Usually National Public Lands Day is celebrated with fee-free entry to America's National Parks and a variety of volunteer environmental clean-up activities. In the plague year of 2020, things are different.
Before visiting any National Park in 2020, please check the park website to determine its operating status. Updates about the overall NPS response to COVID-19, including safety information, are posted on www.nps.gov/coronavirus.
Fee-free days make national parks accessible to more people. That also means to realistically plan for large crowds by allowing extra time for travel, and carpooling or taking public transportation if possible.
National Parks sometimes have separate parking fees in addition to access or use fees. Always check online to verify the intended National Park Service destination park's policies and fees before making plans. Some parks require parking reservations, such as John Muir Woods Historic Site in Mill Valley, Calif. Regular vehicle fees were last reportedly $10 per standard passenger vehicle. Muir Woods is part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, north of San Francisco in Marin County. Do be aware there is no available WiFi and no cellular service in Muir Woods.
Generally, the six annual fee-free entry days to National Parks are:
- January: Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- April: First day of National Park Week/National Junior Ranger Day
- August 5: Great American Outdoors Day (starting in 2021).
August 25: Birthday of National Park Service
September: Fourth Saturday National Public Lands Day (last day of Public Lands Week)
- November 11: Veterans Day.
In 2020, President Donald Trump and U.S. Congress proclaimed a new fee-free parks day on August 5 to celebrate the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. By opening up National Parks to increased fracking, oil and gas extraction by private companies for corporate profits, a portion of profits earned from these activities is intended to help fund infrastructure needs at National Parks.
National Public Lands Day is organized annually by the National Environmental Education Foundation, in cooperation with the Department of the Interior, Department of the Army, and Department of Agriculture. The National Park Service is one of the event’s largest providers of sites and volunteers. Other participating federal agencies include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, US Forest Service, and US Army Corps of Engineers.
Images courtesy of Library of Congress, National Park Service and author's collection.
Thanks for reading "How to Celebrate Public Lands Day September 26, 2020".
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