[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 40 (Monday, October 8, 2001)]
[Pages 1395-1396]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7473--National Public Lands Day, 2001

September 28, 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 
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.
                                                George W. Bush

[[Page 1396]]

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., October 2, 
2001]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
3. This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate 
issue.