There are so many easy ways you could celebrate the wild, rugged, wonderful lands and waters of the NLCS and help ensure the System exists for years to come.

Write to the BLM: Let Kathleen Clarke, Director of the BLM, know you care about the NLCS and want its environmental and historical resources protected from illegal ORV use, vandalism, oil and gas development, and overgrazing. If you’re a membership organization, you could encourage your members to send a similar letter with a mention in your newsletter or with an alert. Click here for sample letters.

Submit op-eds or letters to the editor: The 5th Anniversary of the System is a great hook for a letter to the editor and op-eds in local papers.  You could focus on a local BLM monument, conservation area, wilderness area, river, or trail, and mention that it’s part of the NLCS. Click here for a sample Letter to the Editor. If you need assistance in gathering background or putting together an op-ed, feel free to email Drew McConville at The Wilderness Society or give him a call at 202-429-7441.

Put a story in your newsletter: If we are going to protect the National Landscape Conservation System, people need to know about it. It’s easy to start educating your membership - click here for a sample newsletter story.

Talk to local media: Pitch a story on the NLCS to local reporters, radio, and TV programs. This is a great chance to highlight an issue near and dear to your heart — wildlife health, open space, cultural resources — using the 5th Anniversary of the NLCS as a hook. Click here for messaging guidelines on how to talk to reporters (and others) about the 5th Anniversary and the NLCS.

Sponsor an event: Mention the NLCS’ 5th Anniversary as part of an event you’re already planning–or hold a special event to celebrate the 5th. 

• Host a Birthday Party for the NLCS. The 5th anniversary is a great reason to invite people to a cookout, potluck, or slideshow in your community and talk about the history of an area in the System, like a wilderness area or a river, and why it deserves protection. 
• Give an award to honor a top activist, a local elected official, a volunteer who has helped to protect part of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System. 
• Organize a hike, backpacking trip, kayaking adventure, or bird watching day to get out and enjoy the NLCS.

You probably have even better ideas that would interest your members, or dovetail with your own organizational goals, while celebrating and helping to protect the NLCS at the same time.

If you do hold an event, we’d be happy to publicize it on our online calendar. And be sure to email pictures of your event to Emily Kaplan at USPIRG, 202-546-9707, so we can share them with the coalition.