This Land, Your Land

If you don't have plans for Saturday, there are at least 20 opportunities in North Carolina to participate in cleanup and rehabilitation work as part of National Public Lands Day. There are also guided hikes on the Appalachian Trail and free admission to National Parks as part of the annual celebration.

National Public Lands Day, September 24 this year, is the nation's largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands in the United States. Last year, 170,000 volunteers worked at over 2,080 sites in every state, the District of Columbia and in many U.S. territories.

Projects planned in North Carolina (link above) range from spreading wood chips along nearly a half mile of the Lake Trail at the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site in Flat Rock to removing aquatic debris and collecting water quality data at the Rachel Carson Coastal Reserve near Beaufort, and from trail work in the Nantahala National Forest's Panthertown Valley Backcountry Area near Cashiers and in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to removing litter and debris at hurricane-damaged Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge near Rondanthe on the Outer Banks.

Opportunities to help also exist at local sites, like Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary and Fairview Park in Hillsborough.

Up the coast from Pea Island, entrance fees are waived for the day at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk the only National Park in the state to charge for entry.

National Public Lands Day is set for September 25 this year, a Saturday, and five parks in North Carolina have official work events planned for volunteers.

National Public Lands Day celebrates service and recreation on public lands while educating volunteers about the effects of climate change on parks. In 2009, 150,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, planted trees and restored water resources, the website for National Public Lands Day says.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will celebrate with two trail work projects - one on the North Carolina side of the park and one on the Tennessee side. The North Carolina project is to improve Smokemont Nature Trail (3/4-mile loop trail) located in Smokemont Campground near Cherokee. The plan is to work from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If you're interested, contact Trails & Facilities Volunteer Coordinator Christine Hoyer, at 828-497-1949 or Christine_Hoyer@nps.gov by September 17.

Elk Knob State Park in Todd near Boone has trail workdays for construction of a 2-mile summit trail every Saturday beginning at 9 a.m and lasting until 3 p.m. Call the park office at 828-297-7261 to sign up.

The Corps of Engineers is asking for help removing litter from aquatic habitat and shoreline at Jordan Lake. Contact Tom Colson with the Corps at 919-630-2569.

The Nature Conservancy is clearing woody vegetation with hand saws and chainsaws from grassy balds between Carver's Gap and Grassy Ridge along the Appalachian Trail at Roan Mountain. Some hiking will be required to get to the work site. Contact Megan Sutton at 828-350-1431.

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary will be mulching trails. Contact Joy Logan at 919-387-5980.