Visitors to public lands will have a chance to pitch in and help out their favorite public haunts Saturday during National Public Lands Day.

All National Park Service sites, including Bandelier National Monument, will offer free admission.

“This is a great opportunity for everyone to enjoy the great fall weather and their tax dollars at work,” said Bandelier Superintendent Darlene M. Koontz. “The leaves are starting to change and the summer heat is finally gone. Everyone should come out to enjoy all of our public lands, including the national parks.”

The Bandelier visitors center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

A third of the land in the United States is public open space, with more than 600 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, wetlands and cultural sites.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is sponsoring several events in New Mexico to fix trails and cleanup public lands. Volunteers are needed at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument to help build a new trail on the Veterans Overlook Loop. For information, call Danny Randall at 761-8953.

Rio Bonito Acquired Lands near Lincoln, N.M. needs volunteers to help with planting apple trees. For information, call Bill Murry at 627-0220.

Volunteers who work at any public lands site will receive a pass good for free entry any day during the next year at public land sites managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

To see a full list of statewide events visit www.publiclandsday.org.

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