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Participate in Carson National Forest National Public Lands Day Events
Release Date: Sep 13, 2017
Contact(s): Denise Ottaviano
Taos, NM (September 13, 2017) - For Immediate Release. There are two exciting opportunities for the public to celebrate National Public Lands Day (NPLD) on the Carson National Forest. Join us on September 21 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for a BioBlitz at the Red River Fish Hatchery in Questa, NM (approximately 20 miles north of Taos on Hwy 522), or on September 30 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the historic Aldo Leopold House in Tres Piedras, NM. The house is approximately 1 mile north of the Hwy 285 & Hwy 64 junction.
The BioBlitz has the distinction of being a National Signature Site for this years’ NPLD celebration! It’s a free, family-friendly event sponsored by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and other local agencies. Activities include nature crafts, species identification, live animal ambassadors, and more.
The data you collect at the event can be shared through a program called iNaturalist. Prior to the event, create an account online at https://www.inaturalist.org/ or download the app. Select the link called Projects and search for “2017 Joint USFS, BLM, and NMDGF BioBlitz” and join the team. Visitors should bring water, lunch, sunscreen, comfortable clothes, and hiking boots to the event.
This is also an Every Kid in a Park event, meaning fourth grade students can receive an Every Kid in the Park pass. This pass provides each fourth grader free access to 2,000-plus federally managed lands and water sites for a year. This is a great opportunity for fourth graders to explore their natural world and hopefully create a long-lasting connection to the great outdoors.
The event at the Aldo Leopold House is a chance for volunteers to help landscape, clean up trash, and install interpretive kiosks at this historic landmark. The house was built in 1912 by Aldo Leopold when he was the new Forest Supervisor on the Carson National Forest. Aldo Leopold is considered by many to be the father of wildlife ecology and the United States’ wilderness system as well as the most influential conservation thinker of the 20th century.
Come celebrate the Leopold legacy with food, fun, music, and environmental education at this treasured site! Volunteers are asked to bring water, hats, sunscreen and gloves. Registration will start at 9:00 a.m.
National Public Lands Day is the nation's largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands. The nation-wide event brings together thousands of people to help restore the country’s public lands. In 2016, over 200,000 people participated in over 2,600 project sites across the nation. Come and celebrate something we all share: our public lands!
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