MARK YOUR CALENDAR: “I LOVE MY PARK DAY” IS MAY 7TH

Across our state, New York’s 180 parks provide places to take in the great outdoors with family and friends.  On May 7th, parks in every corner of New York State will take part in the 5th annual “I Love My Park Day,” an event that aims to improve and enhance our parks, historic sites and public lands. 

This year, several local State Parks will host events on I Love My Park Day, where volunteers will help to clean up and beautify these great natural resources.  Events in our region will take place at the following locations:

Wellesley Island State Park

Cedar Point State Park

Selkirk Shores State Park

Fort Ontario State Historic Site

Higley Flow State Park

At these sites and others across the state, people will be pitching in, and doing things like planting trees and flowers, tidying up park lands and more. Volunteers are already signing up to take part in I Love My Park Day, and you can join them by visiting the Parks & Trails New York website at www.ptny.org. 

Our state parks are tremendous resources that give people an opportunity to explore all of New York’s beauty—and they’re becoming more and more popular each and every year.  In fact, just recently it was announced that New York State parks, historic sites and campgrounds hosted 65.3 million visitors in 2015, which is a five percent increase from the year before. 

New York State recognizes how our state parks enhance the quality of life of residents.  That’s why this year, we again made it a priority to invest in parks through the new state budget.  Included in the 2016-17 spending plan is more than $460 million in funding that will help to preserve our environment and ensure our natural resources remain for future generations to enjoy.

Last year, more than 6,500 volunteers took park in cleanup projects across the state for I Love My Park Day.  If you’re free on May 7th, I encourage you to get involved in this annual effort to spruce up our state lands.