National Public Lands Day 2025
Celebrated every year in September, National Public Lands Day is the country’s single largest one-day volunteer effort, an opportunity for millions of Americans to come out in droves and volunteer to clean up, preserve, care-take, and steward their local public lands.
What are public lands? Some describe them as the very foundation of the United States, the physical land that makes this nation so special. For a more technical definition, public lands are any land or water owned by federal, state, local, or tribal governments, I.e., owned by the public, not by private entities. Examples of public lands include national parks, national forests, recreation areas, preserves, monuments, memorials, wildlife refuges, state parks, and city parks.
The National Park Service (America’s most popular federal agency per Pew Research) turned 109 on August 25 of this year. And in just a few days, thanks to National Public Lands Day, Americans across the nation will have countless opportunities to come out and show their love for the Park Service and other land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and various state and local-level conservation and wilderness preservation agencies.
What Agencies are Saying About This Important Holiday
This holiday is also a free-entry day for all 430+ sites the National Park Service manages, further incentivizing folks to come out, enjoy the day, and do some good in their local parks. From the NPS:
“Join us for National Public Lands Day on September 27, 2025! Since 1994, this annual event on the fourth Saturday of September has been the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort. Last year, over 130 national parks hosted events with 7,600 volunteers donating an impressive 41,500 hours of service. All national parks that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone on September 27, 2025 in celebration of National Public Lands Day.”
The NPS has two primary asks of people this year: One is to volunteer by joining a one-time event on National Public Lands Day or by getting involved on a recurring basis. The other request is to join the official Recreate Responsibly Movement, which aims to inform and inspire the responsible use of our shared public lands.
The National Environmental Education Foundation is also deeply involved in organizing and conducting National Public Lands Day. Their ask is to get involved in the celebration, in whatever way works best for you! Here's the statement that organization put out about National Public Lands Day:
“Our public lands are more than just places to visit—they are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. From the trails we hike to the parks where we gather with family and friends, these spaces are our collective backyard, our shared front porch, our natural playground. Join us on September 27, 2025, to celebrate ‘Our Home Outdoors’ and care for the public lands we share.”
The National Park Service gets the most attention for its stewardship of the 63 National Parks, but the Bureau of Land Management also plays a huge role in land protection. Check out their website for a list of BLM-specific events, and here’s that agency’s statement on National Public Lands Day:
“Since 1994, NPLD has brought together hundreds of thousands of volunteers to help restore America’s public lands. These are the places Americans use for outdoor recreation, education, and other activities. Public lands include national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, forests, grasslands, marine sanctuaries, lakes, and reservoirs, as well as state, county, and city parks that are managed by federal, state, and local governments. In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management hosted 132 events – more than any other federal agency! Approximately 9,149 volunteers came out from across the nation to lend a hand. These volunteers contributed nearly 54,406 hours of service worth over $1.6 million back to BLM-managed public lands.”
How to Get Involved
The federal government has a website dedicated to volunteering, since civic engagement is a core part of American culture. The website runs 365 days per year, so it is very useful before, during, and after National Public Lands Day, too!
Those interested in volunteering at their local public lands can visit volunteer.gov to view planned events and activities in their area, get more information, sign up, RSVP, and plan their volunteer day.
Another way to get involved is to use the interactive map provided by the National Environmental Education Foundation, one of the organizations quoted in the previous section. Type in some location information, and the software will provide a list of planned events occurring within a set distance of the provided location.
Other Ways to Celebrate Public Lands
The beautiful thing about America’s public lands is that they are located in all 50 states, are often located nearby, and they always need stewardship. From tasks as simple as picking up litter to more complicated projects like trail-building, landscaping, determining best-use practices, adding to existing plots of land, and protecting crucial biodiversity, there’s always something to be done in these places.
What if physically volunteering at one of the many public land sites isn’t an option? (Volunteering may be the shared ask voiced by the above agencies running this year’s National Public Lands Day, but these agencies recognize that not everyone is physically able to volunteer, and others will experience a schedule conflict or other hindrance).
Another way to support public lands is to donate to the nonprofits and NGOs that are putting in the work to protect these essential places. Most national parks and many state parks have friend groups formed specifically to preserve a specific area of public land, so this allows individuals to put their hard-earned dollars towards the park(s) and land(s) they care about the most.
For our part, at Anderson Design Group, we donate a portion of our profits each year to the National Park Foundation, the preeminent philanthropic partner to all the national parks. That means when you buy ADG products and decorate with ADG art of the national parks and poster art, travel art, and vintage art, you’re quite literally helping to protect the parks!
Happy National Public Lands Day to all our readers and supporters, however you choose to celebrate.
Until next time,
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Staff Writer
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