Local Volunteers Sought to Pitch In Restoring Tallgrass Prairie at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site on National Public Lands day, Saturday, Sept. 27

Date: September 17, 2008
Contact: Adam Prato, [phone]

WEST BRANCH, IOWA— Herbert Hoover National Historic Site will be restoring tallgrass prairie as Iowa residents join the largest annual coast-to-coast, single-day volunteer restoration effort for America’s public lands.

Local volunteers will roll up their sleeves and devote their day to removing shrubs and collecting seeds at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site as part of the 15th annual National Public Lands Day (NPLD) on Saturday, September 27. Sponsored for the ninth consecutive year by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, these national cleanups give Americans an annual chance to make public lands in local communities safer, prettier, and more desirable.

“Last year we reached a monumental participation of 110,000 volunteers in National Public Lands Day, and we are expecting to increase this by an additional 10,000 this year,” said Robb Hampton, director of National Public Lands Day.

This year, National Public Lands Day will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps. By educating volunteers at sites across the country, NPLD maintains the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an army of 3 million Americans who in the 1930’s countered the devastation of the Dust Bowl and the American chestnut blight by planting more than 3 billion trees, building 800 state parks, and fighting forest fires. On Arbor Day, the National Environmental Education Foundation along with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) launched a nationwide effort to plant one million trees prior to National Public Lands Day in an attempt to honor the efforts of the CCC.

For the fifth year in a row, volunteers who work at a site managed by any of five federal agencies will be rewarded with a pass good for free entry any day during the next year at public land sites managed by those agencies: National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A list of NPLD sites, activities, contacts, and downloadable photos from past events can be found in the Media Center section of www.publiclandsday.org.

Volunteers interested in helping at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site on September 27 should contact Adam Prato at [phone] by Friday, September 26. Dress for the weather and wear comfortable work clothes. Water, sunscreen, sunglasses, and hats are recommended. Meet at the Visitor Center at 8:30 a.m. for an orientation and to get signed up. Work in the prairie will be from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 of I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space.