are the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples and tribal nations. Previous to western colonization, these lands have been managed sustainably for 1000’s of years by these communities.
Be taught extra in regards to the historical past and timeline of public lands by a information from the Public Lands Basis, and remember to suppose critically and thru an intersectional lens as you take into account the implications and accountability of land possession.
Be taught what Indigenous lands you reside on.
Like we stated, all American lands are stolen Indigenous lands. It is important that we’re conscious of our place on this historical past — and in our present-day communities.
Discover an interactive map to study in regards to the Indigenous lands you occupy.
After getting a greater understanding of the lands you occupy, you’ll be able to correctly conduct a land acknowledgment.
Discover ways to #RecreateResponsibly.
An enormous component of Nationwide Public Lands Day is the dedication to take higher care of our pure atmosphere — and, in flip — one another. That is the precept behind #RecreateResponsibly, a marketing campaign that invitations folks to be extra considerate stewards of nature.
Whether or not it’s studying easy methods to camp, hammock, or journey responsibly, there are guides and assets to make your experiences enjoyable and protected on the similar time.
Continuously Requested Questions
What’s the theme of Nationwide Public Lands Day in 2024?
The theme for Nationwide Public Lands Day in 2024 is “Collectively for Tomorrow.” This theme encourages folks to work collectively to protect America’s pure assets for future generations. NEEF will unite folks below the frequent objective of stewarding America’s pure assets for the generations to come back.
What precisely does Nationwide Public Lands Day encourage?
Nationwide Public Lands Day encourages volunteerism throughout America’s public lands and will increase environmental stewardship amongst folks of all ages and skills. The vacation additionally goals to foster neighborhood, teamwork, and the enjoyment of public lands for training, recreation, and well-being.
What are the hashtags for Nationwide Public Lands Day?
For organizations posting about Nationwide Public Lands Day on social media, one of the best hashtags to make use of are #NPLD, #NPSVolunteer, and #NationalPublicLandsDay. You can too use common nationwide parks hashtags to assist guarantee your publish finds extra park-lovers.
What are nationwide public lands?
Public lands are areas of land (or water) which are owned collectively by U.S. residents and managed by authorities businesses — and native Indigenous teams or tribal nations. They embody nationwide and state parks, protected areas, wildlife refuges, ceremonial grounds, ancestral homelands, and extra.
Why is it necessary to guard public lands?
Public lands are very important to sustainable and wholesome ecosystems. Defending these lands protects historical past and cultures, in addition to wildlife and their habitats, pure magnificence, and unextracted pure assets. In addition they contribute to the financial system, drawing in guests throughout the nation.
What are the most important threats to public lands?
There are a selection of threats dealing with public lands, like local weather change, land possession disputes, hearth and fuels, invasive species, lack of open house, and unmanaged outside recreation. Defending public lands means guaranteeing they’re within the arms of trusted stewards who will advocate for his or her security and preservation.
What % of the U.S. is public lands?
Over 40% of america is made up of public lands. This equates to about 640 million acres of land, and about 760 million acres of submerged land and water. These lands are managed by federal businesses, state governments, and tribal nations.
What state has probably the most public lands?
Whereas there are public lands throughout the nation, the Western aspect of America has the very best proportion of federal land. Of those states, Nevada is the state with probably the most federal land. A bit of over 80% of the state’s landmass, or 56,262,210 acres, is federally managed.
