National Public Lands Day returns with free parks admission, volunteer opportunities

National Public Lands Day is back! On Sept. 28, the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort returns.

All national parks that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone in celebration of National Public Lands Day — which occurs every year on the fourth Saturday of September. It is one of the six days in a calendar year when the National Park Service waives any and all entrance fees.

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Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades are the three national parks housed within Washington.

“National parks are America’s best idea, and there are more than 400 parks available to everyone, every day,” the National Park Service wrote on its website. “The fee-free days provide a great opportunity to visit a new place or an old favorite, especially one of the national parks that normally charge an entrance fee.”

While it’s a day that can merely be spent enjoying one of Washington’s many parks, a plethora of volunteer opportunities are available. Volunteers can participate in organized trash cleanups, can take out and remove invasive plants — something as simple as weeds or as complex as a system of fast-growing vines, join a trail maintenance team or volunteer to participate in scientific research. From counting monarch butterflies to studying plant growth to tweeting earthquake locations, citizen science is just another way to volunteer and give back to the national parks.

“Our nation’s public lands have always been and will always be central to our country’s heritage and essential to our identity,” President Joe Biden wrote in a proclamation. “On National Public Lands Day, I encourage every American to enjoy the wonder of our public lands. I also encourage volunteers from across the nation to celebrate and care for our lands and waters by reforesting the land, maintaining trails, nurturing ecosystems, removing invasive species and doing other conservation work to serve the lands and waters that support and sustain us.”

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Last year, more than 130 national parks hosted events, with 7,600 volunteers donating an impressive 41,500 hours of service. To find volunteer opportunities in your local area, visit the volunteer website.

Volunteers can even earn an additional free day pass for national parks to use at their convenience.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.