The first thing you might notice about this year’s National Public Lands Day (NPLD) logo is the crash-landing puffin front and center.
Like the bald eagle also in the frame, the whimsical sea bird is a conservation success story, symbolizing the difference that one person can make for endangered species. In 1973, Dr. Stephen Kress, an environmental educator, launched Project Puffin, which has helped revive the shorebird’s population on Eastern Egg Rock off the coast of Maine.
“I hope people are inspired to ask questions about the art,” said Lindsay “Bones” Cordero, the logo’s illustrator. “An eagle makes sense, but a puffin is unexpected!”
From the Air Force to Art World
Cordero has taken a nontraditional path to becoming a full-time artist and author. She grew up in a military family and chose to serve her country after graduating from the US Air Force Academy. But she has also always had a passion for art, quietly running a commission-based fine arts business alongside her Air Force career.
Momentum for her art career began building after a partnership with an athletic wear company and being featured in a documentary spotlighting servicemembers with extraordinary talents outside of the line of duty.
The success of her first picture book, released in 2022, made the pace of continuing dual careers unsustainable. Advice from an entrepreneurially minded commander made her realize she had reached the “apex” of one phase of growth and it was time for something new. While it was a difficult decision, she felt the time was right to make the leap into becoming a full-time artist in 2023.
“I knew my highest form of service would be through my art. I knew it in my soul,” said Cordero. “My first career phase was about sacrifice—what are you willing to die for? But then I started to think about, what am I willing to live for? What am I willing to bring to life, and how can I do that?”
“We Protect What We Care About”
Conservation is one of the main themes that Cordero often explores in her art. While she has developed an attachment to many places around the world thanks to moving often as an Air Force and Navy brat and through her own military career, marine sanctuaries remain especially close to her heart.
Cordero has been a certified scuba diver since she was 12 years old. Learning how to sketch underwater married her love of art and love of diving, allowing her to document the changes she witnesses firsthand in these critical underwater habitats. Sadly, some reefs that were vibrant and healthy when she first visited them years ago are now struggling, bleached, or worse: “like swimming past a warzone.”
“I have gone scuba diving along the Florida Keys, in the Maldives, in the Caribbean, in Mexico and in Guam … I have been to the Red Sea. And in each place I have seen the contrast between healthy and unhealthy reefs,” said Cordero. “But most people never see this, and that is what drives me relentlessly to create and release art and eventually picture books about the underwater environment.”
She hopes to be the bridge that helps raise awareness and inspire curiosity about the underwater ecosystem.
“We protect what we care about—and that is at the heart of what I am trying to do,” said Cordero. “How can people care about something they know nothing about?”
We protect what we care about—and that is at the heart of what I am trying to do,” said Cordero. “How can people care about something they know nothing about?
Lindsay Cordero
Using Art to Capture the Feeling of Home
Cordero works from her home studio in the greater Washington, DC area. She considers herself to be a traditional artist, working with acrylic, gouache, watercolors, and ink in her home studio. When sketching underwater, she draws on dive slates with woodless graphite pencils.
She was very deliberate when designing this year’s NPLD logo. It is actually a collage of paintings that together become one cohesive artwork to capture the diverse landscapes of this nation, with a charismatic cast of characters that engage with the viewer. Her goal was to create something that everyone can connect with, no matter where you are from.
This year’s National Public Lands Day theme "Our Home Outdoors" is a reminder that public lands are not just physical spaces—they are where we come together, feel rooted, and develop a sense of place. For Cordero, the ocean feels like home, but for other people it might be the mountains, forest, or desert. That feeling of being a part of something and it being a part of you is “home.”
“In this piece, I am conveying that we are a part of nature, not apart from nature,” said Cordero. “NPLD is about connecting to the outdoors: get off your devices, build connections, and experience what exists around us. Place attachment, or a sense of belonging, is not practiced on a phone with an endless stream of reels, but out in the real world with other people.”
Something for Everyone
The logo is meant to be viewed from left to right, representing iconic landscapes and mountains moving from the western US to the east, and top to bottom, from the sky to the ocean. The sun and stars highlight how the day and nighttime environments differ. Look for Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, Colorado’s Mt. Ebert, Alaska’s Denali, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Can you spot the Hyperion redwood, the world’s tallest living tree?
The artwork includes animal species that each represent a conservation story from the past or present. In the bottom right corner, a Kemp’s ridley turtle peeks out behind some staghorn coral. This sea turtle is the world’s smallest, and its most critically endangered, while Staghorn coral has been decimated by disease, ocean warming, and acidification.
Cordero called the garibaldi fish in the bottom left of the image the “personality hire” of the artwork, as it is no longer threatened by the aquarium trade. However, the kelp forest habitat it and so many other species depend on is in decline, raising new questions about the fish’s future.
Finally, a critically endangered “snoring” dusky gopher frog seems to smile at the viewer from beneath a potted Puerto Rican royal palm tree. Cordero said the frog is actually a challenge.
“He is kind of silly-looking, kind of cute. But he’s looking at the viewer, like, ‘What are you going to do, help me make a comeback, or…?’”
For a closer look at each piece of this sprawling landscape, as well as more information about their real-life counterparts, check out our interactive StoryMap page.
Visualizing What’s Next
Interconnectedness is a theme that often comes up in Cordero’s work. Conservation and stewardship work is intergenerational. This concept is represented in her NPLD illustration by the American alligator—a species that has been around for 37 million years.
“The work I do now is with the hope that people generations from now will benefit. People I will never meet,” said Cordero.
Looking ahead, Cordero’s next picture book will be released in late Fall 2025 and includes nonfiction information about mycology and the North American Truffle Dog Championship. She welcomes future collaborations with the conservation community, and is particularly interested in partnering with an aquarium for an art exhibit one day.
Cordero will continue to release paintings and blog posts from her scuba dives, as well as free resources for educators, on her website: lindsaycordero.com. She also continues to serve her country through the Air Force Reserve. You can also follow her on Instagram at @artebybones.
You can learn more about National Public Lands Day, including how you can host or attend an event on public lands near you, by visiting NEEFusa.org/NPLD.
