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