How To Support Public Park Spaces (If You Can’t Make It To Rallies)

With everything that Donald Trump has been up to, it can be hard to keep track of the latest injustices against the environment. Of late, however, Trump has been targeting protected national park land.

While attending rallies and calling your local representatives are the ideal for civic participation, sometimes you just don’t have time. Below, we’ve put together non-profits you can donate to in support of public land, as well as a few easy ways to make your day-to-day purchases more in line with your personal ethos.

Where To Donate

For those looking to support national parks specifically, The National Park Foundation accepts donations in the form of time, expertise, and funds. Most national lands have their own associated “friends” group you can connect with and donate to specifically; for example, Yosemite has its own organization of support. Another option is The Wilderness Society, whose mission similarly orients itself around “non-profit land conservation” for “natural areas and federal public lands in the United States.”

If you’re enthusiastic about your outdoor activities, check out Outdoor Alliance (which “unites the voices of paddlers, mountain bikers, hikers, climbers, and backcountry skiers to conserve America’s public lands”) and The Mountaineers (who for the past hundred years have similarly advocated for “teaching skills, sharing adventures, creating volunteers, and conserving land”).

Should you want to support public lands more generally– whether in the form of a massive protected forest or your local park– look to organizations like Public Lands Alliance (which brokers “public-nonprofit partnerships for the benefit of public lands and their users”) or The Trust for Public Land (whose work focuses on protecting and creating “close-to-home parks”).

Make It Local

If you like your activism like you like your chicken (local), look for organizations in your area. The easiest places to start are any local community gardens, farmers markets, or city parks. (For example if you’re in NYC, think about reaching out to organizations like the Central Park Conservancy.)

Shop Smart

In this current climate, a lot of for-profit companies are doubling down on their commitment to the environment. Levi’s recently rolled out a water-conservation line of jeans, while Patagonia frequently sets up grants and donates proceeds to environmental projects. Another easy change to make is to take advantage of Amazon Smile, a program set up by Amazon that donates 0.5% of eligible purchases to the non-profit of your choice (for example, I currently have mine set to the Nature Conservancy).