Understanding Public Land
One of the great resources we have in getting outdoors in the USA is public land. Whether the land is owned and managed at the federal, state, or local level, it is generally available for public use. While there may be fees associated accessing the land and/or facilities, the fees are generally quite reasonable and often have the option of an annual pass. The annual passes are normally a great deal if you plan on using the public land associated with the pass more than once.
Here is an outline on how public land is managed:
- Federal Land
- Department of the Interior
- Department of Agriculture
- State Parks
- Each state controls their own system of parks – this will be covered in a future post
- Local Parks
- Local counties/cities/etc. often have public parks
When I first began diving into the idea of using federal land, I found the amount of information a bit overwhelming. So, here are a few links that may help narrow down the search:
- Recreation.gov – from the recreation.gov About page:
- Recreation.gov is your gateway to discover America’s Outdoors and more!
- … one-stop shop for trip planning, information sharing and reservations brought to you by 12 federal Participating Partners. Seven of these partner agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Archives, offer advance reservations at 2,500 federal areas for over 60,000 facilities and activities.
- U.S Forest Service – Recreation page – Great place to start with links to other helpful resources
- U.S. Forest Service – Locator Map
- National Park Service – Locator Map
- National Park Service “Plan Your Visit”. Each park website page has a “Plan Your Visit” link on the left column. This link is a must if you plan on spending any time in the area, particularly helpful in planning camping, lodging and other activities. Here is an example from the Grand Canyon NP site:
Leave a Reply