On Tuesday, the National Wildlife Federation hosted a Town Hall forum with special guest, Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall. I led the forum for Coloradoans to discuss with Senator Udall Colorado’s great outdoors, outstanding wildlife and some of the work being done by our Senior Senator in Congress to protect these resources from the advancing threat of climate change.

As a Coloradan and someone who cares a lot about our wildlife and public lands, I couldn’t be more pleased with our Senior United States Senator who is a true leader in Congress on addressing climate change, and a champion of clean energy and conservation.

Colorado Senator Champions Conservation and Clean Air

Senator Mark Udall

Senator Udall speaks on global warming, describing it as “one of the really true great challenges of our time.”

Senator Udall is an avid outdoorsman and serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the U.S. Senate, where he represents Coloradoans by voting in support of conservation programs and addressing climate change with clean energy and limits to carbon pollution.

He has an outstanding 97% lifetime conservation voting record with the League of Conservation Voters and recently stood up for our state with his votes for clean air during the debate over the budget in the Senate.

Climate Game Changer in Colorado

NWF senior scientists, Dr. Doug Inkley, describes how Colorado is in the bulls eye of climate change.

Last summer was a game changer in Colorado. As record-setting forest fires swept through our forests that had turned to kindling from drought and bark beetle infestation, air quality plummeted, and wildlife fled fires in their habitat—all a glimpse into a future that climate scientists warn could become the new normal in Colorado.

With the effects of climate change already taking a clear toll on public health, the environment, and wildlife habitats, we need action on the causes, including on U.S. power plants, which produce 40 percent of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

Answering Coloradoans’ Questions on Climate

Listen as Senator Mark Udall and NWF Senior Scientist Doug Inkley answer Coloradoans’ questions.

Senator Mark Udall answered Coloradoans’ questions, and share why he is a champion for conserving Colorado’s outdoor heritage.

Opportunity to Thank Sen. Udall’s Climate Leadership

Colorado’s great outdoors and wildlife is being threatened by industrial carbon pollution and Senator Udall has shown real leadership standing up to big polluters and voting for a clean budget that protects the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to put limits on industrial carbon pollution–which is critical as power plants in America contribute 40% of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

Take a moment to thank the senator for standing up for Colorado’s clean air, water and wildlife—leave a message on his Facebook wall saying “Thank you for being a leader on climate change and champion of both clean energy and conservation.”

Blog author Ann Morgan has worked with western public lands and resources for over 25 years in non-profits, government agencies and private industry.  She lead’s NWF’s Rocky Mountain and Prairies eleven state region helping to safeguard wildlife and connect families to the great outdoors.

Photo courtesy of Curtis Fisher

As a parent, one of the things I want most for my children (and all children) is the freedom of spirit that includes one’s heart and mind: To explore who they are — their strengths, what they love, their work styles, and what values they want to have. To test their abilities, try new things, and take risks. To connect and share freely with others, contributing to a community and being part of something bigger than themselves.

There is no better setting for this sense of spirit than the great outdoors, and there is no better way to achieve it than through a camp experience. Nature experiences have been a cornerstone of organized camp experiences since their beginning over 150 years ago. And they are still important today: According to the American Camp Association’s (ACA) most recent Sites, Facilities, and Programs report, over two-thirds of ACA-accredited camps indicate they intentionally target programs or initiatives to connect children with nature.

Research clearly shows that time spent in the outdoors has critical benefits for our children. A study from the University of Essex has shown that time spent in nature improves cognitive functioning, reduces stress, and allows for opportunities of self-discovery. But with kids spending seven hours plugged into a screen each day, sedentary, structured free time is the norm. Our wireless connections create invisible wires — wires that tie up our children’s minds, imaginations, physical activity levels, and time to build authentic connections with others and themselves.

But the outdoors and the camp experience combine to cut those invisible wires while fostering positive, powerful, and lifelong habits, skills, and mindsets. At camp, kids get outdoors; get moving (most exceed the recommended sixty minutes of physical activity per day!); learn how to live together in a caring, supportive community; and find the time to reflect on and explore their interests.

I’m thrilled by the recent partnership of ACA and NWF to reach more kids and parents with the positive impacts of outdoor experiences. We want nature to be a part of kids’ and families’ everyday lives. I encourage you learn how you can make the most of summer with a camp experience by visiting www.CampParents.org, where you will find expert resources, planning tips, and ACA’s Find a Camp database. Also, your family can join in NWF’s Great American Backyard Campout, which encourages families to gather outdoors and camp on June 22. As you participate in the Campout with your family, you will be doing so alongside many participating campers and staff at ACA-accredited camps.

Have a great summer!

With four decades of experience as a change agent in youth development and transformation, Peg L. Smith is the chief executive officer of the American Camp Association® (ACA). ACA is the champion of better tomorrows — providing resources, research, and support for developmentally appropriate camp experiences. Learn more at www.CampParents.org or www.ACAcamps.org.

About ACA

The American Camp Association® (ACA) works to preserve, promote, and enhance the camp experience for children and adults. ACA-Accredited® camp programs ensure that children are provided with a diversity of educational and developmentally challenging learning opportunities. There are over 2,400 ACA-accredited camps that meet up to 290 health and safety standards. For more information, visit www.ACAcamps.org.

Like us on Facebook for more year-round activities to get you and your family outdoors.

National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Be Out There is a national movement to give back to American children what they don’t know they’ve lost- their connection to the natural world. With a wealth of activities, events, and resources, Be Out There reconnects families with the great outdoors to raise happy, healthy children with a life-long love of nature.

The natural world offers unlimited opportunities and subjects for photographers of all levels to make compelling images. But nature photography, particularly when wildlife is involved, can be challenging under the best of circumstances. It requires proper preparation. Just as the great masters of painting wouldn’t want to get stuck trying to paint a scene with the wrong brush, people should avoid heading into the field with the wrong lenses to capture their subjects.

One thing photographers who use digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras can do to increase the odds that they’ll walk away with high-impact photos is to use the right tools for the job. Different lenses have different optical qualities that will give each image a characteristic look. Below you’ll find lens family overviews paired with example images to give you an idea of how they can help you highlight the beauty of your subject(s) and boost their impact to viewers of your photography.

Fisheye (8-15mm)

Star trails above Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. Lens: Canon 15mm Fisheye

1. They take in a very wide angle of view, often 180º.
2. They have a very short focal distance, allowing you to get within inches of your subject

The most distinctive visual quality provided by these types of lenses that viewers notice is the distorted perspective, namely barrel distortion. Distortion is something photographers either love or hate. I love distortion and the effect it brings to my photography. For those who don’t like the distortion, you can use a fisheye to get the wide field of view and then run 3rd party software applications like Optics Pro Elite v8 Software to remove the distortion.

A fisheye view of the Wave sandstone formations.

Ultra-wide (16-24mm)

Zabriskie Point – Death Valley National Park, California. Lens info: Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM at 18mm

The lens I use is a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II lensand it is one of my most frequently used lenses. The longer focal lengths lack distortion while the wider focal lengths provide the distortion that I like.

Racetrack Star Trails.

Standard Focal Lengths (24-90mm)

Sun shining through a grove of Monterey Pines (Pinus radiata) – San Francisco, California.

The downside to using standard focal length lenses is that they don’t cover subjects requiring more extreme focal lengths, such as wide angle environmental images or telephoto wildlife images.

Telephoto (70-200mm)

A coyote runs through the hillside blending into his environment.

Fog fills San Francisco Bay with a silhouette of Mount Diablo in the distance – San Francisco, California.

Longer focal lengths narrow the depth of field, which is another impact telephoto lenses have on images. This requires a more precise placement of focus on the subject that you feel is most important.

Super Telephoto (200-1200mm)

Last light falls on Half Dome as the sun sets.

Perigee Moon & California Oak near the Monterey coast, California.

Macro (60-180mm)

Fall leaves.

The downside of macro photography is the need for a good amount of light, patience and sensitivity to vibration. Each of these can be overcome with external lighting, a focusing rail, good technique and the use of a shutter release or timed shutter.

Tilt-Shift (17mm, 24mm, 45mm & 90mm)

Badwater Sunset – Death Valley National Park, California.

Fog forms over Swiftcurrent Lake and Mount Grinnell at sunrise in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Second Body — Don’t Get Caught off Guard

While much of the discussion so far has centered on lenses, it is incredibly important to highlight that having a second DSLR body on-hand can make a huge difference. Case in point: on my last trip to Glacier National Park, I was shooting a time-lapse with my camera and a mountain goat came up so close to me that I couldn’t focus my camera on him. In fact, he came so close that, for safety’s sake, I had to step away. I would have never documented this if I hadn’t had a second camera on-hand. For more serious work, a second body helps as a backup in case anything catastrophic happens to your primary camera and it allows you to work at the same time with multiple lenses of differing focal lengths.

Outfit Your Excursions on a Budget

With all these recommendations you might think that money is no object but, like you, I operate on a budget. My secret to finding and using the right tool can be heavily attributed to the fact that I can rent the right gear for the right trip or assignment. To convert your camera bag into an endless home for new and great gear like I have, I recommend renting  the gear you want, when you want it from BorrowLenses.com.

And, after you’ve rented your gear, planned your trip, and taken your wonderful nature photos, remember to enter the National Wildlife Photo Contest. There are wildlife- and landscape-specific categories as well as $6,000 in prizes, with a Grand Prize trip for two to Churchill, Canada where you can see and photograph polar bears.

About Jim Goldstein

Jim Goldstein is a San Francisco based professional photographer and author who has been in numerous publications, including Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, Popular Photography and has self-published a PDF eBook Photographing the 4th Dimension – Time covering numerous slow shutter techniques. Follow Jim Goldstein on Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | 500px

Learning how to cook is one of the most valuable skills you can ever obtain.  These skills were once passed down from generation to generation, but now millions of people lack even the most basic skills — as a result, it’s costing millions of lives and billions of dollars to cope with the increase in diet-related diseases. We need to get back to basics and share our cooking skills and knowledge so that everyone has access to good, nutritious food from scratch.

Food Revolution Day is a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It’s a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone.

Eco-Schools USA, through our Sustainable Food and Healthy Living pathways, are proud to support and participate in Food Revolution Day.

What can you do for Food Revolution Day at school: 

• Get students excited about fresh produce by planting fruit and vegetable seeds on the day.  Cress is a nice and easy starting point, as well as lettuce or tomatoes.
  

  Food Revolution Day

• Download the Food Revolution Day Yogurt Pops recipe and give students a healthy dessert idea by showing them how to whip up the ingredients and freeze them in plastic molds.  Click the link to find other recipe ideas.
• Bring different fruits and vegetables into class and get students to taste them and guess what they are.  If they’re older get them to do a blind taste test.  Also discuss seasonality of fruits and vegetables – eating seasonally is a good thing – produce tends to be cheaper and tastier and it’s better for the environment!
• Arrange a tour of the local farmer’s market.
• Utilize the tools found at our Eco-Schools USA Food Revolution Day page.
• Need more ideas? Check out this Food Revolution Day School Ideas Google Hangout.

Watch and join Jamie Oliver along with millions all over the world in the fight for REAL FOOD!

Click here to view the embedded video.

A guest post from the Food Revolution Day team in the UK!

Bob Rees, Northwest Guides & Anglers Association

But the tides are turning.

Yet another energy company, Kinder Morgan, has just today pulled the plug on their plans to use  the Northwest to export Powder River Basin coal on the world market.

This fight, however, is far from over. Of the roughly 150 millions tons of coal proposed to be shipped through the waters of the Northwest, over 80% is still on track for being permitted.

“We won’t rest until all the coal companies quit polluting the waters that our fisheries depend on. Our community depends on salmon jobs and our families depend on healthy seafood. We’re fighting for survival, globally and locally.”
-Bob Rees, President of the Northwest Guides & Anglers Association

Join the fight to protect Northwest fish and wildlife from dangerous coal export proposals.

Michael O’Leary of Portland, Oregon is an Outreach Consultant for National Wildlife Federation working on coal export and renewable energy issues in the Pacific Northwest, where he’s been a political organizer for over 15 years. Michael is a certified cycling instructor and a certifiable bike enthusiast, and can often be found on two wheels, rain or shine.

 Guest post by Tim Gestwicki, CEO of North Carolina Wildlife Federation.

If you’re a sportsman here in North Carolina, you’re pretty thankful for the Nantahala, for John’s River, Sandy Marsh & Elk Knob. You give thanks for the Tar River, and Lake Mattamuskeet.

And while you’re at it you give a heartfelt thanks to senator Hagan, who has protected our forests, lakes and streams by voting to support reducing the mercury & industrial carbon pollution that threatened to ruin them, protecting our hunting and fishing industry that brings 3.3 million dollars annually to our state.

So let’s take a moment and give thanks to the Roanoke River, the Cape Fear wetlands and Wilson Creek. And let’s thank Senator Hagan for standing up for them, and for our outdoor heritage.

These words of thanks for the incredible public lands and natural places in North Carolina—which you may hear on your radio here in North Carolina—are why outdoorsmen like me took notice of Senator Hagan’s vote to support reducing mercury and carbon pollution during last month’s budget votes.

Positive Votes on Climate

Buried among the hundreds of budget votes that the Senate took were some positive votes towards confronting climate change.

Majorities of senators—including Senator Hagan—voted to support key Clean Air Act provisions allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the amount of industrial carbon and mercury pollution fouling our skies.

Congress shouldn’t use the budget to cut important protections against air pollution that harms our public lands and air.  North Carolina Senator Hagan deserves our thanks for opposing the harmful amendment.

Thank Senator Hagan

Tell Senator Hagan “Thank you for voting line with your concern about climate change by supporting the Clean Air Act” on Facebook.

Send her a tweet saying Thanks @SenatorHagan for your support of climate & @EPAgov during budget votes.”

Tim Gestwicki is CEO of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation (NCWF) with over 20 years in non- profit conservation work.  A sportsman who helped lead the building of an elite, formidable conservation organization recognized for effective and efficient work statewide, regionally and nationally, Tim has established a one of kind wildlife habitat coalition comprised of sporting and land conservation groups to work in unified fashion on agriculture, farm bill and private lands habitat efforts; and has initiated new wildlife habitat programs for developers, places of worship, and islands.  Tim enjoys hunting and fishing in NC from the mountains to the coast.

Northern Cheyenne tribal members gather to oppose the proposed Otter Creek coal mine on January 17, 2013

Arch Coal understands money. What Arch Coal doesn’t understand is community. They don’t understand history. They don’t understand the Cheyenne people whose ancestors fought and died for the landthat they are proposing to destroy. They don’t understand the fierceness with which the people, both Indian and non-Indian, in southeastern Montana love the land.

This is why not one dragline will rip the coal from the earth and not one dynamite blast will loosen the precious topsoil. It is why not one rail car will be loaded with coal and why not one toxic orange cloud will pass over someone’s house or the Tongue River. It is why not one burial site will be dug up and why not one elk will be displaced. It is why our water will continue to run clean and plentiful and our wildlife will continue to roam free.

This is why the proposed Otter Creek mine in southeastern Montana will never be built.

How Arch Coal treats the Northern Cheyenne community

I, along with hundreds of Northern Cheyenne tribal members, have attended all of the recent public hearings that were held on the proposed Otter Creek coal mine and Tongue River Railroad. These hearings were held to gather public input on the proposed coal mine and associated infrastructure that is needed to haul the coal out of southeastern Montana and to the West coast for export to Asia.

Standard procedure for Arch Coal representatives was to sit in the back of the room, checking their phones and looking at their watches. Many times, they would walk out in the middle of someone’s testimony. Mike Rowlands, head of Arch Coal in Montana, spoke to us for one minute.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One minute about a coal mine that will impact my people for generations. This is all he thought we deserved apparently.

Not once did they stand up and tell my community why we should support their efforts to build a massive coal mine on our borders. Not once did they tell us why we should bear the burden of the air, water and environmental pollution that will occur.

You know why they don’t do that? Because they don’t have to. To them, this mine is a done deal. The permit is a detail, a step in the process. A process rigged for one outcome. They don’t care if the Northern Cheyenne community supports them.

Well, I guess they did say they were just here to open a coal mine.

Fighting Back

By now, we have given Arch Coal and the state of Montana thousands of reasons why we are against this mine. Those thousands of reasons are people, individuals and families who are coming to public hearings, group meetings, signing petitions and getting involved.

In November 2012, Cheyenne tribal members turned out in force at public hearings to oppose the Tongue River Railroad. In December 2012, we attended coal export public hearings in Spokane and Seattle to oppose the development of any coal export terminals in the northwest and support our brothers and sisters from the northwest tribal nations who are fighting to protect their land and treaty rights.

Lucas King, Northern Cheyenne tribal member, testifies at the Seattle coal port hearing in December 2012. Photo by Paul K. Anderson.

Northern Cheyenne tribal members attend a public hearing on the proposed Otter Creek coal mine

On February 20, 2013, we submitted detailed scoping comments to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality on the proposed mine. Over 250 Cheyennes helped write and develop these comments.

On March 20, 250 Cheyennes and our allies from the Southern Cheyenne, Three Affiliated Tribes, Oglala Lakota Nation, Yakama Nation gathered in Lame Deer to oppose any development of the Otter Creek and Tongue River Valley.  This will not be a one-time event.

Then, on March 24 through the 30, a group of us travelled to Henry Red Cloud’s Renewable Energy Center on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to learn how to install solar photovoltaic systems.

Cheyenne students learn how to install solar PV at Henry Red Cloud’s Renewable Energy Center. Photo credit: Alexis Bonogofsky

We have been fighting for this land for hundreds of years and will continue to do so.

Protecting Otter Creek and Tongue River Valleys for Future Generations

Montana politicians who support the Otter Creek mine and Arch Coal are on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the people. Since Montana’s leaders will not stand up for the people, the people will stand up and lead them. Politicians like Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester understand the importance of protecting the North Fork of the Flathead River from coal mining but not the lifeblood of southeastern Montana, the Tongue River. Why is protecting the Flathead River more important than the Tongue River?

We will not let it become a sacrifice zone for energy exports. We have already moved beyond the paradigms forced on us by the coal companies.

This message is for Arch Coal and all other mining companies that want to dig up our homeland.

We will not only stop the Otter Creek coal mine, we will pursue renewable, distributed energy and find real, sustainable solutions for our people.

Save Otter Creek sign on Highway 212 on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation

Vanessa Braided Hair is a Northern Cheyenne tribal member and is organizing tribal citizens to oppose the development of the proposed Otter Creek coal mine and Tongue River Railroads in southeastern Montana. She is a also a wildlands firefighter and descendent of the Northern Cheyenne Otter Creek homesteaders. She lives on Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.

So, why do we want President Barack Obama and Secretary John Kerry to approve construction of the Keystone pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico?

Tar sands protesters at the “Forward on Climate” rally (photo: 350.org)

• Because it will allow Canada to double and then triple production of tar sands and send it to thirsty Asian consumers.
• Because it will encourage Wall Street to increase investment in tar sands mining; they’re worried now that increased amounts of tar sands can’t get out of Canada without more pipeline capacity. All the other new pipeline routes are currently being blocked by citizen campaigns in Canada and the U.S.
• Because, if we wait too much longer, Americans will realize this has nothing to do with U.S. energy security. In reality, only a small portion will be used in the United States. Oil companies can get a higher price for these fuels in Asia.
• Because it will allow Canada to say once and for all that it is no longer possible for their country to commit to a national greenhouse gas reduction target.
• Because it will create a strong incentive for Canada to continue obstructing international climate negotiations. Canada definitely doesn’t want to look like a laggard if others are moving forward. Far better to continue slowing the international process as it has been doing the last eight years.
• Because it will embolden Canadian oil industry and government representatives to continue interfering with American clean energy policymaking that offers incentives for cleaner fuels and vehicles.
• Because it will provide additional momentum to Canadian efforts to lobby Europeans against passing a clean fuels directive. If the Americans don’t take a stand, it will be harder for the Europeans to stick their necks out.
• Because it will embolden Canada’s current government to continue cracking down on Canadian civic interests and companies, who are opposed to tar sands development.
• Because it will strengthen Canada’s determined march to becoming a major petro state.
• Because once it is unstoppable, people will stop worrying about runoff into the North Canadian Athabascan watershed, or the increase in cancers in indigenous peoples living downstream; these are a small price to pay for billions in tar sands revenues.
• Because the economic benefits will overwhelm the costs of inevitable pipeline spills of nearly impossible-to-clean-up tar sands bitumen across more than 1,000 miles of American territory.
• Because it will create social license for deforesting an area the size of Florida and turning it into the globe’s largest open pit strip mine.
• Because it will provide 3,900 temporary jobsfor oil pipeline construction while undercutting electric vehicle and alternative fuels markets being developed south of the border; god forbid those industries take off before we can get the tar sands deposits out.

Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, the site of the largest inland oil spill in US history (photo: MI Department of Environmental Quality)

• Because it will take the wind out of the sails of America’s first real citizen climate movement (that demonstration on the mall was worrisome), and reduce pressure on President Obama to be bold on climate change and clean energy during his final term in office.
• Because it will dampen enthusiasm among a large number of Obama voters, supporters, and donors, who are alarmed about climate change and who have let it be known that they don’t want this pipeline built; this will further disempower pro-environment democrats contemplating clean energy and climate policy.
• Because it will put a damper on clean energy investment in general.
• Because Americans will complain less that increased imports of tar sands will increase the average amount of greenhouse gas emissions from a barrel of oil if they are all driving with tar sands in their gas tanks.
• Because it will encourage and give a green light to other countries who want to exploit their own deposits of more greenhouse intensive fossil fuels.
• Because it will support the globe’s dependency on gasoline for its automobile fleets.
• Because it will make oil companies richer and more powerful.
• Because it will make it more difficult to resist the current oil based economic system.
• Because, once approved, we can lower the volume on the massive campaign of criticism being directed at President Obama by the oil industry.
• And once we’ve finished this campaign, we can start pounding the president about Arctic drilling.

That’s why!

This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post and is reprinted with permission of the author. Michael Northrop is a Program Director for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund or National Wildlife Federation.

Protect people and wildlife from the dangers of tar sands spills and climate change — Tell President Obama to say NO! to the Keystone XL pipeline.

There’s a lot of talk these days of “thinking outside the box.” Whether for kids in the classroom or companies in the marketplace, it’s an ability to be cultivated. People who think outside the box are risk takers, good problem solvers, and work efficiently and creatively with others. Spending time outdoors as a child imparts many of those skills. According to Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Lab, interviews of all potential candidates include questions about their play experiences as children because they’ve found a direct correlation between hands-on play and superior problem-solving skills. But how do you take risks and work creatively; how are you a resilient, strong problem-solver when you’ve, literally, grown up inside the box?

Putting the Fun, Not Fearful, Foot Forward into the Outdoors

A child born in the last two decades has spent most of his youth indoors, surrounded by the roof, four walls, and floor of his home. Protecting children’s safety is of course paramount. But when childhood is a sanitized, climate-controlled environment it does our children no favors. They become like fairytale characters, locked in high towers for their own protection, conditioned to fear the very things a child’s instinct draws them to, from digging in dirt and mud to feeling the sun on their face.

“We have shifted our culture from one that is engaged in a healthy, interactive, and imaginative way to one that is inwardly facing, sedentary and expecting things to be fed to us,”

says Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center of Media and Child Health, Children’s Hospital Boston,leading kids to feel unmotivated and even afraid of playing outdoors. In a country where childhood obesity rates have more than doubled in the last twenty years, where we are the largest consumer of ADHD medications in the world, and where the use of antidepressants in pediatric patients has risen sharply, we cannot afford to succumb to fear when kids’ health and happiness depends on them growing outside the box.

The outdoors is a wonderful teacher, offering kids so many important, good lessons, such as how to respect and care for nature, how to be resilient in the face of challenge and imperfection, and how to use your imagination to make your own fun.

Here are some top fears kids (and grownups) have about playing outside and some information to combat them:

Coming Clean! (Fear of Dirt):

Many happy, healthy, well-adjusted adults in American society grew up with dirt under their fingernails—it’s an occupational hazard of making mud pies. But kids today have been bathed in hand sanitizer since birth and may not see getting messy as a good thing. It is! Studies have shown that plating in the dirt isn’t just fun, it can boost overall happiness and health, due to naturally occurring bacteria in soil that help fortify children’s immune systems and stimulate the production of serotonin, improving mood.

So go ahead, let your kids get dirty. And remember: “Most of the germs lurking about our environment and that live on our bodies are not only harmless; they’ve been with us for millennia,” says “Martin Blaser, MD, professor of Internal Medicine at New York University.

Don’t Bug Me! (Fear of Insects)

For kids who are afraid of bugs, playing outside can give them the creepy-crawlies. But, insects are a fun way to learn about the natural world, according to April Gower, executive vice president of the Entomological Foundation.

“Children love to observe ants crawling in an ant farm, or to see a praying mantis move its head. For younger children, insects are still at the eye level.”

So how do you help your insect-phobe relax and enjoy time outside? Experts say the best way is to model calm behavior yourself so as not to reinforce the fear. Education can also help: go to www.entfdn.org and explore the educational resources section for kids’ activities and projects.

Running Hot and Cold! (Fear of Inclement Weather)

While you’re not going to let your kids play outside during a blizzard or hurricane, many days of the year, it’s perfectly fine to play outside even when it’s technically too hot, too cold, or too rainy. Taking kids out in different weather builds their mental and physical flexibility and resilience. Common sense measures are the word of the day, so kids don’t miss out on the fun. On very hot days, seek shade, slather kids in sunscreen and offer water and popsicles to stay hydrated. In very cold weather, bundle up, coat lips and cheeks with petroleum jelly and keep hot chocolate on hand. And in the rain, wear your boots, bring an umbrella… and don’t forget to sing in the rain!

Alyson Weinberg is a Washington DC-based writer specializing in issues concerning children and families. She is an award-winning speech writer, feature writer and communications strategist and the former editor of Spirit, the magazine of the Special Olympics movement. Alyson’s articles and editorials have appeared in national print media, textbooks, and on the web. She and her husband Josh live with their two daughters, Josie and Raina, in Potomac, MD.

Fishing for Chinook Salmon at sunrise on the mouth of the Columbia River, August 23rd, 2012

More coal burning means more mercury pollution, more acidification, more climate change, and more habitat loss.

With plummeting domestic coal consumption leaving coal companies desperate to find new pathways to new markets, the last investors in the dirtiest fossil fuel have now targeted the Pacific Northwest to be the nation’s largest gateway for coal exports.

Just two weeks ago Bob Rees, President of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association, traveled from his home on Tillamook Bay to Oregon’s capitol to tell Governor Kitzhaber to take action and prevent the waterways of the Pacific Northwest from becoming a new pipeline for coal pollution.

Watch the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now in their remarkable joint letter of appeal to the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee have called for the “strongest possible terms” of review of air quality and habitat impacts at risk from proposed coal exports.

“We believe the decisions to continue and expand coal leasing from federal lands and authorize the export of that coal are likely to lead to long-term investments in coal generation in Asia, with air quality and climate impacts in the United States that dwarf those of almost any other action the federal government could take in the foreseeable future.”

-Gov. Kitzhaber and Gov. Inslee

Read the full text of their letter here.

What About the States?

Federal regulators aren’t the only decision makers involved, however.

State agencies in Washington and Oregon both have their own coal export project permit processes, and so far neither Gov. Kitzhaber nor Gov. Inslee have instructed their staff to block the proposed developments, though there’s been no rush to permit them, either.

Just this month Oregon’s Department of State Lands negotiated yet another multi-month delay for the Port of Morrow coal export proposal so that developers could have more time to respond to the additional questions recently raised.

What happens next?

If federal agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers decide to take a thorough look at the issues raised by Gov. Kitzhaber and Gov. Inslee, and if concerned National Wildlife Federation supporters continue to keep up the pressure, we’re hopeful we can keep the northwest coal-export-free.

But there’s no guarantee of that yet.

Keep up the fight to protect Northwest fish and wildlife from dangerous coal export proposals.

Michael O’Leary of Portland, Oregon is an Outreach Consultant for National Wildlife Federation working on coal export and renewable energy issues in the Pacific Northwest, where he’s been a political organizer for over 15 years. Michael is a certified cycling instructor and a certifiable bike enthusiast, and can often be found on two wheels, rain or shine.