07 Oct National Public Lands Day!
National Public Lands Day (NPLD) was this past Saturday, September 28th! For those who don’t know, my internship here at Yaquina Head was delayed, so instead of planning events for World Migratory Bird Day, I had the opportunity to organize National Public Lands Day events for the park.
NPLD is all about giving people the chance to give back to the recreational areas they love. I could rephrase it, but it’s easier to quote it from the National Environmental Education Foundation: “It’s a chance to connect with new communities, an event that creates kinship among those working together for a common goal, and an opportunity to use America’s public lands for education, recreation, and overall physical and mental health.” Basically, it’s a fancy way of saying there are a bunch of volunteer events at parks as a way for people to get involved in giving back to the public lands we use.
So, let me set the scene: As I drove to work, it was a beautiful, sunny day on the Oregon Coast in Newport. I took it as a good sign from the universe that the day would turn out well considering we are starting the rainy winter season soon. I set up our interpretive center with a table of outreach materials (pictured below). On one of the tables, I placed a large sheet of butcher paper with the question, “What are your favorite ways to enjoy and give back to public lands?” I wanted to create something for visitors to think about as they passed through and enjoyed the park. Once we opened, it was time to start recruiting volunteers.
At Yaquina, I planned four events for visitors to participate in. The first was planting early blue violets (Viola adunca), a vital food source for the Oregon silverspot butterfly. In our park, we have several coastal meadow restoration areas where we’ve planted these violets to support the reintroduction of the silverspot butterfly. The second event was working in the lighthouse garden. We successfully harvested potatoes and turnips, added compost to the soil, and planted garlic. One of the volunteers was a local who’s been working in the garden since he was a kid. It was pretty cool to hear his stories and see his excitement about coming back to volunteer.
The third event was a beach cleanup at Cobble Beach. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), there was very little plastic or debris to clean up. We ended up collecting most of the trash along the trail to the lighthouse, which I’d count as a win for the beach! The final event I had planned was removing invasive beach grass from Quarry Cove. Unfortunately, no one showed up for that one. But overall, the day was a success. We had a few small teams for each event, and everyone had a great time getting their hands dirty in the process.
My biggest takeaway was learning that I needed to get more volunteers signed up in advance to ensure bigger participation. Despite that, I’m happy with how the day turned out. We even had a few Canadian families join us—go figure! My favorite part of the day was participating in the events themselves (when I wasn’t running around coordinating with the other rangers). I’m incredibly grateful to my team for answering my many questions and for their patience as I figured everything out. So, happy National Public Lands Day! Now that you know, mark your calendars for the fourth Saturday of September next year and volunteer at your nearest public lands site!
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