Love Our New York Lands Stewardship Days start this year with Canal Clean Sweep from April 18 through 20, followed by I Love My Park Day on May 3, Adirondack and Catskill Park Day on Sept. 6, and Wildlife Day on Oct. 4.

Service projects hosted on these days count on volunteers to do projects like planting trees or restoring habitats.

To help achieve Governor Kathy Hochul’s initiative to plant 25 million trees by 2033, up to 2,500 tree seedlings from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery will be made available to plant at I Love My Park Day this year.

The nursery, the oldest state tree nursery in the nation, was founded in 1902 for reforestation. Reckless logging had left bare slopes, causing flooding and water contamination, according to the DEC.

Now, in addition to traditional forest seedling production and wildlife shrubs, the nursery grows trees and shrubs for remediation, wetland restoration, and riparian protection, with a focus on growing native species from local seed sources.

The nursery is named for William F. Fox, who was 22 when he fought in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, at Antietam in 1862, commanding a company of New York volunteers. After the war, he was a lumberman who, according to a profile by Kenneth H. Hayward, dedicated the last 25 years of his life to forest protection and management. 

He was a prolific writer about both the Civil War and trees. Fox is credited with making New York the first state to put fire protection under public authority. He also selected land, 30,000 acres in Franklin County, upon which Cornell University would found the first College of Forestry in the United States.

The public can track and record tree plantings and find other community-based tree planting events through the DEC Tree Tracker Dashboard.

Registration is currently open for the 20th annual Canal Clean Sweep, which is the Erie Canal’s bicentennial. Volunteers may choose from nearly 100 events across the New York State Canal System and Canalway Trail. Visit www.ptny.org/canalsweep for more information and to sign up for an event.

Registration is also open for the 14th annual I Love My Park Day on May 3, the largest single-day statewide volunteer park event.

Laure-Jeanne Davignon is organizing efforts at John Boyd Thacher State Park in the Helderbergs. Gloves and garden tools will be supplied to volunteers of any age who will do trail work, garden rehab, mulching, and road cleanup from 9 a.m. to noon on May 3. Visit https://www.ptny.org/ilovemypark to sign up and participate. 

In the fall, Adirondack and Catskill Park Day and Wildlife Day will highlight the state’s uniquely protected Forest Preserve lands in the Catskills and Adirondacks and wildlife conservation efforts and wildlife-associated recreation. More information will be available at https://www.ptny.org/lovenylands.

The Love Our New York Lands campaign, launched in 2020 by the DEC and State Parks, “encourages all users of state-owned lands to recognize that these lands are shared by all of us, our families, and our neighbors, and we all need to take care of them,” according to a release from the governor’s office.

The campaign includes guidance on Leave No Trace principles so that visitors can do their part to help ensure these special places are protected for future generations. “Love Our New York Lands encourages visitors to be respectful of other visitors in these shared spaces,” the release goes on. “Visitors are asked to share trails, treat people with kindness, and leave things as they found them for others to enjoy. Visitors are encouraged to think of themselves as responsible for helping protect these irreplaceable destinations for future generations.”

More information is available on the DEC’s website.