RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Ken Burns' new documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," has been generating a lot of buzz, but you may not realize that it's debuting the weekend of Public Lands Day, which takes place every September 26. The National Park Service sponsors the national day of volunteering in an effort to get people interested and educated about our national parks and why we should save them. This year, roughly 220 parks will be participating, and many are thanking volunteers by showing a 20-minute preview of the upcoming documentary. The first episode of the six-part documentary airs on Sunday; check your local PBS station for air times.
So, grab your gloves and work boots and hit the parks tomorrow—and if you can't, there are still easy ways to plan your next trip to one of America's national parks. Here are some suggestions:
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#1: Blue Ridge Parkway. The 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway actually connects two national parks, Shenandoah to the north and the Great Smoky Mountains to the south. America's most visited national park, the scenic drive attracts most of its visitors in the fall. You might want to brave the crowds anyway, considering that November marks the beginning of the Parkway's 75th anniversary year. Head to the new visitor’s center this weekend, where the Park Service will be showing a 20-minute clip of the Ken Burns national parks documentary. |
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#2: Homestead National Monument of America. Pay homage to national parks and to the hard workers who settled the west. Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska, was established in honor of the Homestead Act of 1862, a law signed by Abraham Lincoln that drew hundreds of settlers to the prairies by providing free land to anyone willing to work it, including women and former slaves. The park is asking for volunteers on Saturday to help with its annual deer survey and to collect native prairie plant seeds that are used to restore the native species that once populated the monument's grounds. |
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#3: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. Speaking of Abe, the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville, Kentucky, needs volunteers on Saturday to help in cleaning up the garden behind Lincoln's Knob Creek home and preparing it for the winter. You'll get rewarded with the documentary preview at the end of the day. Get there soon, if you can; the park will be closing the Birthplace Memorial Building from September 28 until February 2010 for renovations. |
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#4: Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. America's Best Idea made it into city centers as well as mountain ranges and prairie grasslands. Visit the site in Atlanta, and help restore some old buildings and perform some basic landscaping and painting. In addition to showing the documentary preview all day Saturday, the park is sponsoring a symposium on how everyone can get involved with protecting public lands. |
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#5: Point Reyes National Seashore. California's national parks tend to get dwarfed by its star destination, Sequoia National Park, but the Point Reyes National Seashore has just as much natural beauty to offer. The park houses over 1,000 species of plants and animals, including California's largest population of the once-endangered tule elk. The park needs people to help with the ongoing Giacomini Wetland Restoration Project, planting native plants and removing weeds.
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#6: President's Park at the White House. Want to be in a documentary? Tomorrow Ken Burns himself will be on hand at the Ellipse, an area in the President's Park behind the White House in Washington, DC. Get there early to help park employees survey the condition of the park's monuments and memorials, and then stick around until 7 p.m. to watch the documentary preview. |
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#7: Just get away. If this weekend is booked up and you're unable to participate in Public Lands Day, the National Park Service has launched a few online tools that make it easy to plan a trip, either to the parks or one of thousands of national historic places. The National Register Travel Itineraries are maps of regions with curious historical significance, whether that's Route 66 with all its roadside oddities or the Amana Colonies of Iowa, utopian societies established before the Civil War. For unique visits to national parks, the service highlights a different Getaway each week, with suggestions for what to do and see at each park. |
