Please save the date for Georgia’s 14th annual Outdoor Classroom Symposium to be held Friday, November 5, 2010, at Zoo Atlanta!

The theme of “Get Outdoors! Teaching Locally, Connecting Globally” will feature hands-on sessions on how to create outdoor teaching spaces, how to how to teach outdoors, and how to use local resources to make connections to the larger world.  New this year, three speakers will give presentations in Zoo Atlanta’s auditorium. They include Daron Joffe AKA “Farmer D” of Farmer D Organics; Jerry Hightower, Outdoor Educator Extraordinaire from the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area; and  Dr. Joe Mendelson, Curator of Herpetology at Zoo Atlanta.  Other highlights will include “make and take” classes, informative exhibits prepared by program providers and outdoor classroom experts, presentation of the Outdoor Classroom Service Award, and endless opportunities for networking and inspiration!

Educators may also choose extend their learning and earn a professional learning unit (1 PLU) by participating in one of two post-symposium workshops to be held 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM at the Zoo on Saturday, November 6.  The “Our Shared Forests” workshop will introduce educators to a multi-cultural, environmental education project featuring standards-based curriculum units on ethnobotany, migratory birds and sustainable forests as well as family science night kits. The other workshop choice is “Global Connections with Project Learning Tree® (PLT):  Biodiversity of the World’s Forests.” PLT is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and PreK — 12th grade students. In addition to the PreK — 8 PLT curriculum guide, participants will receive the “Forests of the World” and “Biodiversity” secondary curriculum modules.

Additional details will be available when the symposium registration opens by late August, 2010.

The Outdoor Classroom Council (OCC) is an initiative of the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia (EEA) and is comprised of a coalition of organizations and individuals who share an interest in the design, development, maintenance, use, and longevity of outdoor classrooms.  OCC serves teachers, parents, principals, and community volunteers by coordinating Georgia’s annual Outdoor Classroom Symposium and providing resource information at www.eealliance.org.

WASHINGTON, DC – “Let’s Move Outside, Junior Rangers!” is First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to kids across the country this summer. Today, the National Park Service kicks off Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger in 20 parks. National Park Junior Rangers will not only have fun and get exercise but also receive an extra reward for working up a sweat.

Young people who complete at least one physical activity in pursuit of their Junior Ranger badge receive a special sticker that designates them as a Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger. The activities range from adventures like hiking with a ranger at Grand Canyon National Park to body surfing at Canaveral National Seashore and canoeing at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Let’s Move Outside, led by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, provides tools and information to parents to make it easy to enjoy the outdoors and be active. It is part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s nationwide campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.

“The Let’s Move Outside program in our national parks provides a wonderful way for parents to help their children gain a passion for outdoor recreation while teaching them about our nation’s beautiful lands, our rich cultural heritage, and our storied past,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

The program engages young people from all backgrounds in a range of educational programs and self-guided activities on America’s public lands and waters. From hiking and biking, to swimming, paddling, and horseback riding, these activities promise to be fun, healthy, and family friendly.

Throughout the summer, Let’s Move Outside! programs and events will be held in conjunction with schools, community groups, and other partners.

“Young people inspire us; we want to help them be vigorous and curious for life. It starts with family fun. National parks are amazing places where exercise is disguised as adventure, and we sneak in some learning too,” National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said.

Let’s Move Outside will soon be integrated into other programs, like the Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Let’s Go Outside” initiative, which seeks to reconnect kids and families to nature in our country’s 552 National Wildlife Refuges, and the Bureau of Land Management’s “Take It Outside” program.

Primary federal partners in this initiative are the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.

“As a department that manages one fifth of our nation’s land, the Department of the Interior will play a vital role in Let’s Move Outside!” said Julie Rodriguez, director of the department’s Youth Office. “Our parks, refuges, and other public lands are waiting to be explored and enjoyed by our nation’s young people, and we are eager to help them get outdoors.”

By summer’s end, 50 national parks will offer Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger.  Before heading out, visit www.letsmove.gov/outside <http://www.letsmove.gov/outside>  for more information about activities and participating parks. This website hub will link families to the great outdoors and give tips and ideas on how to best plan and enjoy an active visit.

The 20 parks launching today:

Canaveral National Seashore, Florida
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa
Fire Island National Seashore, New York
Fort Dupont Park, Washington, DC
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Minnesota
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
New River Gorge National River, West Virginia
Prince William Forest Park, Virginia
Redwood National and State Parks, California
Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana

03/26/2010

Christine Glunz
(202) 456-3469

WASHINGTON - Obama Administration Officials announced today that they will host a White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors on Friday, April 16, 2010. Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture are leading the conference, which will address the challenges, opportunities and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans and American families to the outdoors.

“America’s outdoors are part of our national identity. They are the farms, ranches and forests that we take great pride in, and the neighborhood parks, trails and fields where we spend memorable time with our families and friends,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “Too many of these places are disappearing. In launching this conversation, we strive to learn about the smart, creative community efforts underway throughout the country to conserve our outdoor spaces, and hear how we can support these efforts.”

“Across the country, Americans are working to protect the places they know and love, from the streams they fished as children and the parks where families gather together to the battlefields and buildings that tell America’s story,” said Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior. “The Conference is a great chance to learn about these efforts, start a new dialogue about conservation in America, and find ways to further the work that is already going on in cities and towns, counties and states throughout the country.”

“There is no doubt that we face serious challenges to our natural resources: climate change, air and water pollution, a lost connection between some Americans and the outdoors, and a fragmentation and loss of open space,” said Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture. “We believe that the best way to answer these challenges is to work with landowners, conservation groups, sportsmen and women, local communities, and state and local governments to conserve America’s great outdoors, and in doing so, reconnect Americans to our forests, working lands and public lands.”

This conference will bring together leaders from communities across the country that are working to protect their outdoor spaces. Participants will include working ranchers and farmers, sportsmen and women, State and local government leaders, Tribal leaders, public lands experts, conservationists, youth leaders, business representatives and others who view the outdoors as integral to their communities. The discussion will center on the conservation opportunities in communities, the challenges facing them, and the innovative solutions they are crafting from the bottom up.

The conference will offer an opportunity for participants to engage with each other, learn from past and ongoing efforts, communicate how the Federal Government can support these efforts, and identify new opportunities to work together to modernize our approach to conservation, and reinvigorate the national conversation about our outdoors.

Media credentialing information will be released when it becomes available.

Secretary Salazar

02/08/2010

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told the annual Corps Network Forum that he has challenged the Interior bureaus to increase youth employment opportunities in 2010 by 50 percent over 2009 figures and in 2011 by 60 percent. This new challenge will give a big boost to youth employment and education programs throughout the nation.

“You are the future conservation leaders in the United States of America,” Salazar told the members and staff of conservation corps from across the country. “As stewards of our parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands, the Department of the Interior emphasizes not only the importance of nature to youth but also the importance of youth to nature. We hope that you not only find a job but also a connection to the Great Outdoors and a career in the emerging Clean Energy Economy.”

The Secretary announced that together, Interior and its bureaus will directly employ at least 12,000 youth in 2010—a 50 percent increase over the 8,000 in 2009.  The department also indirectly employs youth through other organizations and reaches millions of youth through education and recreation programs.

“Step by step, corps member by corps member, year by year, together we are building a 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps that will not only help provide jobs for thousands of youth but also will help protect America’s Treasured Landscapes, build our new renewable energy frontier, and empower Native American communities,” the Secretary said.

At the event today, Secretary Salazar also unveiled a new Bureau of Reclamation Youth Conservation Program and announced that the agency has selected the Corps Network to help it develop the program.

“We are particularly excited to work with your Corps Network to develop the Bureau of Reclamation’s new program that will engage youth in hands-on crew work, as well as internship opportunities,” Secretary Salazar noted.

Funding for this cooperative agreement could be up to $5 million over a five year period. At Reclamation, the youth will learn and contribute to Reclamation goals of delivering water for agriculture and municipal users, providing renewable energy for America’s future, focusing on 21st Century Water Management and a commitment to Native American Tribes.

The other Interior bureaus—including the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Geological Survey–have devised action plans to expand their youth  programs to meet the Secretary’s challenge.

FY 2011 Budget Proposal and Youth

The importance of the Youth in the Great Outdoors Initiative is reflected in the FY 2011 budget proposal, which includes large increases not only in employment of teens and young adults ages 16-25 but also in education and recreation programs that engage youth of all ages.

Increases include $5.8 million for youth employment and education programs in the national park system and $2 million for youth programs at national wildlife refuges. The budget also includes $2 million for the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management to join with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in public-private partnerships to promote priority species conservation on both public and private lands. The National Park Service also will dedicate $6.4 million of recreation fees collected at parks to youth projects that benefit the visitor experience. This is an additional $2 million over the 2010 level.

Office of Youth in the Great Outdoors: Employ, Educate, Engage

In 2009 Secretary Salazar established a new departmental Office of Youth to catalyze these programs. The office will lead efforts to “employ, educate and engage” Youth in the Great Outdoors.

Employment

The Secretary noted that today’s programs have inherited the spirit of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s and also helped build trails, facilities and conservation projects in national parks and other areas.

“Our economic troubles are particularly tough on young people, just as they were during the Great Depression,” said Secretary Salazar. “Young people again face double-digit unemployment rates (20% according to some estimates). And Interior is again in a unique position to put thousands of young people to work – especially during the summer, when young people need jobs the most.”

The Youth in the Great Outdoors Initiative places a special emphasis on engaging youth from underserved communities where unemployment is highest, as well as young women and girls.

Education and Engagement

In addition to employment, the Department of the Interior engages millions more youth each year through educational and other programs.

“The future of America’s treasured landscapes depends upon the next generation’s understanding of and connection to the Great Outdoors, so getting younger children outside in nature and providing educational programs for them is just as important as providing jobs for older youth,” said Secretary Salazar.

For example, Department of the Interior and bureau programs serve:

• More than 30 million youth each year in meaningful environmental education and service-learning programs in parks and refuges and thousands in historic preservation projects.

• More than 42,000 First American students, in elementary and secondary schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education and located in 23 states across America.

• More than 6 million children through recreation programs and opportunities in parks, refuges and other public lands that take young people into the great outdoors where they can connect with nature and build relationships with their families and communities.

For more information on youth programs, please visit http://doi.gov/whatwedo/youth/.