National Public Lands Day: Free entry to NM parks, monuments, forests, lakes and reserves

Sept. 23 is National Public Lands Day.

Thousands of volunteers nationwide will lend a hand to help keep public lands clean, maintained and beautiful.

This year ― the 30th year of the event ― the theme is "30 Years of Care and Community."

As part of a commitment to get more people to enjoy New Mexico's outdoor wonders, entry fees to several national and state parks, monuments, forests, reserves and lakes are being waived.

No entry fees to these national public lands Sept. 23

National parks

• White Sands National Park

• Carlsbad Caverns National Park

• Guadalupe Mountains National Park

National forests

• Carson National Forest

• Santa Fe National Forest

• Cibola National Forest

• Lincoln National Forest

• Gila National Forest

For a list of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management which will offer free entry on Sept. 23 visit www.bl.m.gov/newmexico.

No entry fee to these New Mexico public lands

• Bottomless Lakes - Roswell

• Brantley Lake - Carlsbad

• Elephant Butte Lake - Sierra County

• Living Desert Zoo & Gardens - Carlsbad

• Manzano Mountains - Albuquerque

• Mesilla Valley Bosque - Mesilla

• Navajo Lake - Aztec

• Oliver Lee Memorial - Alamogordo

• Pancho Villa - Deming

• Rockhound - Deming

What is Public Lands Day?

National Public Lands Day is the U.S.'s largest single-day volunteer event held annually on the fourth Saturday in September.

National Public Lands Day is coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation.

The first event was held in 1994. Since its inception, it has garnered over 5 million volunteer hours via 1 million volunteers and provided an estimated $133 million in public land assistance through volunteerism.

Want to volunteer?

These in-person volunteer opportunities are available to New Mexicans:

• Las Cruces: Sonoma Ranch Boulevard Cleanup

• Carlsbad: High Guads Restoration Project

• Farmington: NPLD 2023 Glades Cleanup

• Questa: Yerba Trail Maitenance

• Santa Rosa: Shoreline cleanup

• Socorro: Landavaso Trail Construction

• Albuquerque: Manzano Mountain Trail Maitenance

• Albuquerque: The Mountains of New Mexico cleanup

• Grants: El Malpais trail work and bench installation

• Jemez Springs: Valles Caldera cleanup

• Abiquiu: Abiquiu Lake

• Kiowa National Grassland: Mesteno Canyon cleanup

Find a Public Lands Day event near you by visiting https://www.neefusa.org/npld-event-search.

Contact your local Bureau of Land Management officer for other opportunities to volunteer.

Share your experience

Whether you are visiting a park or lending a hand as a volunteer, you can help promote public lands and share your experience using tags on social media.

#NPLD: Use this tag to share your time at local public lands!

#NPSVolunteer: Use this tag to share the impact your volunteerism has had on local public lands.

#MyParkStory: Got a story to tell about your love of public lands? We want to hear it.

#RecreateResponsibly: Share your best tips and trips on keeping public lands beautiful for all.

Jessica Onsurez can be reached at jonsurez@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @JussGREAT.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Visitors to NM's public lands get in free Sept. 23