Volunteers at Nez Perce National Historical Park took part in the largest single- day volunteer effort for public lands: National Public Lands Day 2019!

Nez Perce NHP volunteers on National Public Lands Day 2019

NPS Photo

On September 28, 15 volunteers at Nez Perce National Historical Park helped restore habitat around the Spalding Visitor Center. Volunteers and park staff planted 200 native plants and spread 13,000 square feet of seeds through the course of the rainy day.

Projects were carefully chosen by park biologists to ensure long term success of the volunteers’ hard work. “The park strives to use adaptive restoration techniques to fight invasive species,” Biotech Katy Matthews says, “we don’t want to continuously treat invasive species year after year, we want to encourage native species to flourish.” As with all restoration projects at Nez Perce National Historical Park, the information learned from the success and failure of these projects over time will drive how our natural resource staff approach future restoration efforts.

Coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), National Public Lands Day brings together volunteers from coast to coast to improve and restore the lands and facilities that people across America use and enjoy every day. Each year, National Public Lands Day volunteers provide tens of millions of dollars’ worth of services in one day that would otherwise take limited park staff months to accomplish. Last year, more than 200,000 people participated in events at more than 2,500 sites in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.