Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 187 / Thursday, September 28, 2023 / Presidential Documents 67053 

Proclamation 10631 of September 22, 2023 

National Public Lands Day, 2023 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

Our public lands—including our national parks, monuments, forests, and 

wildlife preserves—are irreplaceable and home to so many of the natural 

wonders that represent the heart and soul of our Nation. They unite and 

inspire us, and from generation to generation, they have sustained us. On 

National Public Lands Day, we welcome every American to celebrate our 

Nation’s lands and waters in all their splendor. 

As we honor the power and promise of our Nation’s natural majesty, we 

also recommit to conserving our lands and waters for generations to come. 

When we conserve our public lands, we are doing more than protecting 

their beauty. We protect the places where history was made. We safeguard 

the air we breathe and the water we drink. We defend the livelihoods 

of people who depend on these lands and waters as a way of life, like 

our ranchers, outfitters, guides, and rural and Indigenous communities. We 

honor the sacred lands that Tribal Nations have stewarded since time immemorial. We make our Nation more resilient to the impacts of climate change. 

That is why my Administration has developed the most ambitious land 

and water conservation agenda in American history. During my first week 

in office, I issued an Executive Order establishing the country’s first-ever 

National Conservation Goal to protect at least 30 percent of our lands and 

waters by 2030. That means supporting locally led, voluntary conservation 

and restoration efforts across the country—the very cornerstone of my 

‘‘America the Beautiful’’ initiative. I also signed an Executive Order to 

protect America’s forests, harness the power of nature in the fight against 

climate change, and initiate the first National Nature Assessment to evaluate 

the state of our lands, waters, and wildlife. 

Together, we have made strong progress toward those goals. My Inflation 

Reduction Act represents the largest investment in our history dedicated 

to confronting the climate crisis. Along with investments from the Bipartisan 

Infrastructure Law, these investments will also help fuel environmental justice and conservation efforts, including more than $50 billion dedicated 

to strengthening the resilience of our communities and ecosystems to the 

impacts of climate change. To address the wildfire crisis, many Americans 

who care for our Nation’s forests are using these investments to implement 

critical conservation and stewardship practices, working toward our goal 

of reducing the wildfire risk on up to 50 million acres of public and 

private land through science-based fuels and forest health treatments—a 

land size equal to that of South Dakota. 

I have designated five new national monuments and restored protections 

for lands and waters across the country. In Alaska, we protected the Tongass 

National Forest and the salmon of Bristol Bay and took significant steps 

to protect the fragile coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 

and special areas in the Western Arctic. We restored the protections and 

status that the previous administration rolled back in the Bears Ears National 

Monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and the North 

East Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. I had the honor 

of visiting Camp Hale Continental Divide in Colorado last year and adding 


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67054 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 187 / Thursday, September 28, 2023 / Presidential Documents 

it to the list of national monuments, for the first time in our history. 

I established the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada, considered 

one of the most sacred places on Earth by several Tribal Nations. Most 

recently, I protected almost one million acres of public land around the 

Grand Canyon National Park as the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National 

Monument. I declared the entire United States Arctic Ocean off-limits to 

new oil and gas development, and my budget for next year requests new 

funding to ensure that public lands are accessible to every American. 

In celebration of our public lands, several Federal agencies have announced 

that all of our country’s national parks, forests, refuges, and grasslands 

will have a ‘‘Fee-Free Day’’ on September 23rd so everyone can access 

some of our Nation’s most iconic places and all their wonder, free of charge. 

There are also several fee-free days throughout the year, and the last for 

2023 will occur on Veterans Day, November 11th. Whether it is visiting 

the rolling hills of the Appalachians, the majestic Grand Canyon, or the 

towering peaks of Mt. Rainier in Washington State, I encourage all Americans 

to take some time to explore the beauty our country has to offer. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., 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 23, 2023, 

as National Public Lands Day. I invite all Americans to join me in a day 

of service for our public lands. I also encourage volunteers from across 

the Nation to celebrate and care for our lands and waters by reforesting 

the land, maintaining trails, building bridges, nurturing native ecosystems, 

removing invasive species, and doing other conservation work to serve the 

lands and waters that support and sustain us. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second 

day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, 

and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 

and forty-eighth. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21651 

Filed 9–27–23; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 3395–F3–P 


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