Betty Gallifent, Inspiring Connections Outdoors
The Sierra Club has hosted more than 100 outings so far this spring and summer to celebrate the National Park Service Centennial. Taking place in both cities and wilderness across the country, the outings demonstrate the diversity of outdoor opportunities provided by America’s public lands.
Here are just a few of the highlights:
Washington: Lower Big Quilcene River
Sierra Club partnered with InterimCDA’s Wilderness Inter-City Leadership Development (WILD) program, an organization that works with the Asian Pacific Islander community in the International District of Seattle, to engage 45 youth and adults on this Centennial outing. They visited the Lower Big Quilcene River, a part the Olympic Peninsula in need of protection.
Arizona: Montezuma Castle
In Arizona, Sierra Club kicked off National Parks Week with a trip to one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America: Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well. They explored history... and had cupcakes!
Nevada: Lake Mead National Recreation Area
In Nevada, youth from Rancho High School’s Hispanic Student Union joined Sierra Club and the National Park Service for a centennial outing and clean-up at Government Wash in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. After the clean-up, the group visited the Hoover Dam to see what climate change has done in the form of drought to the national park.
Nevada: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Sierra Club’s Las Vegas Inspiring Connections Outdoors lead an outing to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Getting up close to a pack of wild burros, watching a creek flow over rocks and cascade into a fern-lined pool, and observing desert wildflowers along the trail were but a few of the firsts for this group of eight young adults from Nevada Partners, a job training center serving low income areas of Las Vegas. For most, it was also their first time hiking at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 15 miles west of Las Vegas.
Georgia: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
Atlanta Inspiring Connections Outdoors lead an educational hike at the Island Ford section of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area with students who are participating in a cultural orientation program of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Atlanta office. During the hike the students learned about the river as a source of water for the Atlanta metropolitan area and as a valued place to be outdoors.
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Florida: Baynanza Biscayne Bay
Miami Inspiring Connections Outdoors lead a hike, paddle and cleanup service outing at the Baynanza Biscayne Bay with adults and kids from the underserved community of Little Haiti that is the heart of the Haitian Diaspora in Miami, as well as volunteers from different parts of Miami. Volunteers paddled along the Little River between Little Haiti and Oakland Grove, removing trash and debris from this hidden gem of a waterway while experiencing and interacting with a rich and diverse ecological corridor.
Michigan: Gabriel Richard Park
Over 150 people visited Gabriel Richard Park, one of several beautiful parks on Detroit's riverfront to learn about green infrastructure methods to protect waterways within the Great Lakes watershed from storm water pollution and combined sewer overflows. 95 rain barrels were assembled and distributed with the help of 24 Sierra Club volunteers. Chairperson of the Detroit City Council's Green Task Force, Councilman Scott Benson, welcomed the crowd and spoke passionately about the importance of protecting our common freshwater resource.
Wyoming: Bridger-Teton National Forest
The Wyoming Chapter partnered with the U.S. Forest Service in Bridger-Teton National Forest, bringing over 100 4th graders from Wyoming Indian, Fort Washakie, and Moran Elementary Schools to the National Forest. The fourth graders received their Every Kid in a Park passes and enjoyed a fun day.
Though the actual anniversary is August 25, National Park Service Centennial celebrations are continuing all year. Join the party this summer; find an outing near you at sierraclub.org/nps100.