On March 4th, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, hosted a live chat to answer your questions about the America’s Great Outdoors initiative. The initiative seeks to reinvigorate our approach to conservation and reconnect Americans, especially young people, with the lands and waters that are used for farming and ranching, hunting and fishing, and for families to spend quality time together. They took questions from YouTube videos and Facebook participants from across the country on ways to develop a conservation and recreation agenda that makes sense for the 21st century

(103 votes, average: 0.11 out of 5)

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Last week, President Barack Obama announced the Administration’s action plan, under the America’s Great Outdoors initiative, to achieve lasting conservation of the outdoor spaces that power our nation’s economy, shape our culture, and build our outdoor traditions. This initiative seeks to reinvigorate our approach to conservation and reconnect Americans, especially young people, with the lands and waters that are used for farming and ranching, hunting and fishing, and for families to spend quality time together.  Recognizing that many of these places and resources are under intense pressure, the President established the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative last April to work with the American people in developing a conservation and recreation agenda that makes sense for the 21st century.

This report is the product of 51 listening sessions across the nation—21 specifically with young people—consisting of more than 10,000 participants spanning all ages and backgrounds, plus more than 100,000 comments from citizens across the nation sharing with us your priorities for the lands and waters that you know best. We built this plan with your input and your involvement doesn’t stop there.

On March 3, 2011, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and I will continue the conversation by hosting the first America’s Great Outdoors live chat.  You can join by video before the chat or by Facebook during the chat.  You can post your YouTube video questions by responding to the video above, or by sending your questions to policyoutreach@ceq.eop.gov.  To submit by Facebook during the live chat, sign on to our Facebook chat application on Thursday March 3rd at 4:30 pm (EST).

We look forward to talking to you!

Nancy Sutley is Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality

(19 votes, average: 0.26 out of 5)

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Americans have a proud tradition of working together – from the ground-up – to conserve farmland and open space for future generations, restore rivers and streams, protect areas for hiking and biking, preserve beaches and coastlines, conserve wildlife habitat for fishing and hunting, and restore the cultural and historic sites that tell America’s story.  In fact, community-driven efforts to conserve America’s land, water, and wildlife are a major reason why we are blessed with the parks, refuges, forests, and open spaces that we enjoy today.

On April 16, President Obama launched the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative as a way to create a national dialogue about conservation in America.

As part of this dialogue, we brought together ranchers, farmers and forest landowners, sportsmen and women, state and local government leaders, tribal leaders, public-lands experts, conservationists, youth leaders, business representatives, and others to learn about some of the smart, creative ways communities are conserving outdoor spaces.

Today we are releasing the America’s Great Outdoors report “A Promise to future generations,” which is a result of that dialogue. Recognizing that the best ideas come from outside Washington, the report released today outlines ways in which the Federal Government will help empower local communities to accomplish their conservation and recreation priorities. Last summer, senior Administration officials held 51 listening sessions across the country to gather input from Americans about the outdoor places and activities that they value most. These sessions drew more than 10,000 participants and over 100,000 online written comments, shaping an action plan that we are releasing today.

We hope you will join our continuing conversation about America’s Great Outdoors. Please check out and comment on our national progress. We want to hear from you about the places you love, your community’s efforts to protect them, and how we can better support modern-day land and water conservation efforts happening in communities across the country.

(20 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Originally posted April 16, 2010
Contact: Christine Glunz, CEQ, (202) 456-3469
Kendra Barkoff, DOI, (202) 208-6416
Caleb Weaver, USDA, (202) 720-4623
Brendan Gilfillan, EPA, (202) 564-2081

Effort will Promote and Support Community-Level Efforts to Conserve Outdoor Spaces

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum today establishing the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to promote and support innovative community-level efforts to conserve outdoor spaces and to reconnect Americans to the outdoors. The President spoke before leaders representing the conservation, farming, ranching, sporting, recreation, forestry, private industry, local parks and academia communities from all 53 states and territories.The Presidential Memorandum calls on the Secretaries of the Interior and of Agriculture, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to lead the Initiative, in coordination with the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor, Transportation, Education, and the Office of Management and Budget. The Initiative will support a 21st century conservation agenda that builds on successes in communities across the country, and will start a national dialogue about conservation that supports the efforts of private citizens and local communities.

“Today, with 80 percent of Americans living in cities and suburbs, it is more important than ever for people to have access to outdoor space. Just as we cherish our childhood memories of hiking and sledding, fishing and camping, and just as we enjoy spending time outdoors with our families, we must guard these places and traditions for new generations,” said CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley. “Through this Initiative we hope to identify new opportunities to work with Americans on a modern approach to conservation that begins at the ground level, and to reinvigorate the national conversation about our outdoors.”

“Since President Theodore Roosevelt held the first White House conference on conservation in 1908, we as Americans have taken extraordinary steps to protect our land, water, wildlife, and history for future generations, but today the places we love face new challenges that require new ideas and new strategies to solve,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative will start a much-needed dialogue about conservation in our country so that we can hear directly from Americans about the places they care about and how they are working to protect them. This is about listening, learning, and finding common-sense ways to support the good work that is happening in communities across the country.”

“President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative will play an important role in confronting the serious challenges our natural resources face today: climate change, air and water pollution, landscape fragmentation and loss of open space,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This effort will bring Americans from across the country together to look for new approaches to protect our national treasures. And it will highlight the importance of working across ownership boundaries to restore and conserve both private and public lands in a way that recognizes that conservation and economic vitality are inextricably linked.”

“Too many of our cities have limited access to parks for children, low-income residents and communities of color. Improving access to open areas and green space in our urban communities should be a focus of a 21st century conservation strategy,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “It makes me proud that generations to come will know that we took action to preserve, restore and protect vital natural treasures.”

The full text of the Memorandum can be found at http://doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors/upload/2010outdoors-mem-rel-2.pdf

(16 votes, average: 2.19 out of 5)

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