Neither threatening winter weather nor a dutiful park ranger could keep about a dozen LPNC members from gathering on Saturday, January 12 to volunteer trash cleaning efforts at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro.

Like other federal properties, this site of an important 1781 Revolutionary War battle is in the crosshairs of a different conflict: the ongoing government shutdown. LPNC Chair Susan Hogarth explained to local reporters that the group's cleanup work showed the people can maintain public resources without Washington's assistance.

"A big thing for Libertarians is that people will take care of the things that are important to them," Hogarth told Spectrum News. "In fact, we don't think the federal government should be owning park lands or any lands. So as part of that, we'd like to show that it's possible for it to be taken care of without the government doing that job."

The public's stewardship of the 220-acre park was obvious thanks to the lack of litter on the ground, even more than three weeks after the shutdown suspended normal maintenance there. The LPNC volunteers emptied trash receptacles instead, collecting several large bags of waste.

As the group begin its work, a park ranger informed them that an organized volunteer event wasn't permitted at the shuttered facility -- even though joggers and dog walkers were walking in and out of the park unimpeded. After a brief stalemate and the polite removal of the LPNC's signs, the group went ahead.

The North Carolina effort followed a number of similar initiatives by local Libertarians across the country.

See news coverage of the LPNC's Greensboro cleanup on Fox 8, on Spectrum News and in the Greensboro News & Record.