Plan Underway to Connect Michigan Kids With ‘M.O.R.E.’ Nature

Danielle Korpalski 2011.
Michigan is the only state that touches four of the five Great Lakes, and its 57,000 square miles boast nearly 100 parks and recreation areas, from the beaches of McClain State Park on the shore of Lake Superior in the north to the muskie fishing grounds of Lake Hudson in the south.

Now, a movement is underway to connect Michigan’s kids with some of the nature that surrounds them.

The Michigan Outdoor Recreation and Education (MORE) movement, funded in part by a grant to NWF’s Great Lakes Regional Center from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, is intended to bring state agencies and the education, business, conservation and health communities together to develop a comprehensive state plan—a blueprint—to connect Michigan’s kids with nature and advance environmental literacy, improve kids’ physical and mental health, and foster a conservation ethic.

MORE Co-coordinator Julia Liljegren:

“The goal of the MORE Blueprint is to establish connecting Michigan’s kids with nature as a State priority and ensure a mechanism for making that reality…The level to which kids connect with nature is something that impacts the whole state, now and in the future.  We’re all stakeholders in this, so we have a responsibility to develop a solid plan that can be implemented throughout the state.”

Once developed, the MORE Blueprint will help the state become eligible for funds under the eventual No Child Left Inside and Healthy Kids Outdoors Acts, proposed to improve environmental literacy and encourage outdoor activity, respectively.

Stay tuned for more on MORE (ha!) as the movement develops.

For more information about the MORE Movement or to get involved, contact, Julia Liljegren, Regional Education Advocacy Manager, NWF Great Lakes Regional Center at liljegrenj@nwf.org.