Top Obama administration officials led by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar are pressing ahead in an effort to reshape conservation and recreation policy and have made reconnecting urban kids with the outdoors a central component.
Salazar and a cadre of federal officials ran listening sessions in Denver and Grand Junction on Friday and made a special effort to hear from kids.
And those who participated in the brainstorming were enthusiastic about the benefits of getting outdoors.
“It’s better to be outside,” said Kuliana Fifita, 16, sitting with classmates from Denver’s Montebello High School. “It makes me feel better — feel better about myself, that I actually used my time wisely instead of watching TV.”
But kids also lamented a lack of transportation to mountain recreation areas, parents without enough free time and money, and decrepit urban parks.
President Barack Obama launched this America’s Great Outdoors project on April 16, urging Salazar and other agency heads to develop a national policy that builds on successes in communities to clean up, protect and promote the enjoyment of cherished outdoor spaces.
“We’re now in charge of working with all of you to put together the 21st-century conservation agenda,” Salazar told a gathering of more than 250 participants Friday at a hotel conference center in Golden.
The BP oil mess — along with wars and economic doldrums — have weighed heavily on administration officials in recent months.
During an editorial board meeting Friday at The Denver Post, Salazar acknowledged some optimism as contractors worked to cap gushing oil. “We’re being very, very cautious.”
The nation must aim for total restoration of the Gulf Coast, Salazar said. “This is really an opportunity to launch a Gulf Coast restoration program.”
U.S. conservation initiatives historically have advanced when leaders managed to take a long view during crises. President Abraham Lincoln amid the Civil War, for example, set aside land that became Yosemite National Park.
“It is in these times of crisis that America finds what is best in itself,” Salazar said.
The Great Outdoors Colorado program that has tapped state lottery funds to preserve more than 800,000 acres as open space has emerged as a template for a new national approach to improving conservation and recreation.
Salazar’s partners in developing Colorado’s initiative during the 1990s — Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman, who now runs the U.S. Forest Service, and Will Shafroth, now the Interior Department’s deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks — joined him in running the tour of 20 or so cities this week.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
