Observed this year on Sept. 26, National Public Lands Day – the largest single-day volunteer effort devoted to America’s public lands – is a perfect opportunity to give back to your community and learn more about parks, national forests, marine estuaries and other public lands sites around the country.
Read on for four ways you can participate in this daylong event, both in person and virtually.
1. Find an Event Near You
If you’d like to attend an in-person event, visit the National Public Lands Day Event Locator and look for an opportunity in your area. You can contribute to an effort to clean up a park or trail, for example, or take part in an improvement project at a local historic site. Bonus: If you volunteer on a National Public Lands Day service project, you’ll receive a free one-day pass to a national park.
2. Join a Virtual Event
Prefer to stay home? No problem. The National Public Lands Day Event Locator also includes various online opportunities, including virtual question-and-answer sessions, walking tours and historical reenactments. You can also find at-home volunteer projects, such as using eBird, an online bird database, to help track bird populations and migration patterns and assisting with counting penguins via Zooniverse. Whether you’re looking for an interactive tour, a wildlife livestream or a way to participate in digital citizen science, chances are you’ll find a virtual event that piques your interest.
3. Organize an In-Person or Virtual Opportunity
Join forces with your FFA chapter to plan a National Public Lands Day event. Consider collaborating with a public lands site, such as a state park, in your area to organize an in-person volunteer opportunity or an at-home event using online videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts. To ensure as many people as possible know about your event, register it at the National Public Lands Day website, which secures the event’s spot on the National Public Lands Day Event Locator.
4. Share Your Experiences on Social Media
Finally, remember to use your social media channels to promote National Public Lands Day. Share your favorite outdoor activity or a favorite memory at a national park with hashtags like #NPLD and #FindYourPark, and explain to your followers what makes the great outdoors so great – and why it’s so important to protect and preserve our national public lands.
Find more information about National Public Lands Day and the many ways you can get involved.
