Some of the many volunteers who participated in National Public Lands Day at the Humbug Marsh Unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. - USFWS Photo by Becca Sowder

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge worked on the Humbug Marsh trail system as local area residents join the largest annual coast-to-coast, single-day volunteer restoration effort for America’s public lands. 

Local volunteers  rolled up their sleeves and devoted their day to resurfacing trails at the Humbug Marsh Unit as part of the 15th annual National Public Lands Day (NPLD) on Saturday, September 27. This was the first National Public Lands Day hosted by the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  Over 50 volunteers spent five hours removing invasive plant species, grooming trails, and removing trash and ensured that this will continue to be a successful annual event. It is estimated that over 120,000 volunteers participated in National Public Lands Day events hosted by more than 1,600 national sites. 

 This year, National Public Lands Day commemorated the 75^th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps. By educating volunteers at sites across the country, NPLD maintains the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an army of three million Americans who in the 1930s countered the devastation of the Dust Bowl and the American chestnut blight by planting more than three billion trees, building 800 state parks, and fighting forest fires. 

For the fifth year in a row, volunteers who worked at a site managed by any of five federal agencies were rewarded with a pass good for free entry any day during the next year at public land sites managed by those agencies: National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.