Americas Great Outdoor Initiative.

Reconnect Americans, especially children, to America's rivers and waterways, landscapes of national significance, ranches, farms and forests, great parks, and coasts and beaches by exploring a variety of efforts, including:
(A) promoting community-based recreation and conservation, including local parks, greenways, beaches, and waterways;
(B) advancing job and volunteer opportunities related to conservation and outdoor recreation; and
(C) supporting existing programs and projects that educate and engage Americans in our history, culture, and natural bounty.
(ii)Build upon State, local, private, and tribal priorities for the conservation of land, water, wildlife, historic, and cultural resources, creating corridors and connectivity across these outdoor spaces, and for enhancing neighborhood parks; and determine how the Federal Government can best advance those priorities through public private partnerships and locally supported conservation strategies.
(iii)Use science-based management practices to restore and protect our lands and waters for future generations.

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In the months ahead, members of this administration will host regional listening sessions across America.* We’ll meet with everybody -- from tribal leaders to farmers, from young people to businesspeople, from elected officials to recreation and conservation groups.* And their ideas will help us form a 21st century strategy for America’s great outdoors to better protect our natural landscape and our history for generations to come.
Understand, we’re not talking about a big federal agenda being driven out of Washington.* We’re talking about how we can collect best ideas on conservation; how we can pursue good ideas that local communities embrace; and how we can be more responsible stewards of tax dollars to promote conservation.

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Until recently, there was not a recognized base of rigorous scientific research linking parks, outdoor activities, and recreation to better health outcomes. Consequently, the words “recreation” and “outdoor resources” provided little traction or political salience in setting priorities for improving health. The link between lack of physical activity and obesity has now been documented and provides a compelling case, during the ongoing national debate on health care reform, for promoting greater outdoor activity as a cost-effective, preventive approach to better health.

The free-roaming outdoor play many older adults experienced in their youth has declined sharply. Environmental education experts report a growing “nature deficit” is evident among America’s youth, resulting from too little time spent outdoors. The trend is well described by Richard Louv, co-founder of the Children & Nature Network, in his book Last Child in the Woods. The reasons cited are familiar: poorly designed or inaccessible playgrounds or other outdoor spaces, apprehensive parents, hectic and overstructured lifestyles, and school curricula that do not provide time for outdoor activities. As the country has become increasingly urbanized, for many Americans the tie to open spaces and natural landscapes has diminished.

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An active and vocal constituency is needed to ensure that the priority for outdoor resources influences the public policy agenda and public budgets in constructive and lasting ways.

Outdoor resources are important to countless conservation and recreation groups across the country: hunting and fishing clubs; land trusts; the recreation industry; owners of farms, ranches, forests, and other working lands; visitor and tourism bureaus; health and nature advocates; educators; and many others with a direct stake in healthy land and water resources. But this constituency is fragmented, lacking the kind of broad-based cohesion needed in today’s political arena to influence policy and funding. That has to change.

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The initiative follows a public lands bill that the President signed into law last year that designated 2 acres of wilderness, over 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers, and three national parks, marking the most significant lands bill in decades.

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IndianChris said:

That's gotta be an error, right?


If anyone finds a schedule of the listening sessions, please post. Thanks.

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Craig said:

The president signed a memorandum on 4/16/10 establishing the Americas Great Outdoor Initiative.

The goals of the Initiative shall be to:


In the presidents opening remarks at the first “Americas Great Outdoor Conference” on 4/16/10 he stated:

I know there are many here that are passionate about a whole host of issues regarding our public lands.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled for a regional listening session near you.

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Homegrown Listening Sessions

After agreeing to pursue a series of homegrown listening sessions, OA and OIA immediately reached out to three major regional outdoor clubs – the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the Colorado Mountain Club (CMC), and the Seattle-based Mountaineers. These outdoor leaders shared our view of the AGO Initiative and we created an informal working group to develop a scope, methodology, and itinerary for the homegrown listening sessions.
The basic idea for a homegrown listening session (HLS) was to host small, local events with anywhere from twenty to forty people. These smaller groups would address the same four questions as the Obama administration Listening Sessions, but in a setting that allowed the participants to delve a little deeper into the questions and, importantly, with a focus on recreation. Though there are plainly other aspects to the AGO Initiative, recreation is an area where our community can speak with authenticity.

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2) Address the Culture of Fear

The second point entails the ramifications for the American people and our public resources from a “culture of fear” that now exists around outdoor activities. Many Americans simply have little knowledge of, skills for or are afraid of, the outdoors. This results in fewer people – especially young people – enjoying the outdoors and an overbearing bureaucracy of liability, insurance and other regulations. Federal agencies, teachers and mentors, who have some of the largest impacts on how people connect with the outdoors, are also those most limited by liability fears and the resulting bureaucracy.

Specific Policy Recommendations:

Develop and promote adoption of a model recreational-use statute. A tremendous amount of outdoor recreation takes place through, or access is enabled by, private land owners. In certain jurisdictions liability concerns can cause private land owners to close otherwise acceptable recreational access. If the federal government developed a model recreational-use statute and championed the social benefits of the same, more states would adopt recreational use statutes and increased access to the outdoors would follow.

Adequately fund resource management, visitor services and law enforcement on federal lands to enhance visitor enjoyment and adequately protect recreational, natural, cultural and heritage resources.

Develop unified campaigns – led from the presidential level – to model the joys and benefits of outdoor recreation and active lifestyles.

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Craig said:

In certain jurisdictions liability concerns can cause private land owners to close otherwise acceptable recreational access. If the federal government developed a model recreational-use statute...

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Stash said:

That and find a way to end the video game addiction of young people so they'll actually go outside.

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AGO Report (Executive Summary) said:

Together, our public, private, and tribal lands and waters embody one of our nation’s founding principles: the right of all Americans to enjoy and benefit from America’s natural treasures and the obligation to pass that heritage along to future generations.

Fulfilling that promise—and the shared obligation—to preserve and protect our natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations is one of the daunting challenges for 21st-century America.
Busy lives and limited access to clean, safe, open spaces discourage many Americans from taking part in outdoor activities. The nearly 80 percent of Americans who live in or near cities find it particularly difficult to connect with the outdoors. The outdoors has increasingly lost its relevance in the lives of our children, who now spend only half as much time outside as their parents did, but who spend an average of seven hours a day using electronic devices. Studies show that access to the outdoors can help reverse the obesity epidemic that has tripled among our children
in the last generation. They show that time spent in nature can reduce stress and anxiety, promote learning and personal growth, and foster mental and physical health.

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Craig said:

There is some interesting reading in this report.

"...They show that time spent in nature can reduce stress and anxiety, promote learning and personal growth, and foster mental and physical health."

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Jason Berard said:

The last line in that quote is something I have seen firsthand. It is often the kids that have the hardest time in the classroom that shine while learning outside. I do an outdoor program at my local elementary school each spring, and see this every year.

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