Tomorrow, Saturday September 28, thousands of people will head out to public lands across the country to participate in National Public Lands Day, an annual event organized by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF). This year marks the 20th anniversary of the national event, and 15 years of partnership with Toyota, who helps make these events possible. National Public Lands Day helps provide opportunities for the public to get out and volunteer in parks and other municipal lands, serving as environmental stewards, or simply exploring the benefits of getting a little bit closer to the land.
Public lands are critical spaces for recreation, reflection and conservation of wildlife. The national day of service and the efforts of NEEF help engage people with the nature that surrounds them, and teach them why it is important to protect those gifts of nature. Ideally the interest in caring for public lands will spread beyond National Public Lands Day — and NEEF and Toyota host a forum to help organizers plan events year round as well.
Robb Hampton, the director of National Public Lands Day at NEEF, explained that there was a lot of interest developing around volunteering to take care of public lands 20 years ago that has continued through today.
“It started off focusing primarily on our federal public lands, but it didn’t take long to trickle down to the local level,” Hampton said. “We’ve had a huge increase in state parks, city parks and other municipal lands across the country. It’s a day for the public to give back to their public lands that they might enjoy all other days of the year. Or it can be a day to discover new areas right in their backyards.”
As part of the celebration this weekend, the GreenHouse Foundation (GHF) along with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are partnering with NEEF to host a signature NPLD event at MLK Jr., National Historic Site in Atlanta.
Volunteers will tend to the landscape of the site including planting trees and invasive plant removal, work on cleaning the interior of Ebenezer Baptist Church, as well as paint front porches on Auburn Avenue and pick up trash in the area according to the National Public Lands Day team. There will also be an urban camp out for inner city youth on Friday evening to kick-start the national day of service.
>>Learn more and find a National Public Lands Day event near you here.
