National Public Lands Day is Saturday, allowing free entry into national parks and other areas. It’s also an annual time for volunteers to come tidy up parks.
Over 130 parks brought in 7,600 volunteers last year, according to the National Park Service.
This year, parks are expecting the same outpouring of support. Volunteers on National Public Lands Day receive a free one-day pass to any national park site at a later date.
Camelot Todd with the Nevada Conservation League said the day is more than a day of service.
“It will be a great day of honoring public lands through cleaning it up but also making sure that people have a space to celebrate and connect,” said Todd.
He added that public parks provide more than just recreation. “These places are where we go for refuge but also to get peace of mind and celebrate.”
The day comes amid the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to parks for the coming fiscal year, even though Congress has yet to act on those cuts.
These resolutions come after more than 315 current and former Western local elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, including mayors, county commissioners and supervisors, state lawmakers, and city and town council members and trustees urgently called for a more balanced approach to the management of public lands this spring.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between YOUR STATION, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
