The National Park Service, the U.S. Forest service and the Bureau of Land Management will waive recreation-related fees for veterans and military personnel, along with their families, on Veterans Day, which is Sunday.

“This is a small but special way of saying thanks to all who have served or are currently serving to defend our country and safeguard our liberties,” BLM Director Jim Caswell, a Vietnam veteran, said in a statement.

The waiver of entrance and/or standard amenity fees on Veterans Day applies annually, starting last year, to all agencies of the departments of Interior and Agriculture. Those include public recreation lands under the management of the BLM, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service.

The Veterans Day fee waiver takes place Nov. 11, even if the federal observance of the holiday occurs on a different day. This year, the federal observance of Veterans Day falls on Monday, Nov. 12.

Recreation fee-setting and waiver authority for the BLM and other federal agencies is based on the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, passed by Congress as part of a fiscal year 2005 appropriations bill that was signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 8, 2004.