O.A.R.S. recently released a video that they call 100 Years, A National Park Love Letter.  It puts the words of Theodore Roosevelt over video of some of the greatest natural places in the U.S. Roosevelt Said   The Video Teddy Roosevelt Theodore “TR” Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American statesman, author, explorer, […]

The National League of Cities has an initiative called Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN).  The initiative is intended to “ensure that all children have the opportunity to play, learn and grow in nature, from city parks to the great outdoors.”  Partners include  National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education & Families (IYEF), the Children & Nature […]

After expiring at the end of September 2015, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been reauthorized. There is money in the fund from a portion of the revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling that are deposited each year. The next step is to appropriate money from the fund for the types of projects that […]

While Congressional Republicans are wondering why the internet needs to be so fast for us users, Congressional democrats are pushing to provide free, broadband, Wi-fi service to users at all National Parks.  I’ll leave the former issue to the techies, but I will address the latter. More Funding to Wire the Parks On January 27, 2016,  Representatives […]

We hear and see a lot about the air pollution in Chinese cities, but what we don’t hear about is the rising environmental awareness that such problems inspire or the long range plans that China has to bring people and nature together.  These efforts are exemplified in the second China Nature Education Forum (CNEF) that was […]

Virtually everyone that enjoys exploring the outdoors as an adult had one or more defining outdoor experience as a kid.  Families often provide that experience with camping trips, days at the beach, hikes in the mountains and so on.  Various organizations are also instrumental in providing these experiences.  Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire and others offer […]

One of the places where outdoor recreation, particularly hiking or bicycling on major trails, meshes nicely with rural economic development programs is at trail towns.  Some local government and private agencies promote communities as trail towns after the towns develop linkages to trail systems, provide services of interest to hikers and bicyclists and show that they are […]

The American Recreation Coalition (ARC) has taken a look at the current and projected state of outdoor recreation in the U.S. through 2016.  Their focus is primarily on the industries and companies that support recreationists.  They conclude that these industries have seen significant gains this year and they anticipate more gains next year. Economic Impact […]

The Outdoor Industry Association recently released a poll they had commissioned.  The poll asked 500 likely voters in Colorado and 500 likely voters in Nevada a series of questions.  The questions were designed  to try to determine how important public lands are to people in those states and how this interest might play out in […]

One front in the effort to get kids outdoors enjoying natural play is kindergarten.  The idea is that if pre-kindergarten and kindergarten-aged kids spend everyday exploring outdoors they will develop the ability to truly play and learn important life lessons and skills along the way. Switzerland Several years ago a public school effort in Switzerland was proven successful. […]