Join us for National Public Lands Day on the Santa Fe National Forest

Sept. 27 is a fee free day on national forests and grasslands
​Release Date: September 16th, 2025

Contact Information: Claudia Brookshire 505-438-5320   [email protected]

On September 27, the Santa Fe National Forest is participating in a variety of events in honor of National Public Lands Day – the nation's largest single-day volunteer event for public lands.  
​
Join us for the following events: 

National Public Lands Day at Bandelier National Monument

• Date/time: Saturday, September 27, 2025, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
• Location: Bandelier National Monument Visitor Center
• Event Activities: Join us to celebrate our public lands. This is an all-day event that will include games, scheduled programs, and much more. Smokey the Bear will be making an appearance and the USDA Forest Service will have a table set up near the Visitor Center. 

Pecos to Pecos Road and River Cleanup 

• Date/time: Saturday September 27, 2025
• Location: Pecos Canyon in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District
• Directions: For more information, please email [email protected] or call 505-757-3600
• Event Activities: This marks the third year of this basin-wide effort, bringing together communities across New Mexico and Texas to clean up roadsides and waterways along a 300-mile stretch of the Pecos River
• What to bring: Volunteers are invited to join at their nearest location to pick up safety vests, gloves, and trash bags. Each volunteer group will be assigned a designated area to help clean along the river or adjacent roadways

To learn about other events, visit the National Public Lands Day event locator. There are a variety of opportunities for volunteers to pitch in on improvement projects in their communities. 

National Fee-Free Day

National Public Lands Day is also designated as a Fee-Free Day. On these special fee-free days, standard amenity fees are waived for day use sites — like picnic areas, developed trailheads, and destination visitor centers. Some exceptions apply.  
About 95% of national forest land can be enjoyed fee-free, year-round. Where fees are assessed, at least 80% of these funds are reinvested at the collection site, to provide needed maintenance and services or pay for future improvements.  

For more information about interagency passes, visit the Forest Service’s Passes and Permits page. The remaining fee-free observance for 2025 is Veterans Day on Nov. 11. 
Before you go to the Santa Fe National Forest, visit the forest website for information on recreation opportunities and any public safety alerts. If you want to make reservations for these and other federal lands, visit Recreation.gov.

 About the Forest Service: The USDA Forest Service has for more than 100 years brought people and communities together to answer the call of conservation. Grounded in world-class science and technology– and rooted in communities–the Forest Service connects people to nature and to each other. The Forest Service cares for shared natural resources in ways that promote lasting economic, ecological, and social vitality. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, maintains the largest wildland fire and forestry research organizations in the world. The Forest Service also has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 900 million forested acres within the U.S., of which over 130 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.