 |
Mandy Harling JAKES Coordinator |
America's Great Outdoors
On April 16, President Barack Obama launched the America's Great Outdoors Initiative, declaring a 21st century strategy to "better protect our natural landscape and our history for generations to come." Part of the initiative is to help families spend more time outdoors, building on the First Lady's "Let's Move Outside!" program, which gives parents the tools they need to get their families outside. By linking parents to nearby parks, trails and waters, as well as providing tips and activity ideas — its goal is to help families become healthier and develop a more active lifestyle.
The administration leading the initiative is hosting regional listening sessions across America to brainstorm with farmers, young people, business representatives, elected officials and recreation and conservation groups. This June, NWTF Chief Conservation Officer James Earl Kennamer, Ph.D., was invited to serve as a panelist for the session in Charleston, S.C.
I attended the session as well, which began with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding: A 21st Century Strategy for America's Great Outdoors. The MOU was signed by the Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense, and was followed by a discussion moderated by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
Secretary Vilsack emphasized that one of the important goals of the initiative is reconnecting youth to the outdoors. All of the panelists recognized that educating our youth and engaging them in the outdoors is the only way to ensure a future for conservation and outdoor recreation, like fishing and hunting.
In my small discussion group, I was proud to share that the NWTF is a successful tool for achieving this goal, the JAKES program in particular. NWTF chapters have introduced more than a half million youth to the outdoors and invested more than $3 million in JAKES programs, just in the last 10 years.
We can and have helped our country reconnect youth to the outdoors. But, there's always room for improvement.
We should strive to not only reach out to the children and grandchildren of those who attend our banquets, but also the urban youth in our communities. And our partner, the USDA Forest Service, can help us.
Several years ago we received funds to host JAKES and stewardship events on national forest land. Through these grants we introduced underserved youth, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, to the outdoors. The results were exactly what we expected. Nearly 100 percent of the youth who attended wanted to spend more time outdoors, and we taught their advisors how to make that possible.
The truth is we don't need grants or special initiatives to accomplish our goal and mission. We should include youth from all walks of life in our events and make an extra effort to include youth who may not otherwise have a chance to experience the outdoors. You never know when an experience may change a child's life.
As E.J. Williams, one of the session panelists, said, "10 years from now … I hope we will ride through America's forests and see youth playing there, not because someone told them to, but because they want to." — Mandy