{"id":33697,"date":"2021-06-17T08:35:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T12:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=33697"},"modified":"2021-06-16T22:17:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T02:17:37","slug":"create-your-own-state-park-returns-for-2021-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/17\/create-your-own-state-park-returns-for-2021-season\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Create Your Own State Park&#8217; Returns for 2021 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Participants Can Support Nature and Win Park Prizes<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 362px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/50292156171_f9a5c1f724.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of hand drawn map of backyard state park\" width=\"352\" height=\"264\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Park Service<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is challenging Marylanders everywhere to join a new tradition &#8212; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/Create-Your-Own-State-Park.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Create Your Own State Park<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at home!\u00a0 Begun during the pandemic in 2020, this innovative series of activities &#8212; with prizes available for participants &#8212; teaches Marylanders how to provide their own place to enjoy the outdoors and learn about nature, create wildlife habitat, attract more birds and butterflies, and have plenty of fun.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Create Your Own State Park Challenge encourages people to enjoy their own outdoor spaces and to plant native trees and plants, just as the Maryland Park Service conserves and protects nature. After completing 10 or more activities and providing photo documentation, participants will be entered into the Create Your Own State Park prize drawing. Participants are encouraged to make a park entrance sign, draw a park map, plant a tree or native wildflower garden, or create a camping or picnic area or trails right in their own backyard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The program, designed for all ages, drew great enthusiasm with people eager to participate and learn more about how to make their home more park-like and participate in this program. New activities are being added for the 2021 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMaryland State Parks offer outdoor recreation experiences in Maryland\u2019s most scenic and important natural places,\u201d\u00a0 Maryland Park Service Superintendent Nita Settina said. \u201cBut nature isn\u2019t only found in parks, it\u2019s all around us. By participating in the Create Your Own State Park challenge, you can support wildlife and enjoy the awe and wonder of nature at home, every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those who accept the challenge will receive a free day pass to access any State Park along with a certificate of completion and a packet of native plant seeds to use in your new home park. All valid entries will also be entered in a drawing to win a variety of prizes, ranging from complimentary passes for camping, cabin stays, and a Maryland Park Service Annual Park and Trail Passport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCreate Your Own State Park\u201d challenge entries are due by November 30, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Participants Can Support Nature and Win Park Prizes The Maryland Park Service is challenging Marylanders everywhere to join a new tradition &#8212; Create Your Own State Park at home!\u00a0 Begun during the pandemic in 2020, this innovative series of activities &#8212; with prizes available for participants &#8212; teaches Marylanders how to provide their own place<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/17\/create-your-own-state-park-returns-for-2021-season\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,12],"tags":[4312,5228,5205,3046,3006],"class_list":["post-33697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-parks","tag-conservation","tag-create-your-own-state-park","tag-maryland-park-service","tag-maryland-state-park-and-trail-passport","tag-nita-settina"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33700,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33697\/revisions\/33700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}