Hampton is program director of the National Public Lands Day, which takes place Saturday.
What are some of your plans for improving the D.C. area?
I think this is the 10th year that we’ve been working with Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and it’s a really unique area because they have these lily ponds and the park service goes out with a sickle and they cut down all the lotus flowers in getting them ready for the fall and the winter. And because they’re ponds, there’s no place for the organic matter to travel and go through the life cycle, volunteers are needed to go in the water and pull out the lilies from the pond.
What is one site that you have seen really improve from the work of the day?
A few years ago we were at Prince William Forest National Park down I-95 a little bit. We had about 400 volunteers come out on one day. And they’ve got cabins throughout the area that were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps … and one of the projects that we did was having all the volunteers come in and stain all the floors and do a lot of touchup work on the cabins. … That was probably one of the best transformative changes that I’ve seen during my tenure.
What is one of your favorite national public sites?
My favorite national park is probably Glacier National Park. For me, it’s one of the most scenic and unusual places. It feels like you’re on a totally different planet.
What do you want this year’s event to accomplish?
What I really like about National Public Lands Day is getting people connected to their local park or other public land in their community that 364 other days of the year they drive right past the sign that says that that’s down the street. Today they have a reason to go into this park and fall in love with it. – Anna Waugh
