A group of young volunteers came to clean up Russell Lake in Savannah, Georgia during NPLD 2011
A group of young volunteers came to clean up Russell Lake in Savannah, Georgia during NPLD 2011. Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District

Tomorrow, thousands of volunteers will recognize our diverse natural environments — and what they have done for us — through the 2012 National Public Lands Day (NPLD). This National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) program has taken off since 1994, when the first NPLD was held. That year, the program was supported by 700 volunteers at three sites. In 2011, more than 170,000 volunteers worked on 2,067 different sites in every state. And this year, both those numbers are expected to grow.

Each location offers a different opportunity for volunteers. The projects range from removing invasive vines and trees in Washington, D.C., parks to identifying and recording the diverse species of migratory birds and wildlife around Caesar Creek Lake in Ohio. Governors, mayors, and for the past three years the President of the United States, issue proclamations, through National Public Lands Day, urging their citizens to participate.

Besides the contributions of local sites, national parks also play a major role in NPLD. In addition to their individual volunteer efforts, such as maintaining a carriage road and trail for Maine’s Acadia National Park, many of these locations will also be waiving their daily fees for visitors. This gives the National Park Service an opportunity to educate the American public by making them aware of how important public lands are and what they can do to protect them. Education, along with building networks and supporting outdoor recreation, is one of the main goals of NEEF and why this day exists.

These goals have been accomplished with the help from partners, like long-time corporate sponsor, Toyota, and a diverse group of friends, such as the Boy Scouts, Audubon Society and even the North American Inter-Fraternity Council.

NPLD also pays homage to volunteers of the past. Each year, NPLD honors of the Civilian Conservation Corp’s “tree army,” which ran from 1933-1942. As one of the public relief programs under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the army was an effort to maintain the natural environment of America.

See what your community is doing for NPLD and what you can do to help at http://www.publiclandsday.org/.