The following are some of the key ideas and recommendations delivered at the Recreation Forum in Chicago, Illinois, on March 22, 2007. Please feel free to add comments on these suggestions and how they can best be implemented.
Welcoming families is key. They’re a hard audience to draw because they’re being pulled in so many directions. Find the hooks that will draw them in by presenting them with opportunities for brand new experiences. We also need to make more connections with partners. We must do a better job of telling our success stories through documentation. The Field Museum is a good model for doing this.
Peggy Stewart, Chicago Park District
We have to make land valuable to people again by reconnecting them.
Michael Howard, Director of Eden Place
We have to go to our communities with information about the Forest Service. We are competing with contemporary influences on young people to engage them outdoors. We must find stakeholders in our cause, especially in our underserved populations.
Daryl Pridgen, USFS, Graduated Experiences
The change in climate at school districts over the years has limited the number of field trips and has started to erode the mandatory curriculum concept. If classes are only allowed one field trip per year, teachers don’t necessarily want it to be a mandatory one. This has to be addressed. We also have problems with groups approaching us with recreation activities that are inappropriate for the site.
Steve Swanson, Grove National Historic Landmark
We’ve got to figure out how to juggle the paradox of our public lands being loved to death while thousands of children from underserved communities are being left out.
John Elliot, Forest Preserve District of Cook County
To help us create better courses, you all could give us more accurate maps of your lands.
Gale Teschendorf, U.S. Orienteering Federation, member of U.S. Olympic Committee
Teens can drive this engine because they don’t know what they can’t do, so figure out ways to challenge them. Make sure they sail on ships: stewardship and fellowship. Also, the governor has just set aside $1 million to promote urban agriculture. We must tap into these new funds.
Wayne Schimpff, Board member of the Prairie Club
It’s important to promote adult education classes that are separate from family events.
Cyndi Duda, Environmental Education Specialist, USFWS
Agencies looking for partnership opportunities should turn to the colleges and universities in their areas and ask them to incorporate service learning into their curriculum. As Louv has said, it’s up to the adults to get the kids outside. When the parents aren’t available to do it, we need to find and work with the adults who are taking care of the kids after school.
Sydney Sklar, Assistant Professor at the University of St. Francis
Our children are book smart, but application is where we have the void. We need to provide children with the opportunity to observe nature and form their own perspectives.
Peg McGann, retired teacher
People need to hear about sustainability and natural resources in multiple ways. We decided we needed some branding for the resources of the Great Lakes. We've even got buses in England that promote the Great Lakes. However, in the states there seems to be unnecessary competition and duplication. This needs to change. We need to partner with tourism organizations to provide packages and branding to those who visit the Great Lakes as well.
Judy Beck, Lake Michigan Manager, EPA
As administrators and park directors, we need to remember where our roots start: open space. We need to protect it. We also need to better inform people about safety issues in the parks. In reality, there are not many dangerous wild animals roaming Chicago’s parks.
Chuck Balling, Director of the Glenview Park District
We must figure out how to provide both structured and unstructured experiences. Our offerings need to provide a combination of both. We also need to let people know they don’t need to go far away from home to experience the outdoors.
Betsy Quail, The Field Museum- Reporting on the breakout session "Kids in the Outdoors"
How we can develop caring behaviors:
-The mentoring relationship is key, whether it is an adult-to-child mentorship or a youth-to-child mentorship. -Keep kids in the system by going across institutions into multiple programs. Share resources and expertises across the board to create and experience ladder. This way we are also not competing with each other for resources.
-Provide programs that instill caring ethics in both children and adults.
-Provide more service learning experiences like volunteering and stewardship activities to give kids the skills they will later need to become mentors themselves.
Lucy Hutcherson, Chicago Wilderness- Reporting on the breakout session "Kids in the Outdoors"
-Partner with health providers and insurance companies that have money and an interest in keeping people healthy; get them involved in promoting walking activities. The Medical Mile in Little Rock, Arkansas, was funded by the medical community; use this as a model.
-Link schools with outdoor spaces. In some of the Mighty Acorns programs kids walk to the sites.
-There are all kinds of barriers that keep people from the outdoors: social, economic, physical, geographic, etc. Ex: Working people have to do their exercise after work, but the preserves are closed at night.
-Community transportation planning needs to be improved. There’s not a concentration on walking in city planning.
-Clubs such as walking clubs and hiking clubs should be promoted and advertized better.
-Create incentives like the Green Gardening program. Help people make the connection between health and recreation. Food is always a great incentive.
-Partner with other organizations with a vested interest in keeping people alive longer, live life insurance firms.
-There’s a lack of diversity at the table when we talk about these things. We need to be better at reaching out.
John Elliot, Forest Preserve District of Cook County- Reporting on the breakout session "Live Healthy, Discover Nature"
-Think in terms of starting locally; how can we create linear corridors between people and natural areas.
-Use a model for planning, such as deciding limits for acceptable change. Everything is okay until we come across something that doesn’t fit our mission.
-Engage the private sector. Then there’s opportunities for economic development and tourism.
-There are a lot of different user groups. Understand their recreation needs and wants.
-Idea for a "Trails Summit"- bring all trail users together for an opportunity for education and awareness. Include the public and user groups in planning, especially kids.
-Be careful that we’re not making exclusions and cutting certain groups off from access.
-Look for potential partnerships, such as friends groups.
-Share, share, share. Care, care, care.
Diane Banta, National Park Service- Reporting on the breakout session "Multi-use and Common Ground"
What can we do to better involve people right here- good community organizing:
-Don’t ask how to get communities involved, but ask how we can be involved with communities. -Find and listen to local leaders and empower them.
-Meet people where they are, not where you are. Be flexible when approaching your potential audiences.
-Seek new allies. Go beyond the usual suspects. Find a single point of contact.
-Mentors are so important.
-Transportation is a huge issue. We need more walkable destinations. Concept of a "biodiversity bus" to conduct organized trips to public lands.
-Treat volunteers well. Respect them, appreciate them, and reward them.
Glenda Daniel, Openlands Project- Reporting on the breakout session "Engaging Communities and Urban Partnerships"
-Maps our assets as a community of organizers and prioritize our needs. What are our accomplishments and where are our gaps?
-It would be great if we could get a grant that would fund bus travel anywhere.
-Do something visible in the environment, like build a garden or organize a clean up to get the community’s attention.
-Identify benefits that people will through participation. Cater to the different needs of different groups.
-Everyone needs to get together to advocate for the reinstatement of recess!
-Build ladders of opportunity. Start local and then spread to the parks and preserves. This concept can also be applied to how we serve different groups. Start kids off with one type of program and have them work through the system of opportunities.
Rebecca Blazer, Friends of the Parks- Reporting on the breakout session "Engaging Communities and Urban Partnerships"
In the 1980s the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors (PCAO) not only emphasized the importance of volunteerism and corridors but also came up with a new strategy for funding. $1.5 billion dollars now comes out of the Highway Trust Fund to pay for transportation enhancements such as Rails to Trails, the Scenic Byways Program, and the Recreational Trails Program. We need these same visionary ideas to shape the future of recreation policy.
We’ve heard about the importance of easy-in, easy-out jobs. We had a park super intendant tell us he can’t easily hire kids just for the summer. We need to be able to do this so that people will look back fondly on their experience and be a friend of the parks forever.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Programs to Highlight from Chicago Recreation Forum
The following are some of the exemplary programs that were presented at the Recreation Forum in Chicago, Illinois, on March 22, 2007. Please feel free to comment on how these programs could be furthered or replicated.
In 2001 Lt. Governor Pat Quinn walked 167 miles across Illinois as part of a campaign for better health care for everyone. In 2005, faced with the growing epidemic of obesity in the state and in the nation, Illinois created "Walk Across Illinois", a challenge to everyone in the state to walk at least 167 miles over the course of a year. Progress can be tracked for free on www.walkacrossillinois.org, which shows you where you are on a virtual map and teaches facts about the history of Illinois. The program has attracted more than 8,000 people, logging more than 700,000 miles in total. The model has been adopted by various schools and parks across the state.
Daniel Persky, Walk Across Illinois
Ours is a curriculum-based environmental education program that introduces 4-6 graders to the great outdoors and conservation stewardship. We focus on education, exploration, restoration. It's not just a curriculum; it’s a partnership. By allowing the kids to come back for three years in a row, the kids can truly see the impact of their restoration efforts on the land. They learn that this is their space, and they will want to return in the future.
Cheryl McGarry, Mighty Acorns
America's Outdoors Center is a five federal agency partnership that brings the agencies together in areas where their missions cross boundaries: recreation, conservation, education. We sell interagency passes. The agencies work together to work on common goal of getting kids excited about the outdoors and we run our programs together.
Jean Clausen, USFS, America’s Outdoors Center
Active Living By Design looks at how the physical and social environments impact the ability of people to be physically active. The "Healthy Eating by Design" Program targeted the first graders at one school. We wanted the program to be garden-related. We brought the program into eight students’ homes and gave them the resources to cultivate a garden to promote the eating of fresh fruits and vegetables. During the school year, we took them to farms to see where their food comes from. We have to reconnect our children to the land, we can do these by connecting them through the schools and in their homes.
Public schools don’t institutionalize recess anymore. We are organizing teachers to promote extended school days so recess can be reintroduced in the public school system to get our kids outside.
Rails to Trails Project- We’re turning unused or underutilized train lines into a trail system. It’s an opportunity to have something in between the waterfronts and the forest preserves.
We’re also proposing a program called "Sunday Parkways." It’s modeled after a program in Bogota which for more than 30 years has closed over 70 miles of streets on Sundays and holidays so people can walk, ride their bikes, push their strollers, etc. We want to do this in Logan Square to connect 20 neighborhoods in Chicago each week in order to help build new communities.
Lucy Gomez, Active Living By Design
We're geared towards teaching inner city kids how to fish, always with conservation in mind. It is volunteer-led by avid anglers. Last year a new program granted children the chance to earn scholarship awards. We represent the importance of intergenerational sharing in outdoor recreation.
Richard Wilborn, Fishin’ Buddies
Partnership for the National Trails System- These trails are conceived under law as long-term public-private partnerships. Each year we contribute 700,000 hours of volunteer labor to sustain the trails, which are really works in progress. We involve everyone, including children, as a part of the trails system. "Trail to Every Classroom" brings trails into the classroom and then brings kids out to the trails. Our newest national historic trail (Selma to Montgomery) just opened a new visitor center, and went to the youth to involve them in the process of making their video, asked the students what the Civil Rights Movement means to them.
Gary Werner, Partnership for the National Trails System
We wanted to get youth more involved and committed to stewardship activities, and to develop material to being these efforts together and introduce kids to the concept of ongoing stewardship. We developed three graded field book (similar to passports) to spark interest and encourage hands-on participation in natural areas, especially for underserved populations. They can also be used to document service hours.
Kathy Marie Garvis, Chicago Wilderness Grassroots Youth Outreach Task Force
Quality Deer Management Association- Two great programs for youth: 1) Mentored Youth Hunting Program- long-term commitment between a mentor and a youth to teach them woodsmanship skills and about being good stewards of natural resources. 2) Living with White-Tailed Deer Educational Program- gives middle and high school students a situation with an over-abundant deer herd in a urban park. It allows them to have a mock town hall debate. They each have different community roles and a budget to follow. Students learn everyone is impacted wildlife in urban settings.
Kip Adams, Quality Deer Management Association
We bring our program into the schools. We show youth the connectivity between urban environments and nature, particularly in regards to the water supply. We have kids fish in the Chicago Park District lagoons. Fishing builds self-esteem and brings out leadership qualities in unlikely students. However, we have a problem with the Chicago public school system; some won’t allow students to go near water.
Brenda McKinney, State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Chicago Urban Fishing Program
Lake County Forest Preserves- We offer a continuum of experiences to connect people to the outdoors. It’s important to have entry-level experiences, you shouldn’t just send people out into the woods. We offer a wide variety of family programming, day trips to region resources, and a variety of guided and self-guided activities. We also offer logs and medallions for people to commemorate their outdoor experiences. Science First reaches out to urban youth and connects science-oriented youth to one another, allows them to blossom with each other.
Lynn Hepler, Lake County Forest Preserves
Friends works with the After School Matters Program to fund Earth Teams. We pay teens as part of job training to take care of the parks and learn about nature. While this might not seem like a way to encourage stewardship, it is a way to reach into neighborhoods where volunteering as a priority falls below getting kids of the streets and into after school jobs.
Rebecca Blazer, Friends of the Parks
I've included a service learning component in my course where students apply concepts in Richard Louv’s book to a project in their communities, such as creating opportunities for nature-based free play in urban areas.
Sydney Sklar, Assistant Professor at the University of St. Francis
The Backyard Nature Center will not be a location, it will be a broker that promotes and facilitates the bond between the nature sites in the New Trier Township and those who want to directly experience nature. The Backyard Nature Center will work with schools, curriculum specialists, teachers, and community groups to promote these experiences because no one can do it alone.
Daniel Kielson, Visions Unlimited
There are creative ways to share resources. Believe it or not, schools have some money. Some schools even have foundations. We’re looking for people like you to come in and connect the programs. We have a great EcoBuddy program that links high schoolers and second graders because there is common curriculum (although at different conceptual levels) in their programs.
Nancy Brankis, District 103
Families have learned about nature from television and books, not from direct experience. This needs to change. Since we opened our Children’s Garden, attendance at the Arboretum is up 60%, membership is up 50%, and many are family memberships. A large part of our success has been in attracting adults. Create a place where adults feel comfortable bringing their kids and where they know there will be things for their children to do when they get there. Another part of our success is because we are a hybrid: we structure unstructured free play. We all know about the problem that kids don’t get outside, but we need to develop measurable ways to track how children are benefitting from their experiences outdoors.
Katherine Johnson, The Morton Arboretum
I started out cleaning the parks with 25 kids fifteen years ago, and I have been cleaning every year since on Earth Day. Now we have over 500 people come every year. Wherever there are block clubs, we try to get neighborhoods involved in their own parks. We need more programs that involve youth with the parks, not only in the Humboldt area but in other areas around the city as well.
Maggie Martinez, Humboldt Park
I wrote a book called "The Nature of Chicago" that can help guide you through urban ecosystems. We started our organization because young people everywhere, regardless of their location or choice of career, need to be caretakers of the environment. We reached out to high school students and teachers because most environmental programs were geared towards the elementary level. We want to make people aware that high school kids are capable of participating in restoration efforts.
Isabel Abrams, author and co-founder of Caretakers of the Environment International/USA
Girls Scouts promotes hiking and camping with an emphasis on taking care of the land. We give girls the skills to have safe outdoor experiences, the knowledge to be prepared, and the attitude to protect the natural environment. We need to achieve an attitude of global living to make outdoor recreation a positive experience for generations to come. We are training courses for teens and adults to promote our principles and teach hands-on skills. We have also designed before and after measurable needs assessment.
Lis Christensson, Director of Education for Girl Scouts of Trailways Council, Master Educator with Leave No Trace
We provide many outdoor recreation opportunities for people and connect them to the land simply by taking care of it. We also run several programs with the schools, teacher workshops, and junior ranger programs on the National Lakeshore, including a new one that involves families. I’m also a volunteer for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in their Education Center. They take families that have a lot of experience doing outdoor recreation activities and pair them with families that don’t. Mentor families commit to getting together with their mentee family several times throughout the year.
Wendy Smith, Education Coordinator for the Great Lakes Research Education Center
We serve 35,000 students and teachers each year. We are an expansion site for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Earth Partnership for Schools, which trains teachers to restore lands around their own schools. Kids can see their progress every day. Currently we are looking for youth-centered organizations interested in educating youth about climate change by installing climate change monitoring gardens and implementing a related summer internship program for students ages 12 and up. This is a national initiative that involves 13 botanic gardens across the country.
Jennifer Schwarz, Education Manager of Chicago Botanic Garden
The Forest Service has four branches, all active in the Chicago partnership. We have a research proposal in that tries to deal with the contribution of our various programs to kids’ decision making as they graduate from high school and go on to college. International programs are joining with Midewin: Mexico is interested in creating a "fly way" for monarch butterflies up through Chicago, so we’re looking at an initiative that will promote the creation of backyard monarch gardens. In Midewin, we work to restore tallgrass ecosystems through partnerships and volunteerism, and the Forest Service has been instrumental in this effort.
Logan Lee, Prairie Supervisor at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
In 2001 Lt. Governor Pat Quinn walked 167 miles across Illinois as part of a campaign for better health care for everyone. In 2005, faced with the growing epidemic of obesity in the state and in the nation, Illinois created "Walk Across Illinois", a challenge to everyone in the state to walk at least 167 miles over the course of a year. Progress can be tracked for free on www.walkacrossillinois.org, which shows you where you are on a virtual map and teaches facts about the history of Illinois. The program has attracted more than 8,000 people, logging more than 700,000 miles in total. The model has been adopted by various schools and parks across the state.
Daniel Persky, Walk Across Illinois
Ours is a curriculum-based environmental education program that introduces 4-6 graders to the great outdoors and conservation stewardship. We focus on education, exploration, restoration. It's not just a curriculum; it’s a partnership. By allowing the kids to come back for three years in a row, the kids can truly see the impact of their restoration efforts on the land. They learn that this is their space, and they will want to return in the future.
Cheryl McGarry, Mighty Acorns
America's Outdoors Center is a five federal agency partnership that brings the agencies together in areas where their missions cross boundaries: recreation, conservation, education. We sell interagency passes. The agencies work together to work on common goal of getting kids excited about the outdoors and we run our programs together.
Jean Clausen, USFS, America’s Outdoors Center
Active Living By Design looks at how the physical and social environments impact the ability of people to be physically active. The "Healthy Eating by Design" Program targeted the first graders at one school. We wanted the program to be garden-related. We brought the program into eight students’ homes and gave them the resources to cultivate a garden to promote the eating of fresh fruits and vegetables. During the school year, we took them to farms to see where their food comes from. We have to reconnect our children to the land, we can do these by connecting them through the schools and in their homes.
Public schools don’t institutionalize recess anymore. We are organizing teachers to promote extended school days so recess can be reintroduced in the public school system to get our kids outside.
Rails to Trails Project- We’re turning unused or underutilized train lines into a trail system. It’s an opportunity to have something in between the waterfronts and the forest preserves.
We’re also proposing a program called "Sunday Parkways." It’s modeled after a program in Bogota which for more than 30 years has closed over 70 miles of streets on Sundays and holidays so people can walk, ride their bikes, push their strollers, etc. We want to do this in Logan Square to connect 20 neighborhoods in Chicago each week in order to help build new communities.
Lucy Gomez, Active Living By Design
We're geared towards teaching inner city kids how to fish, always with conservation in mind. It is volunteer-led by avid anglers. Last year a new program granted children the chance to earn scholarship awards. We represent the importance of intergenerational sharing in outdoor recreation.
Richard Wilborn, Fishin’ Buddies
Partnership for the National Trails System- These trails are conceived under law as long-term public-private partnerships. Each year we contribute 700,000 hours of volunteer labor to sustain the trails, which are really works in progress. We involve everyone, including children, as a part of the trails system. "Trail to Every Classroom" brings trails into the classroom and then brings kids out to the trails. Our newest national historic trail (Selma to Montgomery) just opened a new visitor center, and went to the youth to involve them in the process of making their video, asked the students what the Civil Rights Movement means to them.
Gary Werner, Partnership for the National Trails System
We wanted to get youth more involved and committed to stewardship activities, and to develop material to being these efforts together and introduce kids to the concept of ongoing stewardship. We developed three graded field book (similar to passports) to spark interest and encourage hands-on participation in natural areas, especially for underserved populations. They can also be used to document service hours.
Kathy Marie Garvis, Chicago Wilderness Grassroots Youth Outreach Task Force
Quality Deer Management Association- Two great programs for youth: 1) Mentored Youth Hunting Program- long-term commitment between a mentor and a youth to teach them woodsmanship skills and about being good stewards of natural resources. 2) Living with White-Tailed Deer Educational Program- gives middle and high school students a situation with an over-abundant deer herd in a urban park. It allows them to have a mock town hall debate. They each have different community roles and a budget to follow. Students learn everyone is impacted wildlife in urban settings.
Kip Adams, Quality Deer Management Association
We bring our program into the schools. We show youth the connectivity between urban environments and nature, particularly in regards to the water supply. We have kids fish in the Chicago Park District lagoons. Fishing builds self-esteem and brings out leadership qualities in unlikely students. However, we have a problem with the Chicago public school system; some won’t allow students to go near water.
Brenda McKinney, State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Chicago Urban Fishing Program
Lake County Forest Preserves- We offer a continuum of experiences to connect people to the outdoors. It’s important to have entry-level experiences, you shouldn’t just send people out into the woods. We offer a wide variety of family programming, day trips to region resources, and a variety of guided and self-guided activities. We also offer logs and medallions for people to commemorate their outdoor experiences. Science First reaches out to urban youth and connects science-oriented youth to one another, allows them to blossom with each other.
Lynn Hepler, Lake County Forest Preserves
Friends works with the After School Matters Program to fund Earth Teams. We pay teens as part of job training to take care of the parks and learn about nature. While this might not seem like a way to encourage stewardship, it is a way to reach into neighborhoods where volunteering as a priority falls below getting kids of the streets and into after school jobs.
Rebecca Blazer, Friends of the Parks
I've included a service learning component in my course where students apply concepts in Richard Louv’s book to a project in their communities, such as creating opportunities for nature-based free play in urban areas.
Sydney Sklar, Assistant Professor at the University of St. Francis
The Backyard Nature Center will not be a location, it will be a broker that promotes and facilitates the bond between the nature sites in the New Trier Township and those who want to directly experience nature. The Backyard Nature Center will work with schools, curriculum specialists, teachers, and community groups to promote these experiences because no one can do it alone.
Daniel Kielson, Visions Unlimited
There are creative ways to share resources. Believe it or not, schools have some money. Some schools even have foundations. We’re looking for people like you to come in and connect the programs. We have a great EcoBuddy program that links high schoolers and second graders because there is common curriculum (although at different conceptual levels) in their programs.
Nancy Brankis, District 103
Families have learned about nature from television and books, not from direct experience. This needs to change. Since we opened our Children’s Garden, attendance at the Arboretum is up 60%, membership is up 50%, and many are family memberships. A large part of our success has been in attracting adults. Create a place where adults feel comfortable bringing their kids and where they know there will be things for their children to do when they get there. Another part of our success is because we are a hybrid: we structure unstructured free play. We all know about the problem that kids don’t get outside, but we need to develop measurable ways to track how children are benefitting from their experiences outdoors.
Katherine Johnson, The Morton Arboretum
I started out cleaning the parks with 25 kids fifteen years ago, and I have been cleaning every year since on Earth Day. Now we have over 500 people come every year. Wherever there are block clubs, we try to get neighborhoods involved in their own parks. We need more programs that involve youth with the parks, not only in the Humboldt area but in other areas around the city as well.
Maggie Martinez, Humboldt Park
I wrote a book called "The Nature of Chicago" that can help guide you through urban ecosystems. We started our organization because young people everywhere, regardless of their location or choice of career, need to be caretakers of the environment. We reached out to high school students and teachers because most environmental programs were geared towards the elementary level. We want to make people aware that high school kids are capable of participating in restoration efforts.
Isabel Abrams, author and co-founder of Caretakers of the Environment International/USA
Girls Scouts promotes hiking and camping with an emphasis on taking care of the land. We give girls the skills to have safe outdoor experiences, the knowledge to be prepared, and the attitude to protect the natural environment. We need to achieve an attitude of global living to make outdoor recreation a positive experience for generations to come. We are training courses for teens and adults to promote our principles and teach hands-on skills. We have also designed before and after measurable needs assessment.
Lis Christensson, Director of Education for Girl Scouts of Trailways Council, Master Educator with Leave No Trace
We provide many outdoor recreation opportunities for people and connect them to the land simply by taking care of it. We also run several programs with the schools, teacher workshops, and junior ranger programs on the National Lakeshore, including a new one that involves families. I’m also a volunteer for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in their Education Center. They take families that have a lot of experience doing outdoor recreation activities and pair them with families that don’t. Mentor families commit to getting together with their mentee family several times throughout the year.
Wendy Smith, Education Coordinator for the Great Lakes Research Education Center
We serve 35,000 students and teachers each year. We are an expansion site for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Earth Partnership for Schools, which trains teachers to restore lands around their own schools. Kids can see their progress every day. Currently we are looking for youth-centered organizations interested in educating youth about climate change by installing climate change monitoring gardens and implementing a related summer internship program for students ages 12 and up. This is a national initiative that involves 13 botanic gardens across the country.
Jennifer Schwarz, Education Manager of Chicago Botanic Garden
The Forest Service has four branches, all active in the Chicago partnership. We have a research proposal in that tries to deal with the contribution of our various programs to kids’ decision making as they graduate from high school and go on to college. International programs are joining with Midewin: Mexico is interested in creating a "fly way" for monarch butterflies up through Chicago, so we’re looking at an initiative that will promote the creation of backyard monarch gardens. In Midewin, we work to restore tallgrass ecosystems through partnerships and volunteerism, and the Forest Service has been instrumental in this effort.
Logan Lee, Prairie Supervisor at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
Key Ideas & Recommendations from Portland Recreation Forum
The following are some of the key ideas and recommendations delivered at the Recreation Forum in Troutdale, Oregon, on March 15, 2007. Please feel free to add comments on these suggestions and how they can best be implemented.
When asked which outdoor activities they’d most like to see in a dream program, Oregon kids answered tent camping, sledding and tubing, swimming and diving, field sports, ATV riding, and paintballing. If you can mix some of these activities into your programming, you have a better chance that kids will want to be involved. Further information on the statewide study of parents and youth is available on Oregon’s SCORP website (www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PLANS/SCORP.shtml).
Terry Bergerson, Oregon State Parks & Recreation
In order to increase diversity, it’s important to figure out how the current diverse crowds that are already out recreating got there. We need to get out there and ask them. Use on-site user surveys, focus groups. Preliminary studies found that it’s not about ethnicity so much as it is about socioeconomic barriers. When asked what keeps them inside, kids replied weather, gang activity, fear of things they’ve seen on the news, and because their parents are afraid they’ll get hurt. The barrier of parents should be turned into a positive. Kids whose parents take them outdoors are the ones who are still recreating outdoors later on in life.
Dr. Robert Burns, West Virginia University
Connect people to the public land, their neighborhoods, and each other. We need to be realistic about who we’re hitting with our message. This is why we need to focus on the youth. Older people are already set in their ways. We cannot leave out the Latinos, the fastest growing minority in the country, and the blacks and expect to succeed. We need a diversity plan.
Charles Jordan, Chairman of the Board, The Conservation Fund
Visit www.tools4outdoors.org to find more information on more than 60 programs providing assistance for recreation.
We hope all recreation community supporters will support growth of the Recreational Trails Program, which is funded by the 18.3 cents per gallon federal tax paid on fuel used in non-highway recreational activities. We only get $90 million annually under current law. We hope to increase that substantially beginning in 2009.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
The formation of Outdoor Alliance has combined membership-driven nonprofits organized around outdoor sports. Support your membership organizations so there’s a united voice on the Hill for our initiatives.
Sam Drevo, Professional Kayaker, Ambassador for American Whitewater
Support efforts to unify information collected like SCORP data with things that public health organizations collect like the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. They are willing to add our relevant questions to their surveys.
Clifton Watts, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University
Come to our schools and tell us about your programs! We don’t know what you have to offer! Use our school’s careers center to show us what you have. That’s where we go to get our information on clubs and activities to do outside of school. Our school is big on technology. Show us how we can help with the future of the outdoors by introducing us to jobs and show us how our technological skills can help you. Also, a lot of our recreational and life skills programs are being cut from our school. We need your support to keep our programs. We’d also like to start our own forum to keep kids more involved, and we would love your help.
Students from Polytechnic High School
Think beyond the small programs that reach 20 kids, think about how we can reach 20,000! We don’t want to just hit little pockets of kids; we shouldn’t leave anyone out.
Jerry Rhodes, U.S. Orienteering Federation
The key message of the forums has been the need to look outside ourselves to see how we can contribute to the larger benefit of recreation to society. A few states have regular gatherings for those who work in recreation (government agencies, nonprofits, private industry, etc.) to coordinate efforts. This could be implemented elsewhere. Keep up the communication with each other after we are gone.
We should make part of www.recreation.gov "Your Space" and have it based on user-developed content. Let kids post their photos and messages on the site. We need to bring the Secretary of Education and the school system into the conversation. We can work within the current framework for kids’ time commitments. On the "More Kids in the Woods" Grant Program, there’s no way the federal agencies can develop huge outreach and develop programs to connect urban youth to the outdoors on their own. There are many of these efforts already underway, we just needed a vehicle to hook us all up.
Jim Bedwell, Director of Recreation, US Forest Service
If we’re really interested in engaging youth, we’ve got to ask them how: ask them how to do it and what they want to do. We then need to be prepared to respond to their answers.
Tim Wood, Director, Oregon Parks and Recreation
Tourism is a $7.9 billion dollar industry and provides 90,000 jobs for Oregonians. 70% of the business in the industry are sole proprietorships. This is an important indicator for why people are coming here: uncrowded, unspoiled natural beauty. If the generation coming up is not interested in what I am selling, I have a product to market that no one wants to buy. It’s not just about economic impact, but also about the implications for future stewardship. This is truly the critical piece. There are those who desire to use the lands but don’t have the equipment. Who better to take them out than experienced stewards such as outdoor outfitters?
Todd Davidson, CEO, Travel Oregon
When asked which outdoor activities they’d most like to see in a dream program, Oregon kids answered tent camping, sledding and tubing, swimming and diving, field sports, ATV riding, and paintballing. If you can mix some of these activities into your programming, you have a better chance that kids will want to be involved. Further information on the statewide study of parents and youth is available on Oregon’s SCORP website (www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PLANS/SCORP.shtml).
Terry Bergerson, Oregon State Parks & Recreation
In order to increase diversity, it’s important to figure out how the current diverse crowds that are already out recreating got there. We need to get out there and ask them. Use on-site user surveys, focus groups. Preliminary studies found that it’s not about ethnicity so much as it is about socioeconomic barriers. When asked what keeps them inside, kids replied weather, gang activity, fear of things they’ve seen on the news, and because their parents are afraid they’ll get hurt. The barrier of parents should be turned into a positive. Kids whose parents take them outdoors are the ones who are still recreating outdoors later on in life.
Dr. Robert Burns, West Virginia University
Connect people to the public land, their neighborhoods, and each other. We need to be realistic about who we’re hitting with our message. This is why we need to focus on the youth. Older people are already set in their ways. We cannot leave out the Latinos, the fastest growing minority in the country, and the blacks and expect to succeed. We need a diversity plan.
Charles Jordan, Chairman of the Board, The Conservation Fund
Visit www.tools4outdoors.org to find more information on more than 60 programs providing assistance for recreation.
We hope all recreation community supporters will support growth of the Recreational Trails Program, which is funded by the 18.3 cents per gallon federal tax paid on fuel used in non-highway recreational activities. We only get $90 million annually under current law. We hope to increase that substantially beginning in 2009.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
The formation of Outdoor Alliance has combined membership-driven nonprofits organized around outdoor sports. Support your membership organizations so there’s a united voice on the Hill for our initiatives.
Sam Drevo, Professional Kayaker, Ambassador for American Whitewater
Support efforts to unify information collected like SCORP data with things that public health organizations collect like the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. They are willing to add our relevant questions to their surveys.
Clifton Watts, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University
Come to our schools and tell us about your programs! We don’t know what you have to offer! Use our school’s careers center to show us what you have. That’s where we go to get our information on clubs and activities to do outside of school. Our school is big on technology. Show us how we can help with the future of the outdoors by introducing us to jobs and show us how our technological skills can help you. Also, a lot of our recreational and life skills programs are being cut from our school. We need your support to keep our programs. We’d also like to start our own forum to keep kids more involved, and we would love your help.
Students from Polytechnic High School
Think beyond the small programs that reach 20 kids, think about how we can reach 20,000! We don’t want to just hit little pockets of kids; we shouldn’t leave anyone out.
Jerry Rhodes, U.S. Orienteering Federation
The key message of the forums has been the need to look outside ourselves to see how we can contribute to the larger benefit of recreation to society. A few states have regular gatherings for those who work in recreation (government agencies, nonprofits, private industry, etc.) to coordinate efforts. This could be implemented elsewhere. Keep up the communication with each other after we are gone.
We should make part of www.recreation.gov "Your Space" and have it based on user-developed content. Let kids post their photos and messages on the site. We need to bring the Secretary of Education and the school system into the conversation. We can work within the current framework for kids’ time commitments. On the "More Kids in the Woods" Grant Program, there’s no way the federal agencies can develop huge outreach and develop programs to connect urban youth to the outdoors on their own. There are many of these efforts already underway, we just needed a vehicle to hook us all up.
Jim Bedwell, Director of Recreation, US Forest Service
If we’re really interested in engaging youth, we’ve got to ask them how: ask them how to do it and what they want to do. We then need to be prepared to respond to their answers.
Tim Wood, Director, Oregon Parks and Recreation
Tourism is a $7.9 billion dollar industry and provides 90,000 jobs for Oregonians. 70% of the business in the industry are sole proprietorships. This is an important indicator for why people are coming here: uncrowded, unspoiled natural beauty. If the generation coming up is not interested in what I am selling, I have a product to market that no one wants to buy. It’s not just about economic impact, but also about the implications for future stewardship. This is truly the critical piece. There are those who desire to use the lands but don’t have the equipment. Who better to take them out than experienced stewards such as outdoor outfitters?
Todd Davidson, CEO, Travel Oregon
Programs to Highlight from Portland Recreation Forum
The following are some of the exemplary programs that were presented at the Recreation Forum in Troutdale, Oregon, on March 15, 2007. Please feel free to comment on how these programs could be furthered or replicated.
Our program has two themes: wilderness stewardship and environmental education. By bringing them together we incorporate the strengths of our partner organizations. How do we accomplish our goals? Through community building, teaching outdoor skills, teaching leadership skills by having a leader of the day, teaching natural and cultural history, wilderness awareness, and we have the students keep journals about their experiences (both structured and unstructured). We also bring career mentoring into the programming to show kids how they can continue their good relationship with nature. In post-programming, kids have to share their experiences with the community; kids and families are welcomed back to the site after the experience for a reunion event with other participants. Getting kids for the program was difficult. We had to work with partners to get our program into the schools, especially the English language learner classes.
Key recommendations for partnerships: Over-communicate! Have diverse staffing in terms of race, gender, and organizations. Be sensitive to how organizations are portrayed in the media, give equal coverage. Combine efforts to raise funds. Be sensitive about risk management, determine who is liable.
Amy Brown, North Cascades Wild
Things we considered in developing our program: youth outreach- engaging students and parents, mentors, environmental education, and resource stewardship. Through hands-on service learning, students learn life skills, personal skills, and leadership skills.
Don Hunger, North Cascade Wild, SCA
Our program has kids spend the night in the zoo. We try to reach out to the same youth for three years to build on previous experiences. We don’t do the teaching ourselves, we have teens teach the younger kids; parents are our chaperones. We also have a career component, as we and our partners feel it’s important to inspire the next generation to work in these fields. We provide the teens with mentors and training as well.
Jody Van Riper, Portland Zoo, Urban Nature Overnights (UNO)
ZAP is a two year internship that’s a progressive introduction to environmental education. We target low income youth. The first year they do presentations with animals in the community and the second year they become counselors for UNO. The programs were originally separate, but we combined their strengths.
Pam McElwee, Portland Zoo, Zoo Animal Presenters (ZAP)
Key Ideas & Recommendations from Los Angeles Recreation Forum
The following are some of the key ideas and recommendations delivered at the Recreation Forum in Arcadia, California, on March 12, 2007. Please feel free to add comments on these suggestions and how they can best be implemented.
Youth Panel: Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation
Teens don’t necessarily like indoor activities more than outdoor activities, it’s just what’s there. That’s what we have access to. The internet is popular with teenagers because you don’t need your parents to get there. It’s not that my other friends aren’t into the outdoors, but they just don’t have the means to get there if their parents won’t take them. They just don’t have access.
Jake
I was able to get my friends who don’t have the opportunity to go to parks hyped about the outdoors by showing them my pictures.
Princess
Princess
We like to do activities where we can learn or create something. Show us the other things that parks have to offer.
Josh
We want to do anything on a board. Skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, etc. We need more skate parks.
Jake and Jamal
We all like different stuff, but teens like teens. We like to be with each other. It doesn’t really matter what we’re doing. We just want to be together. But, a lot of teens don’t want to hang around little kids. Make sure some of your teams are just for teenagers. Having a lot of little kids around make it less appealing for some people.
Jake and Princess
It’s very easy to get me to come out to a park. Just give me something to do! But before we go to the parks, we want to know what’s there and what they do there.
Jamal and Lizette
Tie the outdoors into something else, like competitions and talking to each other. Sometimes we need to talk to other teens about our problems and the outdoors is a good place to do that.
Princess and Rudy
Sometimes we’ll be randomly driving around, not hungry until we see a sign for In-N-Out Burger. Then everyone is hungry! You need to raise awareness. It’s not that we don’t want it, but if it’s not right in front of our faces, it’s not in our little bubble. Our outdoor experiences get pushed behind myspace and ipods. You just need to remind us.
Jake
Make us feel comfortable around you. We won’t go out with you if we don’t think we can be ourselves. Don’t tell us what we can’t do, like our parents.
Princess and Lizette
We get our information through friends, cops, park staff members, advertisements at school, flyers, emails, community center pamphlets, online, text messenging, newspapers, teen magazines in the high schools, etc. Go to the schools and promote your programs in person, but the single best way to get information to us is through myspace.com. It’s how teens hang out and communicate today.
All
Give us regularly scheduled, consistent activities so we have something to look forward to.
Princess and Jake
Every park should try to form a group of teenagers to think of stuff that other teens would want to do in that park. Teens could also help get the word out to other teens.
Princess
Show teens how recreation can be the gateway for other benefits, like meeting other people, giving them volunteer opportunities, etc. Kids are going bad who aren’t bad people. Give them something to do.
Rudy
We need to involve the entire spectrum of recreation providers to get kids outdoors. (Parents, Parks & Rec, private sector, tribal organizations, etc.)
Emilyn Sheffield, Interpretive Association of the West
We employ kids to talk to other kids because adults just can’t sell as successfully to kids. Make it fun. Spruce up your image. Use Myspace.com. Use the new technologies to introduce your programs. If you do the same things you’ve always done you wouldn’t be successful at attracting a new crowd.
There are so many rules about what you can’t do. Take a step back and ask if you are creating too many barriers. Treat kids with respect.
Karl Kapuscinski, President, Mountain High Resort
We need a new image. Poor Smokey. We need a hip hop Smokey!
Jody Noiron, Angeles National Forest
People are still talking to one another, but it’s in a very technologically advanced way. We need to learn to use this for advertising. For some organizations recreation is just not considered part of the central core mission. I disagree. If we don’t connect with the people who are going to be the stewards of the land in the future with our lands, we won’t have a mission.
Jeann Wade Evans, USFS
Our greatest challenge is making ourselves known and visible in an environment where there is so much else competing for people’s attention. Plug into schools, clubs, cultural groups, churches, etc. to get our message out there. We need to be a part of the new communication that is happening. However, we need to be careful about our vocabulary. Use terms to market our services or parks that are unbiased and inclusive to a greater population.
Woody Smeck, National Park Service
Create a TV channel or internet site that has a camera at seashores, mountains, the Grand Canyon, etc. Here in LA at Christmastime, Channel 9 displays the image of a fireplace for 2 days. Or similar to CBS’s Sunday morning show, they show a shot of nature at the end. Pure and simple. No commentary. Little editing required. If we could bring the outdoors to people, maybe more people would be in the outdoors. What about people unable to go to the outdoors? Wouldn’t a camera shot of a waterfall be inspiring?
We’d like to see more trailhead access for equestrians in the forests, safer places to pull off, and secure places to leave our rigs. We’d also like to see the maintenance preservation of traditional hiking and equestrian dirt trails. We’re very concerned about safety. Also, more pony rides in the parks would help us introduce youth to horses.
Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails, Inc.
We have reached out to the motorized community to teach young people Tread Lightly ethics. We also reach out to church groups that are well-connected in the community to find kids to take out on trips. Share trail maintenance with other user groups. We’re also concerned about wilderness bills that would reduce our access to the public lands.
Chris Horgan, Stewards of the Sequoia
Put effort into educating kids looking a recreation experience in order to protect the lands. Also, the public land agencies need to be present so the public doesn’t feel that burden of maintaining the land falls squarely on their shoulders while more restrictions are being put on them.
Dana Bell, National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council
We must manage people better to protect resources more effectively. We need more and better education efforts that are interactive, especially for teens and 20-something recreationists.
Dana Bell, NOHVCC
Tailor program opportunities for kids and horses. "Ride a Horse" should be added to the Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights. Horses are a major component of California’s past, and they can help less fit kids explore nature. Public and private stables and riding centers are an untapped resource.
Mary Benson
There should be a website that provides links to all other outdoor agencies.
Yvonne Pedersen, City of Fullerton Parks & Recreation
Youth Panel: Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation
Josh Acevedo, 19
Lizette Flores, 17
Rudy Herron, Jr., 17
Jamal Landry, 14
Princess Love, 16
Jake Salzarulo, 18
Lizette Flores, 17
Rudy Herron, Jr., 17
Jamal Landry, 14
Princess Love, 16
Jake Salzarulo, 18
Teens don’t necessarily like indoor activities more than outdoor activities, it’s just what’s there. That’s what we have access to. The internet is popular with teenagers because you don’t need your parents to get there. It’s not that my other friends aren’t into the outdoors, but they just don’t have the means to get there if their parents won’t take them. They just don’t have access.
Jake
I was able to get my friends who don’t have the opportunity to go to parks hyped about the outdoors by showing them my pictures.
Princess
Parks don’t offer a lot of outdoor sports for teens. There are more indoor activities than out. We need to develop more sports for teens outside.
Josh
I get excited about competing with other parks in sports. All the parks could come together and play one another. Teens are really competitive and we will do anything for a trophy!
Lizette
Take stuff that we do anyway (dancing, skateboarding) and turn them into team activities. Then let the parks compete against each other.Lizette
Princess
We like to do activities where we can learn or create something. Show us the other things that parks have to offer.
Josh
We want to do anything on a board. Skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, etc. We need more skate parks.
Jake and Jamal
We all like different stuff, but teens like teens. We like to be with each other. It doesn’t really matter what we’re doing. We just want to be together. But, a lot of teens don’t want to hang around little kids. Make sure some of your teams are just for teenagers. Having a lot of little kids around make it less appealing for some people.
Jake and Princess
It’s very easy to get me to come out to a park. Just give me something to do! But before we go to the parks, we want to know what’s there and what they do there.
Jamal and Lizette
Tie the outdoors into something else, like competitions and talking to each other. Sometimes we need to talk to other teens about our problems and the outdoors is a good place to do that.
Princess and Rudy
Sometimes we’ll be randomly driving around, not hungry until we see a sign for In-N-Out Burger. Then everyone is hungry! You need to raise awareness. It’s not that we don’t want it, but if it’s not right in front of our faces, it’s not in our little bubble. Our outdoor experiences get pushed behind myspace and ipods. You just need to remind us.
Jake
Make us feel comfortable around you. We won’t go out with you if we don’t think we can be ourselves. Don’t tell us what we can’t do, like our parents.
Princess and Lizette
We get our information through friends, cops, park staff members, advertisements at school, flyers, emails, community center pamphlets, online, text messenging, newspapers, teen magazines in the high schools, etc. Go to the schools and promote your programs in person, but the single best way to get information to us is through myspace.com. It’s how teens hang out and communicate today.
All
Give us regularly scheduled, consistent activities so we have something to look forward to.
Princess and Jake
Every park should try to form a group of teenagers to think of stuff that other teens would want to do in that park. Teens could also help get the word out to other teens.
Princess
Show teens how recreation can be the gateway for other benefits, like meeting other people, giving them volunteer opportunities, etc. Kids are going bad who aren’t bad people. Give them something to do.
Rudy
We need to involve the entire spectrum of recreation providers to get kids outdoors. (Parents, Parks & Rec, private sector, tribal organizations, etc.)
Emilyn Sheffield, Interpretive Association of the West
We employ kids to talk to other kids because adults just can’t sell as successfully to kids. Make it fun. Spruce up your image. Use Myspace.com. Use the new technologies to introduce your programs. If you do the same things you’ve always done you wouldn’t be successful at attracting a new crowd.
There are so many rules about what you can’t do. Take a step back and ask if you are creating too many barriers. Treat kids with respect.
Karl Kapuscinski, President, Mountain High Resort
We need a new image. Poor Smokey. We need a hip hop Smokey!
Jody Noiron, Angeles National Forest
People are still talking to one another, but it’s in a very technologically advanced way. We need to learn to use this for advertising. For some organizations recreation is just not considered part of the central core mission. I disagree. If we don’t connect with the people who are going to be the stewards of the land in the future with our lands, we won’t have a mission.
Jeann Wade Evans, USFS
Our greatest challenge is making ourselves known and visible in an environment where there is so much else competing for people’s attention. Plug into schools, clubs, cultural groups, churches, etc. to get our message out there. We need to be a part of the new communication that is happening. However, we need to be careful about our vocabulary. Use terms to market our services or parks that are unbiased and inclusive to a greater population.
Woody Smeck, National Park Service
Create a TV channel or internet site that has a camera at seashores, mountains, the Grand Canyon, etc. Here in LA at Christmastime, Channel 9 displays the image of a fireplace for 2 days. Or similar to CBS’s Sunday morning show, they show a shot of nature at the end. Pure and simple. No commentary. Little editing required. If we could bring the outdoors to people, maybe more people would be in the outdoors. What about people unable to go to the outdoors? Wouldn’t a camera shot of a waterfall be inspiring?
Ernie Seiler, City of Burbank Parks & Recreation
We’re missing the connector links- how neighborhood trails connect people to the outdoors and to the open spaces near their homes. While kids should absolutely go to Yosemite, they need to be able to access the open spaces nearest their homes.
Roger Bell, Board Member of American Trails
Roger Bell, Board Member of American Trails
We’d like to see more trailhead access for equestrians in the forests, safer places to pull off, and secure places to leave our rigs. We’d also like to see the maintenance preservation of traditional hiking and equestrian dirt trails. We’re very concerned about safety. Also, more pony rides in the parks would help us introduce youth to horses.
Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails, Inc.
We have reached out to the motorized community to teach young people Tread Lightly ethics. We also reach out to church groups that are well-connected in the community to find kids to take out on trips. Share trail maintenance with other user groups. We’re also concerned about wilderness bills that would reduce our access to the public lands.
Chris Horgan, Stewards of the Sequoia
Put effort into educating kids looking a recreation experience in order to protect the lands. Also, the public land agencies need to be present so the public doesn’t feel that burden of maintaining the land falls squarely on their shoulders while more restrictions are being put on them.
Dana Bell, National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council
We must manage people better to protect resources more effectively. We need more and better education efforts that are interactive, especially for teens and 20-something recreationists.
Dana Bell, NOHVCC
Tailor program opportunities for kids and horses. "Ride a Horse" should be added to the Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights. Horses are a major component of California’s past, and they can help less fit kids explore nature. Public and private stables and riding centers are an untapped resource.
Mary Benson
There should be a website that provides links to all other outdoor agencies.
Yvonne Pedersen, City of Fullerton Parks & Recreation
Programs to Highlight from Los Angeles Recreation Forum
The following are some of the exemplary programs that were presented at the Recreation Forum in Arcadia, California, on March 12, 2007. Please feel free to comment on how these programs could be furthered or replicated.
The California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights- We believe every child in California should experience these ten things before they turn 14: Discover California’s past, to celebrate their heritage, splash in the water, learn to swim, camp under the stars, follow a trail, catch a fish, play in a safe place, explore nature, and play on a team. These ten things are supported by data as providers of key benefits to children’s health and well-being.
Emilyn Sheffield, Interpretive Association of the West
Wildlink is a successful initiative largely because it’s partnered with agencies with money. The key to serving underserved communities is to give people heavily subsidized introductory experiences to the outdoors. We contact people in the communities to ask them what they need. We use an experiential methodology to reinforce a student’s success. We don’t ask kids to do tasks they are not ready to do.
Moose Mutlow, Yosemite Institute, Wildlink Program
We just need to show inner city kids there’s a wonderful world of outdoor activities outside their five block radius. We partner with already existing youth service agencies like groups, homeless shelters, etc. and work to create a program specific to them. It is important to make the programming comprehensive and long-term. You can’t just show kids something cool once and never take them again. The outdoors is about more than just recreation. We need to promote to legislatures and potential donors that recreation can mean life-changing experiences for some.
Christopher Rutgers, Outdoor Outreach
Mountain High did 180,000 skiier visits when we took over in 1997. Now it does over 500,000. How did we do it? Through marketing to the 12-24 age group and the boarder groups. We created a hip, fun, energetic environment and boarding keeps up with what kids think is cool. We employ kids to talk to other kids. Adults just can’t sell as successfully to kids. Make it fun! Spruce up your image. Use Myspace.com. Use the new technologies to introduce your programs. If you do the same things you’ve always done you wouldn’t be successful at attracting a new crowd. There are so many rules about what you can’t do. Take a step back and ask if you are creating too many barriers. Treat kids with respect.
Karl Kapuscinski, President, Mountain High Resort
We’re based on the needs of the community. Some need jobs, others just need positive role models. We involve high-risk youth in the public lands, but we bring the Forest Service to the communities instead of the other way around. We connect people to the public lands through visible role models. We bring local people who have succeeded back so others can see that higher education is not foreign and out of their reach.
There are three key components in the Consortium model- environmental education, community, and employment. We also just take youth outdoors. We agree that programs need to be comprehensive, long-term, and consistent. Give them the opportunity to take the lead and they will keep coming back. Once you expose kids to the great outdoors, something clicks for them. They consider pursuing a higher degree in natural resources. Then these role models can help them build resumes and pursue internships.
Fabian Garcia, California Consortia
We host a Los Angeles County Parks Summit each year. County, state, federal, and other park & recreation providers come together and talk about recreation issues. The goal is to break down the barriers between the agencies and facilitate conversation. First order of business is to get on a first name basis with people within the profession that you may not work with regularly. Each year the summit chooses an issue to tackle. We also meet on a quarterly basis to talk about legislative issues.
Russ Guiney, Director of Los Angeles County Parks and Rec
We have a tremendous outreach program for young women called "Taking the Reigns" and another called "Dusty’s Riders for inner city youth. More pony rides in the parks would help us introduce youth to horses.
Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails, Inc.
The California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights- We believe every child in California should experience these ten things before they turn 14: Discover California’s past, to celebrate their heritage, splash in the water, learn to swim, camp under the stars, follow a trail, catch a fish, play in a safe place, explore nature, and play on a team. These ten things are supported by data as providers of key benefits to children’s health and well-being.
Emilyn Sheffield, Interpretive Association of the West
Wildlink is a successful initiative largely because it’s partnered with agencies with money. The key to serving underserved communities is to give people heavily subsidized introductory experiences to the outdoors. We contact people in the communities to ask them what they need. We use an experiential methodology to reinforce a student’s success. We don’t ask kids to do tasks they are not ready to do.
Moose Mutlow, Yosemite Institute, Wildlink Program
We just need to show inner city kids there’s a wonderful world of outdoor activities outside their five block radius. We partner with already existing youth service agencies like groups, homeless shelters, etc. and work to create a program specific to them. It is important to make the programming comprehensive and long-term. You can’t just show kids something cool once and never take them again. The outdoors is about more than just recreation. We need to promote to legislatures and potential donors that recreation can mean life-changing experiences for some.
Christopher Rutgers, Outdoor Outreach
Mountain High did 180,000 skiier visits when we took over in 1997. Now it does over 500,000. How did we do it? Through marketing to the 12-24 age group and the boarder groups. We created a hip, fun, energetic environment and boarding keeps up with what kids think is cool. We employ kids to talk to other kids. Adults just can’t sell as successfully to kids. Make it fun! Spruce up your image. Use Myspace.com. Use the new technologies to introduce your programs. If you do the same things you’ve always done you wouldn’t be successful at attracting a new crowd. There are so many rules about what you can’t do. Take a step back and ask if you are creating too many barriers. Treat kids with respect.
Karl Kapuscinski, President, Mountain High Resort
We’re based on the needs of the community. Some need jobs, others just need positive role models. We involve high-risk youth in the public lands, but we bring the Forest Service to the communities instead of the other way around. We connect people to the public lands through visible role models. We bring local people who have succeeded back so others can see that higher education is not foreign and out of their reach.
There are three key components in the Consortium model- environmental education, community, and employment. We also just take youth outdoors. We agree that programs need to be comprehensive, long-term, and consistent. Give them the opportunity to take the lead and they will keep coming back. Once you expose kids to the great outdoors, something clicks for them. They consider pursuing a higher degree in natural resources. Then these role models can help them build resumes and pursue internships.
Fabian Garcia, California Consortia
We host a Los Angeles County Parks Summit each year. County, state, federal, and other park & recreation providers come together and talk about recreation issues. The goal is to break down the barriers between the agencies and facilitate conversation. First order of business is to get on a first name basis with people within the profession that you may not work with regularly. Each year the summit chooses an issue to tackle. We also meet on a quarterly basis to talk about legislative issues.
Russ Guiney, Director of Los Angeles County Parks and Rec
We have a tremendous outreach program for young women called "Taking the Reigns" and another called "Dusty’s Riders for inner city youth. More pony rides in the parks would help us introduce youth to horses.
Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails, Inc.
Key Ideas & Recommendations from Cobb County Recreation Forum
The following are some of the key ideas and recommendations delivered at the Recreation Forum in Cobb County, Georgia, on March 9, 2007. Please feel free to add comments on these suggestions and how they can best be implemented.
We need to understand how ethnic diversity will affect the demand for and supply of recreation opportunities. While we must consider the needs of our aging population, who are often the more tradition land users (hunters, fishermen, etc.), we must also understand the under 20 age group, who are in many cases interested in the more extreme sports like rock climbing and mountain biking. Market to the under 20 groups. We can’t afford to become dinosaurs. We must understand language and cultural barriers and be in touch with what people expect from outdoor recreation providers. We cannot use a "business as usual approach."
We’ve got to provide quality, safe opportunities for people to participate in outdoors recreation close to where they live. We must continue to build partnerships with federal, state, and local partners, conservation organizations, and the private sector to set aside lands and take care of those we already have. Maximize recreation opportunities on public lands besides hunting; for backpacking, birdwatching, hiking, etc. Likewise, parks should look for opportunities to improve opportunities hunting and fishing. Support funding for outdoor recreation initiatives on the federal level.
At the local level, county governments must consider Special Local Option Sales Taxes and also bonds to fund parks and recreational opportunities. A great example is in Paulding County, will be the model for years to come.
Let's develop dynamic outreach programs to interest newcomers to outdoor recreation an also reinvigorate those that used to participate but don’t as much as they used to. Encourage programs like "Rails to Trails" and the PATH Foundation to help manage the opportunities to connect lands managed by different organizations. The same could be done for waterways.
Noel Holcomb, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
We need to increase the quality of information given to the public. Our infrastructure and programs cannot be sustained by congressional appropriations alone. We must turn to partnerships and be more aggressive about pursuing them. Broaden the circle of conservation partners.
Charles L. Myers, Regional Forester, USFS Southern Region
Enable the urban population to travel by mass transit to travel to the outdoors. Support volunteerism; the American public must be involved. Assess how we can be less dependent on congressional appropriations in the future.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
SCORP (Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan) needs to include a balance between conservation and use, have a direct connection to a healthy Georgia and a healthy nation, and link the state’s economic vitality to outdoor recreation.We are responding the demographic paradigm shift by creating new partnerships with the Association of County Governments at both the city and county levels, health departments at the state and local levels, and the tourism elements of the State Organization of Economic Development. We also recognize the need to be generational in protecting natural resources.
Becky Kelley, Director of Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites
Get more kids in the woods by taking the message wherever you can. Our 5 main challenges to address are obesity, fear, single parents, boredom, and the education must be relevant.
Dennis Krusac, USFS Southern Region
Get educators (teachers and superintentents) involved. Get the message to the people who have the most influence over how often kids get outside during the day and then give them the skills to do it. Teach them archery, fishing, canoeing, etc.
As a mother of two, I want to know where to take my kids. We as parents need information about state parks, need to know why to take my kids out, and the outdoors need to be marketed better towards children.
Kyla Hastie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A lot of everyday recreation people do is in their local park. There are a lot of options for how to build facilities, such as impact fees for developing communities. We must figure out how to help local governments with maintenance and operation costs
Langford Holbrook, University of Georgia’s Fanning Leadership Institute
In America, wildlife is what connects us to outdoor recreation. Wildlife should be a part of everyday curriculum in school; develop schoolyard habitats. Educate kids about the State and Wildlife Action plans so they know the importance of protecting the land. Also, single mothers need to leave their kids with people they trust. Combat the challenge of single-parent households by partnering with churches that have Christian Sportsmen Ministries. Take your kids hunting and fishing because you won’t be hunting for them and you won’t be fishing them out of trouble!
Glen Dowling, Georgia Wildlife Federation
Due to the No Child Left Behind initiative, many science programs are being replaced with reading. The solution is to connect the outdoors with literacy.
In the South, funding isn’t coming from the state legislatures anymore due to the recent natural disasters. Funding needs to come from new, innovative sources. Turtle Point was built with trust monies.
We are losing our children to technology, but we can bring them back with it as well. We should partner with technology companies to do so. We could probably even get money from them.
Shirley West, Turtle Point Environmental Science Center
Most states have a Governor’s Conference on Tourism that brings all the elements of tourism together (transportation, hotels, etc.), so why not have a Governor’s Conference on Children and Nature? Also, politicians love a parade, but it’s difficult to organize their. Give them one! They’ll be more willing to find you funding.
We don’t have a circuit-rider program to connect and share good ideas across the country. We are reinventing the wheel again and again and we shouldn’t do that. Technology can be our friend.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
We started the first environmental justice and leadership institute, went into high schools to work with environmental science kids, and combined what they did in the field with what they did in the classroom. Need access to recreational facilities during the day, at night, or on the weekend. When there’s a money crunch these facilities are usually the first to be closed. We need access to what the state is doing, but we are rarely at the table in the planning stages. We also need support: financial and mentors. Young people need to see people who look like them in the outdoors.
Edith Ladipo, Environmental Education Institute
An initiative with a public/private partnership for Cobb County school students lets us unpack the new Georgia performance standards in science, especially with hands-on science. The new curriculum already being used with 3rd and 5th graders. However, disconnect is at the teacher level as well as at the student level. Teachers weren’t comfortable using the outdoor classrooms. We need to correct this. Science is the number one subject that keeps Georgia students from graduating, so kids need to get engaged with the outdoors. A public/private partnership model is the best way to save good programs.
Lynn McIntyre, Chattahoochee Nature Center
Consider that the outfitters in the country are also partners. They are not just out for money; they have a vested interest in keeping the next generation of Americans connected to the outdoors too.
Bob Westbrook, consultant, board member of Americans Outdoors
The North American Conservation Education Strategy is forming a web-based distance learning resource as a delivery mechanism for information, but it's not going to be possible without partnerships. It is expected to launch in fall of 2008. The goal is to use technology to reach into the classroom.
Tony Schoonen, Wonders of Wildlife
You can’t expose kids to something just one time and expect to make a lifetime difference. 4-H has 3-step programming to keep kids involved long-term.
Aubrey Deck, University of Tennessee
Gear publications towards women. Hit the single-parent families, but also women are often the ones getting their kids outside. They are an important variable. Many of our publications are also geared towards kids to keep them involved all year round, not just when they are at NWTF events.
Christine Rolka, National Wild Turkey Federation
Promote the interaction of people and wildlife on a small scale. You can study nature, not just books.
Dr. Paul Davison, University of North Alabama
We have seen that recreation covers diverse topics: gardening, large-scale wildlife, insects, hunting, technology, education, family. A whole web of things make up the recreation world and we have to think of it that way in order to connect ourselves to each other.
Margaret Bailey, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
It’s important to make that heart connection with children and nature at a very early age. Work with the curriculum needs of the school system.
Melissa Hamilton, Chattahoochee Nature Center
In Golden, there was a lot of concern about liability. Legislatively, it’s important to protect our partner organizations, especially those with deep pockets. We can deal with that by partnering companies with municipalities.
There are also inadvertent difficulties created by regulations. Outfitters shouldn’t have to pay to take kids outdoors. Ex: WOW program in Los Angeles. Commercial pack string operator takes WOW kids out, but has to count the kids as paying customers. It becomes a deterrent to concessioners operating on public lands to take underprivileged kids out on tours.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
We have not been great advocates of connecting nature to health. Dr. Louv’s labeling of Nature Deficit Disorder has helped all of us take more action, but we all have to understand that we must be ambassadors in linking nature and recreation to health and make sure our own professionals understand this. Currently there is a challenge to 7 parks across the country to demonstrate how being outdoors is health-related.
Fran Mainella, former director of the National Park Service
It's important to get to the element of play and to be less restrictive in terms of letting children explore their environment. It's also important to make some of the learning free from adults. Perhaps teenagers are better leaders to bring the message. Perhaps there should be a re-purposing of Americorps and other volunteer programs.
Laurie Fenwood, USFWS
Put the fun first! Let's use the fear element to our advantage. People will pay a fortune at Six Flags to be scared out of their wits! We just have to figure out how to turn the negatives into positives.
Roger Reid, Writer and Producer of TV show "Discovering Alabama"
There is currently a Recreation and Public Health Memorandum of Understanding to fight against the obesity epidemic that includes the Department of Transportation, Health and Human Services, the Department of Interior, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service. Our "Trails for Health" publication outlines the benefits to public health through recreation. Take the public health message and leverage it to further your agenda. There’s money out there to be had by doing so. Ex: you can tie volunteerism to the recommended 30 minutes of daily physical activity.
Also, we need to reach out to groups that work with under-represented populations. As African-American males, we often don’t see outdoor recreation as something we do, not because the interest isn’t there, but because of access issues.
Jody Brooks, Center for Disease Control
Hunters are have long been involved with outdoors through hunting licenses, voting to protect access, taxes on their arms and ammunition, etc. Hunting is still relevant in today’s world as a use of public lands and it is compatible with other outdoor activities. Some of our concerns are lack of quality management for wildlife, loss of open space, change of ownership in private lands leads to loss in access to the public lands, and unmanaged recreation. Hunters will continue to be great allies for outdoor recreation as long as they have access to public lands.
Joel Pedersen, National Wild Turkey Federation
In a letter from her fifteen-year-old son Josh and his friends "GEEKS in the Woods": we’re young, but we are people. Whatever you liked about nature, we’ll probably like it too, but make it relevant to us. We won’t ask our parents to take us out on a hike, but we want them to keep asking us to go. We recognize sincerity. Pay attention to our wants and needs. Experience nature with us even if you’ve done it before. Make it fun! We like technology, but we don’t need it to have fun outdoors.
Renee Morrison, Jacksonville State University field schools
The Forests don’t have funds for their own trail crews anymore, so volunteer users are doing it. Their organizations also provide the experienced people to take others out on the lands. It's important to remember the social aspect of recreation, that’s how you get more people out. The large organizations can also bring political support; they are here to partner and want to help.
Kent Wimmer, USFS and Florida National Scenic Trail
There aren’t a lot of youth out there working on the trails. We should make more youth on the trails a goal.
Larry Wheat, GPTA
Everyone loves sports, but not everyone can be a football or basketball player. Our "Archery in the School" program works with USFWS, and schools that have implemented the program have seen an increase in attendance rates.
Captain James Bell, Hunter Education Coordinator for State of Georgia
There needs to be mass awareness, particularly for the minority populations, in terms of connecting people to the outdoors. There’s a great connectivity between nature and the power to inspire, heal, and educate. If people of color aren’t involved in the public lands, it becomes down to taxation without representation, but if people don’t know what is out there, how can they experience it? There’s so much history about what minorities have contributed to the public land system, but this history is largely unknown. It's no wonder the outdoors have come to be seen as a "white thing." A white organization sending white representatives to speak to a minority group is not the best way to spread the message. Marketing needs to happen. McDonald’s and Nike don’t advertize because people don’t know about them, they do it to maintain stock share. Often, people don’t even know about the park system.
Also, we simply aren’t visible to kids. We aren’t in their school like the Armed Forces. Kids looking for opportunities. We need marketing that includes the diversity of the nation for many reasons. Kids of color need to think we are talking to them. Young people who we’re targeting need to see people who look like them from their own communities who have the passion and are already doing this work. Whites need to understand that their park constituency is changing. All Americans belong in the outdoors. Parks can be used to fight prejudice and racism in this country. Let's publicize the histories of different ethnic groups and their involvement in the development of this nation’s public lands.
The fact that outreach programs are the first to go when funding gets cut needs to change. It says a great deal about your priorities as an organization.
Illai Kenney, who formed "Georgia Kids Against Pollution," was the youngest delegate to the World Summit on Sustainable Energy in Johannesburg in 2003 at age 18. She has said, "The greatest environmental problem is poverty and the solution to every problem is love."
The missing link between public land managers and recreation providers is the grassroots leadership in the communities you are trying to reach.
Audrey Peterman, President, Earthwise Production, Inc.
Here in the South is the first time neighboring states have created a "Good Neighbors" campaign. You’ll see advertizing for Georgia in Alabama and vice versa.
How do we make public land use hot? Television. Summit your ideas for possible PSAs to this blog and name some celebrities you’d like to see represent this idea.
We need gimmicks. The passport system should be integrated into a universal program which includes municipalities and public lands.
Pete Conroy, Director, Jacksonville State University’s Field Schools
We need to stop drawing the line in the sand between good guys and bad guys. There’s value in recreation in all it’s forms. Recreation protects mental and physical health. We need to look for unusual partners. Ex: Beef Council is linking itself to active lifestyles.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
History and Archeology groups need to be involved in the effort. We also need to reach out to the tribal organizations who have a great deal of health problems, but also a historical connection to the land.
Melissa Twaroski, USFS Southern Region
We need to understand how ethnic diversity will affect the demand for and supply of recreation opportunities. While we must consider the needs of our aging population, who are often the more tradition land users (hunters, fishermen, etc.), we must also understand the under 20 age group, who are in many cases interested in the more extreme sports like rock climbing and mountain biking. Market to the under 20 groups. We can’t afford to become dinosaurs. We must understand language and cultural barriers and be in touch with what people expect from outdoor recreation providers. We cannot use a "business as usual approach."
We’ve got to provide quality, safe opportunities for people to participate in outdoors recreation close to where they live. We must continue to build partnerships with federal, state, and local partners, conservation organizations, and the private sector to set aside lands and take care of those we already have. Maximize recreation opportunities on public lands besides hunting; for backpacking, birdwatching, hiking, etc. Likewise, parks should look for opportunities to improve opportunities hunting and fishing. Support funding for outdoor recreation initiatives on the federal level.
At the local level, county governments must consider Special Local Option Sales Taxes and also bonds to fund parks and recreational opportunities. A great example is in Paulding County, will be the model for years to come.
Let's develop dynamic outreach programs to interest newcomers to outdoor recreation an also reinvigorate those that used to participate but don’t as much as they used to. Encourage programs like "Rails to Trails" and the PATH Foundation to help manage the opportunities to connect lands managed by different organizations. The same could be done for waterways.
Noel Holcomb, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
We need to increase the quality of information given to the public. Our infrastructure and programs cannot be sustained by congressional appropriations alone. We must turn to partnerships and be more aggressive about pursuing them. Broaden the circle of conservation partners.
Charles L. Myers, Regional Forester, USFS Southern Region
Enable the urban population to travel by mass transit to travel to the outdoors. Support volunteerism; the American public must be involved. Assess how we can be less dependent on congressional appropriations in the future.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
SCORP (Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan) needs to include a balance between conservation and use, have a direct connection to a healthy Georgia and a healthy nation, and link the state’s economic vitality to outdoor recreation.We are responding the demographic paradigm shift by creating new partnerships with the Association of County Governments at both the city and county levels, health departments at the state and local levels, and the tourism elements of the State Organization of Economic Development. We also recognize the need to be generational in protecting natural resources.
Becky Kelley, Director of Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites
Get more kids in the woods by taking the message wherever you can. Our 5 main challenges to address are obesity, fear, single parents, boredom, and the education must be relevant.
Dennis Krusac, USFS Southern Region
Get educators (teachers and superintentents) involved. Get the message to the people who have the most influence over how often kids get outside during the day and then give them the skills to do it. Teach them archery, fishing, canoeing, etc.
As a mother of two, I want to know where to take my kids. We as parents need information about state parks, need to know why to take my kids out, and the outdoors need to be marketed better towards children.
Kyla Hastie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A lot of everyday recreation people do is in their local park. There are a lot of options for how to build facilities, such as impact fees for developing communities. We must figure out how to help local governments with maintenance and operation costs
Langford Holbrook, University of Georgia’s Fanning Leadership Institute
In America, wildlife is what connects us to outdoor recreation. Wildlife should be a part of everyday curriculum in school; develop schoolyard habitats. Educate kids about the State and Wildlife Action plans so they know the importance of protecting the land. Also, single mothers need to leave their kids with people they trust. Combat the challenge of single-parent households by partnering with churches that have Christian Sportsmen Ministries. Take your kids hunting and fishing because you won’t be hunting for them and you won’t be fishing them out of trouble!
Glen Dowling, Georgia Wildlife Federation
Due to the No Child Left Behind initiative, many science programs are being replaced with reading. The solution is to connect the outdoors with literacy.
In the South, funding isn’t coming from the state legislatures anymore due to the recent natural disasters. Funding needs to come from new, innovative sources. Turtle Point was built with trust monies.
We are losing our children to technology, but we can bring them back with it as well. We should partner with technology companies to do so. We could probably even get money from them.
Shirley West, Turtle Point Environmental Science Center
Most states have a Governor’s Conference on Tourism that brings all the elements of tourism together (transportation, hotels, etc.), so why not have a Governor’s Conference on Children and Nature? Also, politicians love a parade, but it’s difficult to organize their. Give them one! They’ll be more willing to find you funding.
We don’t have a circuit-rider program to connect and share good ideas across the country. We are reinventing the wheel again and again and we shouldn’t do that. Technology can be our friend.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
We started the first environmental justice and leadership institute, went into high schools to work with environmental science kids, and combined what they did in the field with what they did in the classroom. Need access to recreational facilities during the day, at night, or on the weekend. When there’s a money crunch these facilities are usually the first to be closed. We need access to what the state is doing, but we are rarely at the table in the planning stages. We also need support: financial and mentors. Young people need to see people who look like them in the outdoors.
Edith Ladipo, Environmental Education Institute
An initiative with a public/private partnership for Cobb County school students lets us unpack the new Georgia performance standards in science, especially with hands-on science. The new curriculum already being used with 3rd and 5th graders. However, disconnect is at the teacher level as well as at the student level. Teachers weren’t comfortable using the outdoor classrooms. We need to correct this. Science is the number one subject that keeps Georgia students from graduating, so kids need to get engaged with the outdoors. A public/private partnership model is the best way to save good programs.
Lynn McIntyre, Chattahoochee Nature Center
Consider that the outfitters in the country are also partners. They are not just out for money; they have a vested interest in keeping the next generation of Americans connected to the outdoors too.
Bob Westbrook, consultant, board member of Americans Outdoors
The North American Conservation Education Strategy is forming a web-based distance learning resource as a delivery mechanism for information, but it's not going to be possible without partnerships. It is expected to launch in fall of 2008. The goal is to use technology to reach into the classroom.
Tony Schoonen, Wonders of Wildlife
You can’t expose kids to something just one time and expect to make a lifetime difference. 4-H has 3-step programming to keep kids involved long-term.
Aubrey Deck, University of Tennessee
Gear publications towards women. Hit the single-parent families, but also women are often the ones getting their kids outside. They are an important variable. Many of our publications are also geared towards kids to keep them involved all year round, not just when they are at NWTF events.
Christine Rolka, National Wild Turkey Federation
Promote the interaction of people and wildlife on a small scale. You can study nature, not just books.
Dr. Paul Davison, University of North Alabama
We have seen that recreation covers diverse topics: gardening, large-scale wildlife, insects, hunting, technology, education, family. A whole web of things make up the recreation world and we have to think of it that way in order to connect ourselves to each other.
Margaret Bailey, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
It’s important to make that heart connection with children and nature at a very early age. Work with the curriculum needs of the school system.
Melissa Hamilton, Chattahoochee Nature Center
In Golden, there was a lot of concern about liability. Legislatively, it’s important to protect our partner organizations, especially those with deep pockets. We can deal with that by partnering companies with municipalities.
There are also inadvertent difficulties created by regulations. Outfitters shouldn’t have to pay to take kids outdoors. Ex: WOW program in Los Angeles. Commercial pack string operator takes WOW kids out, but has to count the kids as paying customers. It becomes a deterrent to concessioners operating on public lands to take underprivileged kids out on tours.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
We have not been great advocates of connecting nature to health. Dr. Louv’s labeling of Nature Deficit Disorder has helped all of us take more action, but we all have to understand that we must be ambassadors in linking nature and recreation to health and make sure our own professionals understand this. Currently there is a challenge to 7 parks across the country to demonstrate how being outdoors is health-related.
Fran Mainella, former director of the National Park Service
It's important to get to the element of play and to be less restrictive in terms of letting children explore their environment. It's also important to make some of the learning free from adults. Perhaps teenagers are better leaders to bring the message. Perhaps there should be a re-purposing of Americorps and other volunteer programs.
Laurie Fenwood, USFWS
Put the fun first! Let's use the fear element to our advantage. People will pay a fortune at Six Flags to be scared out of their wits! We just have to figure out how to turn the negatives into positives.
Roger Reid, Writer and Producer of TV show "Discovering Alabama"
There is currently a Recreation and Public Health Memorandum of Understanding to fight against the obesity epidemic that includes the Department of Transportation, Health and Human Services, the Department of Interior, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service. Our "Trails for Health" publication outlines the benefits to public health through recreation. Take the public health message and leverage it to further your agenda. There’s money out there to be had by doing so. Ex: you can tie volunteerism to the recommended 30 minutes of daily physical activity.
Also, we need to reach out to groups that work with under-represented populations. As African-American males, we often don’t see outdoor recreation as something we do, not because the interest isn’t there, but because of access issues.
Jody Brooks, Center for Disease Control
Hunters are have long been involved with outdoors through hunting licenses, voting to protect access, taxes on their arms and ammunition, etc. Hunting is still relevant in today’s world as a use of public lands and it is compatible with other outdoor activities. Some of our concerns are lack of quality management for wildlife, loss of open space, change of ownership in private lands leads to loss in access to the public lands, and unmanaged recreation. Hunters will continue to be great allies for outdoor recreation as long as they have access to public lands.
Joel Pedersen, National Wild Turkey Federation
In a letter from her fifteen-year-old son Josh and his friends "GEEKS in the Woods": we’re young, but we are people. Whatever you liked about nature, we’ll probably like it too, but make it relevant to us. We won’t ask our parents to take us out on a hike, but we want them to keep asking us to go. We recognize sincerity. Pay attention to our wants and needs. Experience nature with us even if you’ve done it before. Make it fun! We like technology, but we don’t need it to have fun outdoors.
Renee Morrison, Jacksonville State University field schools
The Forests don’t have funds for their own trail crews anymore, so volunteer users are doing it. Their organizations also provide the experienced people to take others out on the lands. It's important to remember the social aspect of recreation, that’s how you get more people out. The large organizations can also bring political support; they are here to partner and want to help.
Kent Wimmer, USFS and Florida National Scenic Trail
There aren’t a lot of youth out there working on the trails. We should make more youth on the trails a goal.
Larry Wheat, GPTA
Everyone loves sports, but not everyone can be a football or basketball player. Our "Archery in the School" program works with USFWS, and schools that have implemented the program have seen an increase in attendance rates.
Captain James Bell, Hunter Education Coordinator for State of Georgia
There needs to be mass awareness, particularly for the minority populations, in terms of connecting people to the outdoors. There’s a great connectivity between nature and the power to inspire, heal, and educate. If people of color aren’t involved in the public lands, it becomes down to taxation without representation, but if people don’t know what is out there, how can they experience it? There’s so much history about what minorities have contributed to the public land system, but this history is largely unknown. It's no wonder the outdoors have come to be seen as a "white thing." A white organization sending white representatives to speak to a minority group is not the best way to spread the message. Marketing needs to happen. McDonald’s and Nike don’t advertize because people don’t know about them, they do it to maintain stock share. Often, people don’t even know about the park system.
Also, we simply aren’t visible to kids. We aren’t in their school like the Armed Forces. Kids looking for opportunities. We need marketing that includes the diversity of the nation for many reasons. Kids of color need to think we are talking to them. Young people who we’re targeting need to see people who look like them from their own communities who have the passion and are already doing this work. Whites need to understand that their park constituency is changing. All Americans belong in the outdoors. Parks can be used to fight prejudice and racism in this country. Let's publicize the histories of different ethnic groups and their involvement in the development of this nation’s public lands.
The fact that outreach programs are the first to go when funding gets cut needs to change. It says a great deal about your priorities as an organization.
Illai Kenney, who formed "Georgia Kids Against Pollution," was the youngest delegate to the World Summit on Sustainable Energy in Johannesburg in 2003 at age 18. She has said, "The greatest environmental problem is poverty and the solution to every problem is love."
The missing link between public land managers and recreation providers is the grassroots leadership in the communities you are trying to reach.
Audrey Peterman, President, Earthwise Production, Inc.
Here in the South is the first time neighboring states have created a "Good Neighbors" campaign. You’ll see advertizing for Georgia in Alabama and vice versa.
How do we make public land use hot? Television. Summit your ideas for possible PSAs to this blog and name some celebrities you’d like to see represent this idea.
We need gimmicks. The passport system should be integrated into a universal program which includes municipalities and public lands.
Pete Conroy, Director, Jacksonville State University’s Field Schools
We need to stop drawing the line in the sand between good guys and bad guys. There’s value in recreation in all it’s forms. Recreation protects mental and physical health. We need to look for unusual partners. Ex: Beef Council is linking itself to active lifestyles.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
History and Archeology groups need to be involved in the effort. We also need to reach out to the tribal organizations who have a great deal of health problems, but also a historical connection to the land.
Melissa Twaroski, USFS Southern Region
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Programs to Highlight from Cobb County Recreation Forum
The following are some of the exemplary programs that were presented at the Recreation Forum in Cobb County, Georgia, on March 9, 2007. Please feel free to comment on how these programs could be furthered or replicated.
I had a vision of a "campus concept" in recreation when I was a department head and pushed to implement it when I became County Manager. In Cobb you will find the campus concept. Aquatic centers, art places, libraries, senior centers, fire stations, rec centers, and health agencies have consolidated and share their resources; joint facilities allow families to be truly engaged together.
David Hankerson, Manager of Cobb County
We are directing a program focusing on children and parents called "Discovering Alabama in Your Own Backyard." We train parents to take their kids outside and reconnect to their child.
Shirley West, Turtle Point Environmental Science Center
The Connecticut State Park System was on a death spiral when Gina McCarthy, Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, came to office two years ago. Instead of going to the legislature for more money, she decided to increase visitation. They took "Amazing Race," adapted it to the "Great Park Chase," and invited families to go to 8 state parks on 8 successive weekends. They even got the media onboard. The Hartford Current, which had ignored the state parks for years, now runs a full page story on the hidden gems of CT’s state parks each month. McCarthy’s visitation is now up 80%, which means her budget is up over 50%. Bank of America wanted to support McCarthy’s park initiatives with $10,000. She asked them to instead buy an annual state park pass for every family in CT caring for a foster child. She gave out 8,000 passes and brought in an entirely new constituency to CT's state parks.
Connecticut has copyrighted "No Child Left Inside." McCarthy has done an array of programs in connection with the Connecticut State libraries. You can check out a state park pass just like a book. In exchange for getting these passes, each library has to do a display that features a different state park each month. Makes sense because this is where families with young children go.
The head of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation decided to waive fees to public swimming pools for everyone who can show a public welfare card. He increased his margin and found more sponsors.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
How do you attract families with so many other competitors for their time to come to the outdoors? With our "Evening in the Parks Program," we made the parks accessible at night so working families can come. We hold a Fall and Winter "Owl Prowl." "Sunset in the Swamp"allows people to wade into the wetlands. We even have "Frog Frolics." There's a great need to have parent-child adventures. You give kids the illusion of high independence and make parents even more comfortable to come back during the day.
Jerry Hightower, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
At the state level we need dynamic new programs like Governor Sonny Perdue’s "Go Fish Georgia" initiative, which seeks to improve fishing opportunities, quality, and access for Georgia’s 1.5 million fishermen.
Noel Holcomb, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Our Life Skills Program teaches work ethics through gardening. We contract with juvenile courts and put kids who are in trouble to work in the gardens. Two hours in the classroom teach better decision-making and then work in the gardens fulfills community service requirements.
Sheldon Fleming, Wonderland Gardens
The "Earth Parent Program"is about parent volunteers; it provides an Earth Parent for every classroom. Parents go into the classroom every month and teach an environmental/science/social studies lesson that gets kids outside. Has to conform to education standards. They do habitat studies, pollution, life cycle studies, etc. It also involves other partners such as Cobb County.
Brenda Hottinger, Ford PTSA Elementary School
Little Rock, Arkansas, has a new piece of trail called "The Medical Mile." A group of cardiologists banned together with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Catholic hospital, and spent $1.5 million to build the Medical Mile that connects people with the trial system and urges people to get outside. The important thing is that the doctors brought resources to the table: money, knowledge, enthusiasm, political contacts. We need these people as allies. We don’t have to do it all ourselves!
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
Kids today are just as interested in the outdoors as they have been in the past. What’s lacking is someone to teach them, someone to take them, and somewhere to go. We have the Mentor hunting program. One-time events aren’t enough, so we have a nine step process that links experienced hunters with access to young people; includes woodmanship skills. Our "Living with White-tailed Deer" is a high school course that includes science, civics, and environmental science. It teaches young people to deal with difficult environmental management issues.
Brian Murphy, Quality Deer Management Association
Collaboration is the key to encourage communities to rally around the concept of connecting youth to the outdoors. For example, the Forest Service and various organizations partnered with the Talladega Board of Education in Alabama to design the state’s first environmental/forestry themed elementary school. Partners came together to sponsor interactive (hands-on) exhibits located throughout the school’s interior. Students in K-6 learn about nature daily through the use of exhibits, outdoor classrooms, and instruction. The design of the school’s exhibits correlates with the State of Alabama science curriculum.
Tammy F. Truett, US Forest Service
I had a vision of a "campus concept" in recreation when I was a department head and pushed to implement it when I became County Manager. In Cobb you will find the campus concept. Aquatic centers, art places, libraries, senior centers, fire stations, rec centers, and health agencies have consolidated and share their resources; joint facilities allow families to be truly engaged together.
David Hankerson, Manager of Cobb County
We are directing a program focusing on children and parents called "Discovering Alabama in Your Own Backyard." We train parents to take their kids outside and reconnect to their child.
Shirley West, Turtle Point Environmental Science Center
The Connecticut State Park System was on a death spiral when Gina McCarthy, Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, came to office two years ago. Instead of going to the legislature for more money, she decided to increase visitation. They took "Amazing Race," adapted it to the "Great Park Chase," and invited families to go to 8 state parks on 8 successive weekends. They even got the media onboard. The Hartford Current, which had ignored the state parks for years, now runs a full page story on the hidden gems of CT’s state parks each month. McCarthy’s visitation is now up 80%, which means her budget is up over 50%. Bank of America wanted to support McCarthy’s park initiatives with $10,000. She asked them to instead buy an annual state park pass for every family in CT caring for a foster child. She gave out 8,000 passes and brought in an entirely new constituency to CT's state parks.
Connecticut has copyrighted "No Child Left Inside." McCarthy has done an array of programs in connection with the Connecticut State libraries. You can check out a state park pass just like a book. In exchange for getting these passes, each library has to do a display that features a different state park each month. Makes sense because this is where families with young children go.
The head of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation decided to waive fees to public swimming pools for everyone who can show a public welfare card. He increased his margin and found more sponsors.
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
How do you attract families with so many other competitors for their time to come to the outdoors? With our "Evening in the Parks Program," we made the parks accessible at night so working families can come. We hold a Fall and Winter "Owl Prowl." "Sunset in the Swamp"allows people to wade into the wetlands. We even have "Frog Frolics." There's a great need to have parent-child adventures. You give kids the illusion of high independence and make parents even more comfortable to come back during the day.
Jerry Hightower, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
At the state level we need dynamic new programs like Governor Sonny Perdue’s "Go Fish Georgia" initiative, which seeks to improve fishing opportunities, quality, and access for Georgia’s 1.5 million fishermen.
Noel Holcomb, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Our Life Skills Program teaches work ethics through gardening. We contract with juvenile courts and put kids who are in trouble to work in the gardens. Two hours in the classroom teach better decision-making and then work in the gardens fulfills community service requirements.
Sheldon Fleming, Wonderland Gardens
The "Earth Parent Program"is about parent volunteers; it provides an Earth Parent for every classroom. Parents go into the classroom every month and teach an environmental/science/social studies lesson that gets kids outside. Has to conform to education standards. They do habitat studies, pollution, life cycle studies, etc. It also involves other partners such as Cobb County.
Brenda Hottinger, Ford PTSA Elementary School
Little Rock, Arkansas, has a new piece of trail called "The Medical Mile." A group of cardiologists banned together with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Catholic hospital, and spent $1.5 million to build the Medical Mile that connects people with the trial system and urges people to get outside. The important thing is that the doctors brought resources to the table: money, knowledge, enthusiasm, political contacts. We need these people as allies. We don’t have to do it all ourselves!
Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition
Kids today are just as interested in the outdoors as they have been in the past. What’s lacking is someone to teach them, someone to take them, and somewhere to go. We have the Mentor hunting program. One-time events aren’t enough, so we have a nine step process that links experienced hunters with access to young people; includes woodmanship skills. Our "Living with White-tailed Deer" is a high school course that includes science, civics, and environmental science. It teaches young people to deal with difficult environmental management issues.
Brian Murphy, Quality Deer Management Association
Collaboration is the key to encourage communities to rally around the concept of connecting youth to the outdoors. For example, the Forest Service and various organizations partnered with the Talladega Board of Education in Alabama to design the state’s first environmental/forestry themed elementary school. Partners came together to sponsor interactive (hands-on) exhibits located throughout the school’s interior. Students in K-6 learn about nature daily through the use of exhibits, outdoor classrooms, and instruction. The design of the school’s exhibits correlates with the State of Alabama science curriculum.
Tammy F. Truett, US Forest Service
Key Ideas & Recommendations from Golden Recreation Forum
The following are key ideas and recommendations delivered at the Recreation Forum in Golden, Colorado on March 1, 2007. Please feel free to add comments on these suggestions and how they can best be implemented.
Don’t forget the fun side of recreation! People don’t fall in love with nature by being bussed to a visitor center or reading an information kiosk. They go on bike rides, get lost, get dirty, explore on their own terms, etc. We can appeal to kids this way. From a land management perspective, trails don’t need to be ten feet wide and paved. Also, the concept of leveraging volunteer power of all these different groups is extremely important. We need to expand our grassroots potential by empowering volunteers.
Jenn Dice, International Mountain Bicycling Association
Advocate for and build on existing successes. Learn from those groups that know what they’re doing and are already taking kids out into the wilderness. Furthermore, challenge the status quo. Reject the claim that educational and non profits organizations compete with commercial outfitter guides. They serve different communities with distinctly different needs.
Having to beg for permits day to day is not how you build a long-term program with permanence. Somewhere there is a collaborative and cooperative solution to be found working with public land managers.
When dealing with the issue of liability, respond to the current legal climate. There is a disconnect between the reality and perception of risk faced by non-profits. The majority of these programs don’t face these legal issues. Great practices and upholding standards take a big bite out of legislative risk.
There needs to be aggressive long-term advocating for more money for land management agencies, but in the mean time, empower and support the organizations that must collect fees. Fees are preferred if they mean having better managed resources and lands and a higher-quality experience.
Christopher Barnes, Executive Director, High Mountain Institute
Outreach to public education is key, so it is disturbing that outreach is usually one of the first things to go when the budgets are cut. Solve problems by bringing opponents into the parks; great strategy of making unlikely friends. In the past we have solved noise problems with the Navy and Air Force by inviting the commanding Generals out to the parks.
Steve Auberman, Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees
The best way for policymakers to get kids more active is to focus on where kids spend most of their time: school! State legislatures should require participation in PE classes taught by certified instructors. Support legislation for school-sponsored sports. Provide training for volunteers who want to coach or organize.
Some kids cannot participate in community-based sport and recreation programs due to lack of transportation or inability to pay. Policymakers could level the playing field by requiring that state and federal physical activity programs target underserved populations. Subsidized transportation programs in CA and federal matching fund programs in MI are good examples for policymakers to follow.
Design communities in a way that encourages physical activity. TX and CA both have laws that require the designation of safe routes to schools to encourage kids to walk or ride bikes. Allow school grounds to be used by the public for recreation.
Funding can come from creative sources. CO uses lottery proceeds to build and maintain parks and trails, NM uses tobacco settlement money to support after school athletic activities, and AL uses its educational trust fund to support the YMCA.
The way to affect change is to maintain a direct line of communication between the constituency and the state legislature.
Today there are several hot topics in regards to health and wellness, especially workplace wellness. Attach yourself as an organization to these issues and sneak in the outdoor recreation spin. Also, partner with other organizations that already have these ideas but maybe don’t have the money. Practice "enlightened self-interest."
Madeline Kriescher, Policy Associate in the Health Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Connecting kids to the outdoors is not just about taking them to far away natural places, you can connect kids to the outdoors wherever they happen to be. Utilize city parks. It is important to simply give them a positive memorable experience to generate a permanent interest in the outdoors.
Mike Barney, Denver Parks and Recreation
Non-profits need board members with legal, accounting, and permitting experience to reduce their financial load. Help groups do what they do best (introducing kids to the outdoors) by contributing related skills.
Sometimes there is the question of whether large corporations just want use your positive feeling for their own publicity or if they actually believe in your cause. If you band together as youth development groups and go to the "non-endemics" as a group, the more power you have. It's easier for national corporations to support your cause and fund your programs if you approach them as a coherent group.
Paid leave for volunteer work has been integrated into many outdoor businesses to get workers to give back. Many organizations provide great opportunities for volunteer work on public lands. You don’t have to just do conservation work, you could work with taking youth to the outdoors. Partner with organizations that already do a great job organizing volunteers, and bring them onto the public lands rather than inventing new programs.
Michelle Barnes, Outdoor Industry Foundation
Collaboration is the best way to meet challenges and bridging between groups with common interests is key. Provide a platform for "No Child Left Inside" by connecting with the educators of service learning and experiential education. You don’t have to take kids to national parks, just get them outside! Eagle Rock is a nature conservancy school away from urban areas, and we often deal with the issue that students want to go back to the city. We need to activate them, keep them engaged. The school system harbors the greatest opportunities for change.
John Guffey, Eagle Rock School
We need to establish common goals. We may have different audiences and needs, but we also have a lot of commonalities and should work from those. Let's establish them and find areas to come together. We need to speak with a unified voice. It's more effective and easier on agencies and legislatures.
We need a visionary strategy that better deals with inclusivity. We need to be better listeners. Let's work to involve entire families, and listen to what the parents need.
Garner broad support for outdoor education. We need to give the youth we’re trying to help a better voice in developing programs; attract rather then push them into programs. Get kids outside as little kids. This goal can be even be aided by the public school system and urban zoning land policies. Integrate outdoor education with science, language skills (have kids write about the outdoors), math; show value of the outcomes. Sometimes the information gets to the schools, but not to the kids or parents. Better educate teachers and administrators who sign off on the programs. Keep kids involved. Since older youth need to work to save money for college, develop more paid jobs for youths. There’s also a fragmentation of the different outdoor education groups; we need better communication and a consistent voice.
We need to reform the permit system; make it easier for groups to understand. Increase consistency of standards across different parks and forests.
Also, we need to educate policymakers if we are to expand outdoor education opportunities for young people. Articulate the mission and take the issues to the people who handle the purse strings. Make them understand the value of the outcomes. Reach out to unlikely allies in Congress.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
Penelope Purdy, Colorado Journalist- Reporting on the breakout session "Venturing Out: Exploring Effective Educational, Employment, and Recreational Ways to Engage Youth in the Outdoors"
There's a need for an outreach strategy to multicultural audiences that is on their terms, is comfortable for them, and that they will understand. Use local outdoor opportunities. Recognize how we perpetuate exclusivity and how we can eliminate it; this is especially important in an outreach strategy, particularly in regards to ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.
We need to work together to streamline processes; there should be equity for nonprofit organizations wishing to have access to public lands. Build capacity with our nonprofits to develop that equity and access.
Design our experiences and opportunities and then match them appropriately. Make it a comfortable experience with an eye on stewardship to the land and sustainability.
Bob Dettman, U.S. Forest Service- Reporting on the breakout session "Building Partnerships: Increasing Outdoor Opportunities for Urban, Diverse, and Younger Populations"
We need to outreach to communities of color, as recreation interests will be extremely dependent on these people in the future, especially to professionals of color.
Stacy Gilmore
Doctors are largely unaware of connection between nature and health. There should be training in doctor premed about these relationships.
Create more dog parks. They involve the benefits of recreation, exercise, the outdoors, and social groups. Also, design neighborhoods differently, make them more walking-friendly. Put a focus on lifetime sports such as walking, swimming, and others that aim to improve quality of life rather than just basketball, football, etc.
Stimulate health activities at work, possibility of health monitoring and screening on the job.
Don’t compartmentalize recreation activities; market them as a continuum. We must better sell those health benefits to the general public. All of us need to be in the business of marketing ourselves. However, just as the Food Pyramid did not make people eat better, paper proliferation towards this effort is not the way to go. We need to market the issue towards people’s emotions.
There needs to be a better balance between the values of "more, better, faster, cheaper" and beauty, fun, aesthetics, family, etc.
Marcella Wells, Wells Resources, Inc.- Reporting on the breakout session "Getting Active in the Outdoors: Increasing Public Awareness of Healthy Habits, Diet Choices, and Physical Activity"
We often work in our own silos (national, state, local) trying to do the same thing. There needs to be more communication. We are also missing some key groups. The National Recreation and Parks Association needs to be involved in the conversation, as do state level associations. Our resources should be combined. New technology is being used to measure how our parks and trails are serving our communities which should be used at all levels.
Teresa Pennbrook, CEO and Founder of Greenplay, LLC
Outdoor education goals can best be achieved by partnering the hundreds of willing nonprofits with public land management organizations.
Joshua Hicks, Wilderness Society’s Recreation Planning Program
Don’t forget the fun side of recreation! People don’t fall in love with nature by being bussed to a visitor center or reading an information kiosk. They go on bike rides, get lost, get dirty, explore on their own terms, etc. We can appeal to kids this way. From a land management perspective, trails don’t need to be ten feet wide and paved. Also, the concept of leveraging volunteer power of all these different groups is extremely important. We need to expand our grassroots potential by empowering volunteers.
Jenn Dice, International Mountain Bicycling Association
Advocate for and build on existing successes. Learn from those groups that know what they’re doing and are already taking kids out into the wilderness. Furthermore, challenge the status quo. Reject the claim that educational and non profits organizations compete with commercial outfitter guides. They serve different communities with distinctly different needs.
Having to beg for permits day to day is not how you build a long-term program with permanence. Somewhere there is a collaborative and cooperative solution to be found working with public land managers.
When dealing with the issue of liability, respond to the current legal climate. There is a disconnect between the reality and perception of risk faced by non-profits. The majority of these programs don’t face these legal issues. Great practices and upholding standards take a big bite out of legislative risk.
There needs to be aggressive long-term advocating for more money for land management agencies, but in the mean time, empower and support the organizations that must collect fees. Fees are preferred if they mean having better managed resources and lands and a higher-quality experience.
Christopher Barnes, Executive Director, High Mountain Institute
Outreach to public education is key, so it is disturbing that outreach is usually one of the first things to go when the budgets are cut. Solve problems by bringing opponents into the parks; great strategy of making unlikely friends. In the past we have solved noise problems with the Navy and Air Force by inviting the commanding Generals out to the parks.
Steve Auberman, Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees
The best way for policymakers to get kids more active is to focus on where kids spend most of their time: school! State legislatures should require participation in PE classes taught by certified instructors. Support legislation for school-sponsored sports. Provide training for volunteers who want to coach or organize.
Some kids cannot participate in community-based sport and recreation programs due to lack of transportation or inability to pay. Policymakers could level the playing field by requiring that state and federal physical activity programs target underserved populations. Subsidized transportation programs in CA and federal matching fund programs in MI are good examples for policymakers to follow.
Design communities in a way that encourages physical activity. TX and CA both have laws that require the designation of safe routes to schools to encourage kids to walk or ride bikes. Allow school grounds to be used by the public for recreation.
Funding can come from creative sources. CO uses lottery proceeds to build and maintain parks and trails, NM uses tobacco settlement money to support after school athletic activities, and AL uses its educational trust fund to support the YMCA.
The way to affect change is to maintain a direct line of communication between the constituency and the state legislature.
Today there are several hot topics in regards to health and wellness, especially workplace wellness. Attach yourself as an organization to these issues and sneak in the outdoor recreation spin. Also, partner with other organizations that already have these ideas but maybe don’t have the money. Practice "enlightened self-interest."
Madeline Kriescher, Policy Associate in the Health Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Connecting kids to the outdoors is not just about taking them to far away natural places, you can connect kids to the outdoors wherever they happen to be. Utilize city parks. It is important to simply give them a positive memorable experience to generate a permanent interest in the outdoors.
Mike Barney, Denver Parks and Recreation
Non-profits need board members with legal, accounting, and permitting experience to reduce their financial load. Help groups do what they do best (introducing kids to the outdoors) by contributing related skills.
Sometimes there is the question of whether large corporations just want use your positive feeling for their own publicity or if they actually believe in your cause. If you band together as youth development groups and go to the "non-endemics" as a group, the more power you have. It's easier for national corporations to support your cause and fund your programs if you approach them as a coherent group.
Paid leave for volunteer work has been integrated into many outdoor businesses to get workers to give back. Many organizations provide great opportunities for volunteer work on public lands. You don’t have to just do conservation work, you could work with taking youth to the outdoors. Partner with organizations that already do a great job organizing volunteers, and bring them onto the public lands rather than inventing new programs.
Michelle Barnes, Outdoor Industry Foundation
Collaboration is the best way to meet challenges and bridging between groups with common interests is key. Provide a platform for "No Child Left Inside" by connecting with the educators of service learning and experiential education. You don’t have to take kids to national parks, just get them outside! Eagle Rock is a nature conservancy school away from urban areas, and we often deal with the issue that students want to go back to the city. We need to activate them, keep them engaged. The school system harbors the greatest opportunities for change.
John Guffey, Eagle Rock School
We need to establish common goals. We may have different audiences and needs, but we also have a lot of commonalities and should work from those. Let's establish them and find areas to come together. We need to speak with a unified voice. It's more effective and easier on agencies and legislatures.
We need a visionary strategy that better deals with inclusivity. We need to be better listeners. Let's work to involve entire families, and listen to what the parents need.
Garner broad support for outdoor education. We need to give the youth we’re trying to help a better voice in developing programs; attract rather then push them into programs. Get kids outside as little kids. This goal can be even be aided by the public school system and urban zoning land policies. Integrate outdoor education with science, language skills (have kids write about the outdoors), math; show value of the outcomes. Sometimes the information gets to the schools, but not to the kids or parents. Better educate teachers and administrators who sign off on the programs. Keep kids involved. Since older youth need to work to save money for college, develop more paid jobs for youths. There’s also a fragmentation of the different outdoor education groups; we need better communication and a consistent voice.
We need to reform the permit system; make it easier for groups to understand. Increase consistency of standards across different parks and forests.
Also, we need to educate policymakers if we are to expand outdoor education opportunities for young people. Articulate the mission and take the issues to the people who handle the purse strings. Make them understand the value of the outcomes. Reach out to unlikely allies in Congress.
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
Penelope Purdy, Colorado Journalist- Reporting on the breakout session "Venturing Out: Exploring Effective Educational, Employment, and Recreational Ways to Engage Youth in the Outdoors"
There's a need for an outreach strategy to multicultural audiences that is on their terms, is comfortable for them, and that they will understand. Use local outdoor opportunities. Recognize how we perpetuate exclusivity and how we can eliminate it; this is especially important in an outreach strategy, particularly in regards to ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.
We need to work together to streamline processes; there should be equity for nonprofit organizations wishing to have access to public lands. Build capacity with our nonprofits to develop that equity and access.
Design our experiences and opportunities and then match them appropriately. Make it a comfortable experience with an eye on stewardship to the land and sustainability.
Bob Dettman, U.S. Forest Service- Reporting on the breakout session "Building Partnerships: Increasing Outdoor Opportunities for Urban, Diverse, and Younger Populations"
We need to outreach to communities of color, as recreation interests will be extremely dependent on these people in the future, especially to professionals of color.
Stacy Gilmore
Doctors are largely unaware of connection between nature and health. There should be training in doctor premed about these relationships.
Create more dog parks. They involve the benefits of recreation, exercise, the outdoors, and social groups. Also, design neighborhoods differently, make them more walking-friendly. Put a focus on lifetime sports such as walking, swimming, and others that aim to improve quality of life rather than just basketball, football, etc.
Stimulate health activities at work, possibility of health monitoring and screening on the job.
Don’t compartmentalize recreation activities; market them as a continuum. We must better sell those health benefits to the general public. All of us need to be in the business of marketing ourselves. However, just as the Food Pyramid did not make people eat better, paper proliferation towards this effort is not the way to go. We need to market the issue towards people’s emotions.
There needs to be a better balance between the values of "more, better, faster, cheaper" and beauty, fun, aesthetics, family, etc.
Marcella Wells, Wells Resources, Inc.- Reporting on the breakout session "Getting Active in the Outdoors: Increasing Public Awareness of Healthy Habits, Diet Choices, and Physical Activity"
We often work in our own silos (national, state, local) trying to do the same thing. There needs to be more communication. We are also missing some key groups. The National Recreation and Parks Association needs to be involved in the conversation, as do state level associations. Our resources should be combined. New technology is being used to measure how our parks and trails are serving our communities which should be used at all levels.
Teresa Pennbrook, CEO and Founder of Greenplay, LLC
Outdoor education goals can best be achieved by partnering the hundreds of willing nonprofits with public land management organizations.
Joshua Hicks, Wilderness Society’s Recreation Planning Program
Programs to Highlight from Golden Recreation Forum
The following are some of the exemplary programs that were presented at the Recreation Forum in Golden, Colorado, on March 1, 2007:
The mayors of Colorado recently started a program called "Mayors on the Move" to encourage citizens to get more exercise. The goal is to walk 10,000 steps per day. All of the mayors wear pedometers to track their daily progress.
Chuck Baroch, Mayor of Golden, Colorado
Asheville Teens Outside is a great example of a self-sustaining, replicable program that gets teens outside. It brought together local complementary partners like the local Parks and Rec Department, UNC at Asheville, and local outdoor businesses.
Outdoor Industry Foundation with the National Wildlife Federation are currently running three programs that have a sustainable impact on getting youth active.
1) Outdoor Idols- Find youth doing amazing things in outdoor recreation who want to pass their passion on to the next generation and give them a platform. Kids need role models. They have them in sports, why not in outdoor recreation?
2) Teens Outside- Partners local parks and recreation programs, local businesses, and colleges. The program brings together kids who need exposure to outdoor activities with equipment and college kids who are pursuing careers in outdoor recreation. Programs teach kids in their own community in a sustainable fashion with a positive mentor.
3) Great American Backyard Campout- Camping is the gateway activity for many American families to outdoor recreation; initiative encourages people to get reconnected to the outdoors through camping.
These programs are successful for three key aspects:
-There has to be a mentor. Kids have to be invited into the outdoors by someone they trust
-Programs need to be sustainable. Events are great, but programs live on
-Kids need to have a good, safe, positive experience, which means good equipment and knowledgeable guides.
Michelle Barnes, Vice President, Outdoor Industry Foundation
The mayors of Colorado recently started a program called "Mayors on the Move" to encourage citizens to get more exercise. The goal is to walk 10,000 steps per day. All of the mayors wear pedometers to track their daily progress.
Chuck Baroch, Mayor of Golden, Colorado
Asheville Teens Outside is a great example of a self-sustaining, replicable program that gets teens outside. It brought together local complementary partners like the local Parks and Rec Department, UNC at Asheville, and local outdoor businesses.
Outdoor Industry Foundation with the National Wildlife Federation are currently running three programs that have a sustainable impact on getting youth active.
1) Outdoor Idols- Find youth doing amazing things in outdoor recreation who want to pass their passion on to the next generation and give them a platform. Kids need role models. They have them in sports, why not in outdoor recreation?
2) Teens Outside- Partners local parks and recreation programs, local businesses, and colleges. The program brings together kids who need exposure to outdoor activities with equipment and college kids who are pursuing careers in outdoor recreation. Programs teach kids in their own community in a sustainable fashion with a positive mentor.
3) Great American Backyard Campout- Camping is the gateway activity for many American families to outdoor recreation; initiative encourages people to get reconnected to the outdoors through camping.
These programs are successful for three key aspects:
-There has to be a mentor. Kids have to be invited into the outdoors by someone they trust
-Programs need to be sustainable. Events are great, but programs live on
-Kids need to have a good, safe, positive experience, which means good equipment and knowledgeable guides.
Michelle Barnes, Vice President, Outdoor Industry Foundation
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