The Honorable Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) and the briefing panel

In a sense, military kids serve right alongside their deployed parents. These children carry the burden of “holding down the fort”, while their parent(s) are away for long stretches of time.  Many are navigating the demands of school while balancing the needs of their household, such as caring for younger siblings, an ailing parent, and household chores among other things.

The distinguished panel, which included the Honorable Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works);  Michael Odle, US Department of Agriculture, Captain, Air National Guard as well as members of Blue Star Families, YMCA of the USA and the Maryland Park Service, delved into the importance of the outdoors for military kids.

Camping programs such as Operation Purple provide military kids with a reprieve from their day to day life with a week in the outdoors.  Many military families struggle to pay for any “extras” such as camp, and programs like these allow for families to send children to camp free of charge.  Not only are the camps set up for fun in the outdoors such as hiking, kayaking, and archery, but they also provide counselors that discuss long-term deployments and other the issues facing military kids.

Aside from camps, many parks across the country are offering free passes for military kids and their families—to help them reconnect with nature and one another, and decompress from the stress of military life.  The panelists agreed that being in the outdoors allows both children and their families to heal.  The moderator of the panel Stacy Bare of the Sierra Club said “military kids are our littlest heroes who also bear the brunt of war”.

The briefing was very well-attended, with many congressional staff commenting that they’ve “never attended such a feel-good event on the Hill”.

Full list of panelists:

Stacy Bare, Moderator, Sierra Club

The Honorable Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works)

Michael Odle, US Department of Agriculture, Captain, Air National Guard

Theresa Buchanan, National Military Families Association

Katie Adamson, YMCA of the USA

Sheri Robey-Lapam, Blue Star Families

Major Gary Burnett, Maryland Park Service

Gaspar Perricone, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Bull Moose Sportsmen's Alliance, speaks about the importance of the Land and Water Conservation Fund for sportsmen access and healthy wildlife habitat

How do you get kids, hunters, veterans, ranchers, rock-climbers, archaeologists, birdwatchers, urban planners, business leaders, health advocates and more to fly to DC and go to the same reception?  Besides good food and cold drinks? By celebrating America’s great outdoors of course.

September 19-25 was the first annual Great Outdoors America Week, a celebration of our nation’s wild places and green spaces.  At a time when Congress is bitterly divided on so many issues it was refreshing to see a wide variety of diverse groups and individuals come together under one cause: connecting with the outdoors.

Hundreds of people volunteered time, money and energy to make the trip to our nation’s capitol to call on key decision-makers to protect our natural heritage.  One theme I heard as I went from event to event (eating the entire time) was the concern that future generations will not have as many opportunities as we do to work, play and recharge our batteries outside.

The response from Congress and the Obama administration was overwhelmingly positive.  High-ranking officials from every federal agency that manages land and water praised the participants efforts and made links to the administration’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative.

Big events on Capitol Hill raised the visibility of different priorities related to the great outdoors.  Several receptions (I think I gained 5 lbs over the week) honored important champions of the outdoors, including Latino leaders in honor of Hispanic Heritage month.  We also honored dozens of other Members of Congress that are key players on issues related to sportsmen, wilderness, wildlife, urban parks, forests, agriculture, connecting Americans to the outdoors and preservation of cultural resources and historic places.

Even as someone who works on conservation policy for a living, I learned a lot, especially from the Congressional briefings.  One briefing showed the economic and health benefits of getting outside in nature and the other briefing dealt with issues of concern for sportsmen.  The sportsmen briefing explained to capitol hill staff that hunting and angling contributes $76 billion per year to our economy, an economic force in jeopardy from attacks to programs that support the sportsmen way-of-life, like the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  The briefing also covered threats from harmful proposals that literally give away our shared public lands, including many wild places that provide access to quality hunting, fishing, wildlife-watching and other recreational opportunities.

Great Outdoors America Week, which includes National Hunting and Fishing Day and National Public Lands Day, doesn’t have to end with the weekend. The National Wildlife Federation will be here year-round to celebrate nature and protect wildlife for future generations, but we need your help. Tell your “Great Outdoors” story to anyone who will listen, including your elected officials.  You never know who will be inspired to join the effort to defend the outdoors experience.

But maybe not.

After all, we came to hear WHY we need to reconnect with the outdoors—really, how those eponymous ‘healthy kids’ get that way. And as it turns out, the payoff for being outside more isn’t limited to shedding a few pounds in time for beach season (or, ah, sandbox season, if you’re of the younger set).

Outdoor Nation Youth Ambassador Juan Herrera tells his story (photo by Marine Jaouen, NWF)

Juan Herrera, an Outdoor Nation Youth Ambassador, benefitted from the outdoors, but it had little to do with physical fitness. After losing his father at the age of 9, his mother at 13 and running away from home at 14, he was adrift and hopping from shelter to shelter. With the help of a mentor, he started rock climbing and tapped into a source of adrenaline that rivaled fighting—but made him feel better. Outdoor recreation inspired him to turn his life around, and Herrera now works with inner-city, underprivileged and otherwise at-risk kids to connect them with nature (Herrera: “my biggest paycheck is seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces.”)

Stacy Bare, representing the Sierra Club, also turned his life around. He came back from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2007, rattled and feeling unable to fit in to civilian society. Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries left Bare deeply depressed, frequently suicidal. When he began to embrace the American outdoors two years later, it reminded him of the armed forces’ physicality, camaraderie and focus—and, in its accessibility to all citizens, proved a tangible reminder of the great democracy he fought for. He found that public lands were “the best form of therapy, and the best veteran’s administration program that’s not yet recognized by the VA, [and] the best youth education system and youth health system.”

“[If it] had not been for climbing the first flatiron in Boulder, Colorado, in the summer of 2009, I would be dead or in jail,” Bare said. He now works with veterans and military families and kids, helping them connect with the outdoors like he did. (He called HKOA “incredibly important.”)

Joseph W. Thompson, MD, MPH, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, followed those intense personal recollections with a more academic approach, pointing with alarm to worsening obesity statistics and related health conditions—including diabetes and heart disease—throughout the U.S.

As for getting more people outside, Dr. Thompson was blunt: “This is not something we could do. It’s something we must do.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sierra Club Military Family & Veterans Affair Coordinator Stacy Bare, speaking after an Outdoors Alliance for Kids briefing. He’s a big, tall guy, so us short folks had a tough time framing him–thanks go to new NWFer Marine Jaouen for grabbing this video.

The bill would support state, local and federal strategies to connect America’s youth with the outdoors through natural play; outdoor recreation like camping, hiking, hunting and fishing; public health plans; outdoor learning environments; service learning and other initiatives.

Pointing to a rise in childhood obesity rates and other health problems related to sedentary (and mostly indoor) lifestyles, Sen. Udall, chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on National Parks and co-chairman of the bipartisan Senate Outdoor Recreation Caucus, served notice that the work of getting kids out into nature need not be an occasion for factional squabbling.

“This isn’t a partisan issue,” Udall said.

Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) announces his partnership with Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) on HKOA

Rep. Kind, a longtime advocate of reconnecting Americans with the outdoors who previously introduced the Moving Outdoors in Nature Act (MONA), noted that, beyond the physical health implications of America’s indoor epidemic, “it’s hard to develop a healthy mind without a healthy body.”

Both noted that outdoor recreation and tourism contribute billions of dollars  to the national economy each year and support tens of thousands of jobs in Colorado and Wisconsin alone.

The briefing was sponsored by the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), a national strategic partnership of organizations from diverse sectors with a common interest in expanding opportunities for children, youth and families to connect with the outdoors. It came as part of Great Outdoors America Week, four days of celebration and conservation advocacy intended to remind leaders in Washington of our vital connection with America’s outdoor places.

OAK was launched by Sierra Club, YMCA of the USA, REI, National Wildlife Federation, Izaak Walton League of America, Outdoor Foundation, Children & Nature Network and the National Recreation and Park Association in June 2010. Since then, OAK’s steering committee has grown to include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, the National Association of State Park Directors, The North Face and Active Network. OAK has over 30 member organizations representing more than 30 million individuals.

I’m years removed from real youth, stuck in 9-to-5 grind mode. But today, my spirit is climbing trees and stomping around the little creek in my old neighborhood. I’ve got being out there on the brain. Like, more so than usual.

That’s because it’s Great Outdoors America Week, and I’m blogging to you live from a congressional briefing on the importance of staying connected to the outdoors.

A contradiction? HARDLY.

As a Wildlife Promise reader, the advantages of maintaining that special bond may seem obvious to you. But that’s not the case for everyone. That’s why the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) has assembled an All-Star lineup, including Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) and NWF’s own Danielle Moodie-Mills, to talk about the very real health, social and economic benefits we can reap if we, um, spend less time in rooms like this one, and make sure America’s kids follow suit.

So that’s why I sacrifice. To bring you the scoop!

Recent research shows that kids are spending about half as much time outside as they did 20 years ago, with many opting for screen-bound simulations of the world over the real thing. Aside from being a freakin’ shame, that shift may contribute to an increase in childhood obesity rates and other health problems–accompanied by an incremental hundred billion dollar cost to our health care system—and hurt school performance, behavior and future environmental stewardship (more reasons to get outside right here).

Economic benefits? Yeah, we’ve got that too. According to a new report from the Center for American Progress, recreation in national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges and other protected land sustains more than half a million jobs every year. The Outdoor Foundation, a member of OAK, has estimated that camping, hiking, hunting, angling and other activities support millions of jobs and contribute $730 billion annually to our economy.

Before this briefing is through, we’ll hear from Katie Adamson from YMCA; Stacy Bare, an Iraq veteran, from the Sierra Club;  Juan Herrera, an Outdoor Nation Youth Ambassador; Craig Mackey, from the Outdoor Industry Association; and Arkansas Surgeon General  Joseph W. Thompson, MD, MPH, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity. Stay tuned.

Great Outdoors America Week

Streams stocked with brook trout, forests with foraging bears and trees housing cerulean warblers add an interesting mix of wildlife to the George Washington National Forest. There are also lakes, rivers, valleys, mountains and plenty of opportunity for recreation and relaxation. But, all of this natural splendor could be corrupted by the natural gas drilling process known as fracking.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing a ban on fracking in this great outdoor public space. Take action to protect brook trout and other wildlife from fracking in George Washington National Forest. Developing energy is important and necessary for our way of life, but so is protecting wildlife for future generations. Say no fracking way to fracking in public lands and wild places.

Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park by Tom Wood

It’s mid-September: The days are growing shorter. The temperature is dropping. And this week, dozens of new TV shows are premiering. Are you northern-hemisphere inhabitants preparing to hibernate?

Resist! Resist! When the earth starts tilting away from the sun, we at NWF are even more motivated to shun the couch and celebrate the outdoors. And if you are the type of person that likes to organize fun around holidays, this is a BIG FUN WEEK:

• Sept. 19-22 is Great Outdoors America Week.
• Sept  23 is the first day of fall.
• Sept 24 is Public Lands Day AND Nickelodeon’s Worldwide Day of Play.

How can you celebrate, you ask? Make a bee-line to your favorite local, state, or national park, and bring your camera so you can enter National Wildlife Federation’s photo challenge. This month’s theme is “Celebrating America’s Public Lands.” We’ll pick six finalists to display on NWF’s Web site and on Flickr. Then the public will get to vote for the winner.

So whether you live next to Yellowstone or a tiny city park, we want to see your photos of the natural places that you share with your community.

Not sure where to go? Just enter your zip code into Nature Find to locate the nearest green spaces near you.