[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 192 (Wednesday, October 3, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50287-50288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-24915]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 192 / Wednesday, October 3, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 50287]]

                Proclamation 7473 of September 28, 2001

                
National Public Lands Day, 2001

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The United States has the world's greatest public 
                lands. The National Park System, established in 1916, 
                protects some of America's most beautiful and essential 
                natural resources. Our parks connect Americans with 
                their land, giving us a common landscape and shared 
                national treasures. With more than 80 million acres, 
                these majestic and diverse parks, home to thousands of 
                species of flora and fauna, represent our Nation's most 
                important natural legacy to future generations.

                Our national parks provide outstanding recreational 
                possibilities for Americans, and more than 287 million 
                visitors each year come to these beautiful places to 
                explore those possibilities. My Administration 
                recognizes and accepts the importance of making these 
                great lands more accessible to all our citizens. Our 
                Government bears a clear and direct responsibility for 
                the stewardship of our parks. The Government alone, 
                however, cannot fulfill the promise of preserving this 
                outdoor legacy--a legacy first bequeathed to us by 
                President Theodore Roosevelt and other early 
                visionaries who understood the importance of these 
                great landscapes, ecosystems, and historic and cultural 
                settings. Only by developing partnerships among States, 
                local communities, tribal governments, public agencies, 
                the nonprofit sector, the private sector, and 
                individual landowners can we truly maintain and protect 
                our Nation's best places.

                National Public Lands Day provides every American with 
                a unique and valuable opportunity to promote 
                environmental education and, more importantly, to put 
                their hands to work on projects directly benefiting 
                public lands. I encourage Americans to volunteer to 
                build trails, restore habitat, improve accessibility 
                for visitors with special needs, and repair weather-
                related damage. This year, more than 60,000 volunteers 
                are expected to work at approximately 335 sites in all 
                50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 
                In cooperation with their community partners, these 
                individuals will contribute nearly $9 million of needed 
                improvements to America's public lands.

                National Public Lands Day also serves as a special time 
                for our country to recognize the accomplishments of the 
                Civilian Conservation Corps, the hard-working men who 
                built more than 800 of America's national and State 
                parks during the 1930s and 1940s. Ceremonies honoring 
                the Corps will be held at Virginia's Shenandoah 
                National Park, as well as at 30 other locations 
                throughout the country.

                I encourage Americans to follow the worthy example set 
                by those CCC members and pitch in by volunteering to 
                improve our parks. Through these efforts, we can all do 
                our part to ensure that the Nation's parks, forests, 
                lakes, fields, and rivers remain vibrant and enduring 
                legacies of America's natural beauty for ages to come.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim September 29, 2001, as 
                National Public Lands Day. I call upon the people of 
                the United States

[[Page 50288]]

                to observe this day with appropriate programs and 
                activities to improve the public lands they use for 
                recreation, education, and enjoyment.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 01-24915
Filed 10-2-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P