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.

Nighttime driving on the beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore returns Thursday though November 15, the National Park Service has announced. Driving on the ocean beaches between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. requires a permit available here.

Drivers must sign and date a permit, and it must be visibly displayed on the dashboard of the vehicle.

The permitting process is part of federal rules that close stretches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore during sea turtle nesting season.

Areas reopened this week include:
* Tri-villages (Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo) beachfront, approximately 3 miles long, extending from the southernmost boundary of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to Ramp 23.
* Avon village beachfront, approximately 4 miles long.
* Ocracoke Campground and day use area beaches, approximately 2.5 miles long.