The Battle of Central Arkansas: 15,000 Pounds of Trash on National Public Lands Day

Volunteers with the trash they removed from Hot Springs National Park on National Public Lands Day 2023. NPS / N. Allen.

For the 30th annual National Public Lands Day on September 23, 2023, the Park Service's Volunteers-in-Parks office highlighted an event at Hot Springs National Park: the Battle of Central Arkansas.

National Public Lands Day

Coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), National Public Lands Day is the country's largest single-day volunteer event for public lands, held every year on the fourth Saturday in September. It brings together hundreds of thousands of volunteers to restore public lands — and it's a fee-free day, with entrance fees waived at national parks and other public lands.

The battle

At Hot Springs, 34 volunteers in three teams — friends, family, coworkers and even strangers — competed to collect the most trash in three hours, with protective gear and equipment supplied by the park. Together they gathered more than 2,800 pounds.

Park staff, volunteers and a Community Volunteer Ambassador haul debris out of Hot Springs National Park. NPS / K. Barat.

For the competition's second year, the park added a twist: two outside sites joined — Lake Ouachita State Park, part of the Arkansas State Parks system, and the U.S. Forest Service's Ouachita National Forest.

The Trash Pandas, Hot Springs' winning team, with their 1,300 pounds of trash. NPS / K. Barat.

The Trash Pandas were off-duty Park Service employees, their spouses and friends. One member, Scott Frost, said he volunteers because he has always believed in giving back — he did it throughout a 33-year military career, from Habitat for Humanity to food drives, at home and abroad. His favorite part of the day was the camaraderie of working with like-minded people toward the same goal.

Every volunteer received a fee-free coupon for any federal public land that charges entry, as thanks. And the event depended on maintenance crews at all three sites, who hauled away and properly disposed of all 15,000 pounds of litter.

Volunteering and the Community Volunteer Ambassadors

Anyone interested can find volunteer opportunities at national park sites through the Park Service's Volunteer with Us page.

The Community Volunteer Ambassador program is a fifty-week professional internship run by the Park Service's Volunteers-in-Parks program with the Stewards Individual Placement Program of Conservation Legacy. Members are young people (ages 18–30, or up to 35 for veterans) from diverse backgrounds aiming for careers in service and conservation; in 2022, about 90 were to be placed in parks nationwide to connect communities with parks through engagement and volunteering.

Sources

Based on "National Public Lands Day: The Battle of Central Arkansas," Volunteers-in-Parks, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain, with a volunteer's remarks rewritten in hubnx's own words.