There's a special joy in getting your hands dirty when it helps to keep our land beautiful. Consider that one-third of the land in America is ours - public land where we can all hike, bike, climb, swim, explore, picnic, or just plain relax. National Public Lands Day is an opportunity to help us spruce up these lands while helping us get back to some of these places we love.

On National Public Lands Day, we celebrate the dedication and hard work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the "tree army" that exemplified land stewardship from 1933-1942. In their spirit, more than 120,000 volunteers will build trails and bridges, pull invasive weeds, plant trees, remove trash, and have fun getting back to nature.

The Mountaineers is offering two work parties on National Public Lands Day - one at the Iron Goat Trail off Highway 2, and one at Gold Creek Pond Trail off I-90. To join either of these work parties, head over to our Activity Search page to get more information. Alternatively, you can check out the National Public Lands Day website for a list of work parties throughout Washington State. The important thing is to get out and lend a hand.

For those of you on the peninsula, we want to make sure you know about Celebrate the Wild Olympics, an event on National Public Lands Day. The celebration takes place in port Townsend and includes free food and drinks, bluegrass music and more. For location, time and RSVP instructions, head over to the website of the local Sierra Club chapter.