All National Park Service
sites, including Lake Mead National Recreation Area, will offer free visitor
admission on September 29 for National Public Lands Day.
In additional to waiving entrance
fees, national parks and other public lands will host special programs and
volunteer work parties to commemorate the 14th annual event. At Lake Mead,
there will be a clean up on Saturday at Government Wash. More than 250 volunteers have signed up for
this event and those volunteers will also receive a free one-day pass valid for
future visit at any National Park Service site.
“America’s public lands showcase the
country’s spectacular beauty and fascinating history,” said National Park
Service Director Mary A. Bomar. “I
encourage everyone to take advantage of this fee free day to explore a national
park, recreation area, or other public lands in the area.”
Nine federal agencies, 125
state and local partners, dozens of non-profit organizations, tens of thousands
of individuals are expected to participate in more than a thousand volunteer
projects across the country. Please
visit http://www.publiclandsday.org
for more information.
One third of the land in the United States
has been set aside as open space. 600
million acres of parks, refuges, forests, wetlands, cultural sites, and other
shared areas provide a variety of public resources.
National Public Lands Day is
the only time that entrance fees are waived systematically on public lands
throughout the country. Normally, 147 of
the country’s 391 National Park Service sites charge entrance fees ranging from
$3 to $25. The other 244 areas do not
have entrance fees. U.S. Veterans are
admitted to national parks for free each year on Veteran’s Day.
The other federal agencies
not charging for admittance that day include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.
