What comes next, after Great Outdoors America Week
Betsy and I
are back home in Vermont fresh from our Great Outdoors America Week
in Washington, DC. It was a most productive week promoting efforts
that reconnect Americans, especially kids and young adults, with the outdoors.
OUR WEEK IN WASHINGTON
(1) Meeting
with senators, representatives and their staff and sensing their
willingness to help move legislative initiatives forward.
(2) Enthusiastic
support registered in conversations with Sally Jewell, Secretary of the
Interior; Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental
Quality; Mike Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club; Jamie Williams,
President of the Wilderness Society.
(3) Welcoming
youngsters at the Kids, Youth and the Great Outdoors Festival
on the National Mall and feeling the kids energy
levels rise with our hands-on displays of canoeing, mountain biking
and hiking equipment.
(4) Our own outing
along the impressive Great Falls Park trails along the Potomac
in nearby Virginia.
NEXT STEPS
We’ll be continuing to
support these efforts long after Great Outdoors America Week, and hope you’ll join in our common effort to create meaningful
opportunities in the great outdoors for everyone.
Reauthorization bills
have been introduced in Congress: "The Public Lands Service Corps
Act", H.R. 1352 in the House, S. 360 in the Senate. This Act would
expand service employment opportunities -- like the Conservation Corps
-- for young adults on public lands.
We spent
many person-hours in DC advocating in favor of these bills. Join
us by emailing, writing or
calling your own Representative or Senators urging them to co-sponsor this
bill.
--by Denis Rydjeski and Betsy Eldredge, Sierra Club of the Upper Valley, Vermont; Sierra
Club Outdoors Delegates for Great Outdoors America Week 2013