Join The Walden Woods Project and RESTORE: The North Woods for a presentation from Michael Kellett about the campaign for new national parks, why it is important, and how we can build grassroots support to make this vision a reality.

Henry David Thoreau had the far-sighted vision to declare, “Each town should have a park.” Yet, the people in most American towns still do not have ready access to a large public park. Potential future parks are being lost to resource exploitation and development. The New National Parks campaign has proposed 100 new national parks — at least one in each state. As the nation approaches its 250th celebration in 2026, this bold vision would celebrate our natural heritage and bring the benefits of nature and the beloved tradition of national parks closer to millions of people. This would relieve pressure on existing parks, help fight climate change, and avoid biodiversity loss. We need to create more parks, before it is too late.

Michael Kellett is executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a New England-based nonprofit organization he co-founded in 1992. He has 40 years of experience in the land conservation movement, including developing the proposal for a 3.2 million-acre Maine Woods National Park, which led to President Obama’s 2016 designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. He has visited more than 250 national park areas across the country.