WASHINGTON — Voicing concerns that Americans are losing their connection with nature — and that natural areas are falling victim to sprawl and pollution — the White House will invite hundreds of hunters, anglers, environmentalists and other champions of the outdoors to Washington in April for a conservation summit.
Administration officials said Friday that the White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors, set for April 16, will focus on how to conserve the land with local leadership instead of a heavy federal government role, administration officials said Friday.
The goals: bring together cities, states, tribes and nongovernmental organizations working on conservation efforts; and encourage families to spend more time outdoors.
Too many “farms, ranches and forests that we take great pride in, and the neighborhood parks, trails and fields where we spend memorable time with our families and friends . . . are disappearing,” said Nancy Sutley, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“In launching this conversation, we strive to learn about the smart, creative community efforts underway throughout the country to conserve our outdoor spaces.”
Oil and gas companies have criticized Obama’s Interior Department for revoking some drilling leases — many of them near national parks — issued under former President George W. Bush.
Congressional Republicans accused Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in recent months of pushing to “lock up” swaths of federal land in the West after the release of an Interior document suggesting sites for new national monuments.
Salazar has defended the revocations and dismissed the monument document as an early draft, assuring Western lawmakers that the administration won’t declare any new monuments without public input.
In recent weeks, sport fishing groups have seized on an Internet rumor that the administration could be preparing new restrictions on recreational fishing.
White House and fisheries officials have emphatically denied that.
Summit history
Presidential conservation summits date to the days of Theodore Roosevelt, above, and most recently were convened by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. President Obama, like many of his predecessors, is struggling to balance competing pressures on public land from hunters and anglers, environmental groups and industry.
