Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 191 / Wednesday, October 2, 2024 / Presidential Documents 80359 

Proclamation 10820 of September 27, 2024 

National Public Lands Day, 2024 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

America’s natural wonders are our Nation’s heart and soul. Our public 

lands protect many of these treasures and ensure that generations can enjoy 

their splendor—from our national parks and monuments to our forests and 

wildlife refuges. On National Public Lands Day, we honor these irreplaceable 

lands and waters and recommit to working together to preserve them. 

Whether it is the soaring cliffs of Yosemite National Park, the striking 

geysers of Yellowstone National Park, or the lush hills of the Appalachians 

in the Monongahela National Forest—our Nation’s public lands inspire and 

unite us through the ages. They hold pieces of our country’s history, etched 

into our lands and waters. Some public lands are considered sacred by 

Tribal Nations, which have stewarded them since time immemorial. And 

these lands and waters also carry so much promise: helping protect us 

against climate change, providing the clean air we breathe and clean water 

we drink, and sustaining the livelihoods of ranchers, outfitters, guides, and 

rural and Indigenous communities. 

Since the beginning of my Administration, I have taken historic steps to 

conserve our natural treasures for future generations. That began when I 

signed an Executive Order that established the most ambitious conservation 

goal in the history of our country—committing to conserve at least 30 

percent of our Nation’s lands and waters by 2030. To that end, my ‘‘America 

the Beautiful’’ initiative is supporting voluntary, locally led conservation 

and restoration efforts across the country. I also signed an Executive Order 

to safeguard and steward our Nation’s forests and enlist nature to help 

address the climate crisis, including through the development of the first 

National Nature Assessment. 

Since I came into office, my Administration has conserved more than 42 

million acres of our Nation’s lands and waters. I established and expanded 

eight national monuments—including the stunning Avi Kwa Ame National 

Monument in Nevada, thought to be one of the most sacred places on 

Earth by some Tribal Nations. I restored protections for lands and waters 

across the country that had been rolled back by the previous administration— 

including the desert buttes of the Bears Ears National Monument and the 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the stunning Tongass National 

Forest, and the underwater canyons of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts 

Marine National Monument. 

To protect our waters, I took executive action to direct consideration of 

more than 700,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii 

as a new National Marine Sanctuary—which could make this one of the 

largest protected marine areas on the planet. And I protected the United 

States Arctic Ocean from new oil and gas leasing. My Administration is 

also advancing the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, 

which stretches along 116 miles of California coastline. 

My Administration has also made historic investments to preserve our Nation’s ecosystems and safeguard our communities against the impact of 

climate change. Our Inflation Reduction Act made the largest investment 

in history to confront the climate crisis, and together with our Bipartisan 


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80360 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 191 / Wednesday, October 2, 2024 / Presidential Documents 

Infrastructure Law, these investments will help support conservation and 

restoration, including $50 billion dedicated to strengthening community and 

ecosystem resilience to climate change. We have also worked to promote 

equitable access to outdoor recreation opportunities on public lands and 

waters through the ‘‘America the Beautiful’’ initiative, launching the Federal 

Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation to address common challenges 

and opportunities in expanding outdoor recreation activities and access to 

the great outdoors. 

I also launched the American Climate Corps to mobilize a new, diverse 

generation of Americans—putting them to work conserving and restoring 

our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice. And, upon completing this program, we are working to 

ensure they have a pathway to getting high-quality, good-paying clean energy 

and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors. 

Our Nation’s public lands have always been and will always be central 

to our country’s heritage and essential to our identity. On National Public 

Lands Day, I encourage every American to enjoy the wonder of our public 

lands. All of our country’s national parks, forests, refuges, and grasslands 

will have a ‘‘Fee-Free Day’’ on September 28—anyone can visit them free 

of charge. There are several more fee-free days throughout the year, the 

last of which will occur on Veterans Day, November 11. Whether you 

go for the incredible vistas, the lush forests, or the rolling grasslands, our 

public lands will never fail to inspire awe and connect us to something 

bigger than ourselves. 

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 28, 2024, 

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, nurturing 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-seventh 

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

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

and forty-ninth. 

[FR Doc. 2024–22946 

Filed 10–1–24; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 3395–F4–P 


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