Terms of Participation

Effective September 2026.

1. Who we are

The MTJP Corps (“the Corps”) is a community run by More Than Just Parks, LLC (“MTJP,” “we,” “us”), the publisher of morethanjustparks.com and of PLAN, the Public Lands Action Network. These terms apply to everyone who joins the Corps or uses its pages.

2. What the Corps is, and what it is not

The Corps is a community of independent volunteers who choose, on their own, to visit public lands and record what they see. MTJP does not employ, direct, dispatch, supervise, or send anyone anywhere. The “needs” shown on our pages are information about where evidence would help a public record. They are not instructions, assignments, or requests that you go. Whether you go, where, when, with whom, and whether it is safe are decisions you make alone.

MTJP is a publisher. It is not a law firm, does not give legal advice, and does not file comments, objections, or lawsuits on your behalf. Nothing on these pages creates an attorney-client relationship with anyone.

3. You must be 18

You must be at least 18 years old to join the Corps. By joining you confirm that you are.

4. Assumption of risk

Travel on public lands can injure or kill. Terrain, weather, water, wildlife, fire, roads, other people, remoteness, and your own condition all carry risk, and those risks cannot be eliminated. You understand and accept them. You are responsible for your own preparation, fitness, equipment, navigation, permits, fees, transportation, and conduct, and for knowing and following the rules of the land you are on.

5. Release and waiver

To the fullest extent the law allows, you release More Than Just Parks, its owners, staff, contractors, partners, and volunteers from any claim, demand, or liability for injury, illness, death, loss, or damage to you or your property arising from your participation in the Corps, including your travel to, on, or from public lands and anything you do there, whether or not related to a mission or request shown on our pages. You agree not to sue MTJP over any of it. If any part of this release is found unenforceable, the rest stands.

6. The Field Rules

You agree to follow the Field Rules and every applicable law, regulation, closure, and permit condition:

1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

We may remove from the Corps anyone who breaks them.

7. Accuracy

You will submit only what you personally saw, where and when the record says you saw it, and you will not alter a photograph you submit. Submitting something you know to be false is grounds for removal and may carry legal consequences of its own, because submissions can become part of a public record.

8. What happens to what you submit

You keep ownership of everything you submit. You grant MTJP a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, validate, organize, and package your submissions; to share them with the organizations working on the specific decision they concern, when you have chosen to allow that; to use them in MTJP’s journalism, when you have chosen to allow that; and to keep them as part of the record of a decision. Observations you mark as sensitive, and observations of the kinds we always treat as sensitive (cultural sites, nests, dens, rare plants), are sealed: never published, and shared only under the confidentiality the law provides.

Your own public comment is yours. When you use what you found in a comment to an agency, you are publishing it, under your name, on the agency’s site. We do not do that for you.

9. Privacy

We store the fields you give us: your name, email, ZIP code (as the ZIP and its center point, never a street address), how far you will travel, the interests you tick, the public land units you say you go to, and, if you add them, your expertise, seasons, gear, and phone. Consent is recorded as the date and time you gave it. We never publish your identity. The map shows a dot for a region, never a person. Organizations working a decision may see counts and evidence, and see you as a Corps number, never a name or contact, unless you have consented to contact and accepted a specific introduction. We do not sell or rent the member list. Write to ask@morethanjustparks.com from the address you joined with and we will delete your file; a packet already delivered to an organization is a delivered document, and our records will say that it went.

10. No promises

We provide the Corps pages as they are. We don’t promise that a mission or request is accurate, current, safe, or reachable, that an agency will respond to anything, or that any decision will change. The pages may be wrong, late, or down.

11. Changes

We may change these terms. The date at the top changes when we do. Continuing to participate after a change means you accept it.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and any dispute will be heard in the state or federal courts located in Georgia.

13. Contact

ask@morethanjustparks.com.