Teaching The Hudson Valley

Youth & America's Great Outdoors: New Report Released

Posted by Debi Duke, THV coordinator. Photo by Bill Urbin, National Park Service.
on February 24, 2011

08-06-10_26._ago_listening_session_dep_sec_hayes_photo_nps_w.jpg

Everybody seems to be talking about the America's Great Outdoors report released last week by the White House.

Monday's Poughkeepsie Journal had a story about Carlos Duran and Francis Cruz, graduates of Clearwater's Green Leadership Pipeline program, who were at the White House last week when the report was presented.

A New York Times editorial, also on Monday, called specific attention to the recommendation to "protect places near big cities, like the Hudson River Valley, as well as dwindling farmland."

We heard thanks are due Scenic Hudson for calling the editorial board's attention to this aspect of the report.

Over at Huffington Post, Will Rogers, president of The Trust for Public Land, and Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, lauded the report.

NPR, CNN, and network news shows covered it. Washington Unplugged, a CBS online video feature ran a clip from President Obama's presentation about the density of squirrels in President's Park, a national park that includes the White House.

What impressed me most was the attention the report pays to youth. It includes an entire section devoted to their ideas. For instance, THV SCA Hadley Galbraith reported that speakers at a Hudson Valley listening session called for "more outdoor jobs for teens" and "more environmentally-focused jobs."

"When officials responded that there were a number of internships for youth available," Hadley wrote, "a young man pointed out the need for better outreach!" Sure enough, a recommendation for better outreach made it into the report.

Galbraith also wote about "lots of suggestions for increasing the attractiveness of parks. Several youth suggested holding concerts for teenagers and providing amenities like skate parks and basketball courts. A popular vote-by-hand showed a majority in the room for free buses to parks!" And, once again, students were heard. The report stresses the importance of "expanding options for public transportation and linking sidewalks and pathways to create safe routes to parks."

In fact, an entire section features youth voices and recommendations based on their testimony. (Download it here.) This part of the report is summarized in a two-page youth fact sheet.

The recommendations are unlikely to feel new to friends of THV, but it does feel important that even in the midst of a fiscal crisis the administration has committed itself to:

Providing quality jobs, career paths, and service opportunities for youth.
Creating and enhancing safe, clean, and accessible urban parks, green spaces, and recreation.
Encouraging place-based and experiential learning. (One unidentified Hyde Park participant asked for "More focus on hands-on education, not on test scores.")
Engaging youth in implementing the report.

Another common theme Galbraith identified was food. "The first speaker described a food-growing project she had done at her school and threw out an idea for composting leftovers at school. Others cited lessons to be learned from growing food to feed your own community including the value of recycling nutrients, conserving land, and improved health." (Thanks to Hadley's work THV will soon publish A Teaching the Hudson Family Resource Guide to Farms and Food.)

As Galbraith wrote in August, "All of these suggestions will have to face up to the dearth of funding. For me, this turned out to be inspiring rather than dispiriting. I often find myself thinking that it does no good to ask for funds when budgets are tight. But the young people at this session had a much better attitude. They took advantage of this democratic opportunity and stepped up to the task, telling policymakers how they felt money should be spent."

Fifty listening sessions around the country contributed to the AGO report. Participants at the the Hudson Valley listening session included Beacon's Green Teens, the Albany Young Men's Outdoor Leadership Team, Fresh Air Fund at Sharpe Reservation, Galbraith and other Student Conservation Corp members, and Cruz, Duran, and other Clearwater youth. The session was held in August at the Wallace Education Center here in Hyde Park.

Comments

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."