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If you suddenly find yourself rooting for the US’s national parks, why not support the National Park Service with a little shopping?
H/t Jennings Brown for sharing this brilliant “free idea” on Twitter: Turns out US parks have great merch, so start with the individual conservancy organizations, like the Sequoia Parks Conservancy (sweet hats) and the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park (particularly good sweatshirts). The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has several awesome, vintage-looking graphics that look like they’re out of 1950s print ads, which you can snag on a T-shirt.
There’s also Parks Project, an independent company that makes clothing and accessories inspired by the parks. The company partners with different conservancies for each item; for example, buy this cool Joshua Tree shirt, and a portion of the proceeds go to the Joshua Tree National Park Association.
Best of all may be the Arrowhead Store, an online shop run by the non-profit organization Eastern National, officially “at the National Park Service’s request.” Arrowhead products feature the official National Park Service logo, and they’re cooler than they need to be — the dark green and gray beanies are legit.
Just one catch: Only employees, alumni, volunteers for the National Park Service, and a few other related organizations can shop from Arrowhead. The site makes you log in with an @nps.gov email address, or otherwise check a box that you’re a volunteer or employee.
So head to a state park over the next long weekend and befriend a ranger who knows a thing or two about climate change.