U.S. Department of the Interior hosts “Healthy Parks Healthy People” event to celebrate the launch of the National Park Service’s Healthy and Sustainable Food Program

Yesterday, the US Department of the Interior launched the National Park Service’s “Healthy Parks Healthy People” initiative. Due to an increase in national demand for healthy food options as well as the National Park Service’s promotion of healthier choices, parks will now offer healthier, more sustainable food options.

My fellow Mission Outdoors intern, Katie Joyce, and I were lucky enough to attend this event held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The event spotlighted Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, and White House Senior Policy Advisor on Nutrition and past White House chef, Sam Kass. Each of these individuals spoke about the importance of introducing healthy food options to National Park concessions. Director Jarvis emphasized that introducing healthier options in parks will give those 23 million people who use the concessions a wider variety of menu choices. Including healthy options at National Parks will help to promote healthy living and activity in National Parks.

Jonathan Jarvis, Director, National Park Service

The event included a delicious reception featuring healthy locally grown foods. The foods were prepared by four different concessioners who collaborated on behalf of the National Park Service’s healthy and sustainable food program. The concessioners, Xanterra, Delaware North Companies, Aramark, and Guest Services, each had a station featuring a healthy and delicious food option. Some of these tasty options included vegan black bean burgers, crab cakes, Chesapeake Bay seafood tacos, fresh berries, turkey sloppy Joes, fruit spritzers, and gluten free almond crested chicken tenders. While we sampled a little piece of everything, our favorite item of the day was the delicious Low fat vanilla yogurt with fresh blackberries, local honey and an oven baked crisp.  

After tasting the healthy food options, I am excited for the National Parks to implement the new food program! The program is a great way to utilize locally grown foods, boost regional economies, and reduce environmental impact. Furthermore, park visitors will have an enhanced park experience. Enjoying the outdoors at the nations National Parks will now be a healthier experience than ever before. I encourage everyone to visit a National Park this summer and enjoy one of the new healthy food options -- and get outdoors, too! 

Veteran Story Tellers team up with the Outside Adventure Film School

 

Traversing the Great Sand Dunes

“You defendedyour country once, now your country needs you again” was the idea we left with our military and veteran filmmakers as we celebrated the debut of the Sierra Club’s first veteran films at the Dairy Center of the Arts in Boulder, CO. For a week in May, Sierra Club Military Outdoors partnered with the Outside Adventure Film School and Veteran’s Expeditions to train aspiring active servicemembers and veterans in the art of outdoor filmmaking in the mountains and deserts of Colorado. In some of the most beautiful terrain our country has to offer, our team experienced a week of raw emotions, tested their physical and mental limits, and made powerful friendships, all while learning their craft under the watchful eye of Michael Brown and Serac Adventure Films, one of the top outside filmmakers in the industry.

 Our veteran film makers were a diverse a group as any I have worked with in the military. These men and women represented every branch of the service and came from all over the world, from Long Island to Washington and Russia to new Mexico. Their stories were all different, but they all shared one thing in common, the desire to learn to tell their stories through the medium of film in the outdoors.

Our Team

In my experience as a mountaineer, I find that the journey rather than the summit is oftentimes the most rewarding part of any expedition. This trip was no different. Our team quickly realized that they were committed to a greuling fifteen mile mountain traverse from the start as we slogged through the snow and mud in the Zapata Pass area up to the ridge line. Our tough approach was rewarded with stunning views and an alpine sunrise as me made the ridge. For the next 9 miles, we traversed on a ridge in the Sangre De Cristo range, and were greeted with a stunning view of the the surrounding mountains and dunes as we paused on the summit of Carbonate Mountain. We then raced against imposing thunderclouds down to Mosca Pass, where we made the final leg of our journey into the Great Sand Dunes National Park. For the next two days, our team continued to develop their skills as filmmakers as we explored the rolling dunes and the starry nights of the park.

Traversing the ridgline

While we were hesitant to leave the dunes, our vets soon got to work in our team house in Sunshine Canyon outside of Boulder. They benefitted from mentorship of the Serac Films crew as they edited their films and crafted their stories for the next two days. On the final day, our team debuted their films to their peers and guests at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder. Not only did they demonstrate a talent for storytelling through film, they honored all of us with a very personal look at their lives and the challenges they face through the stories they told.

Michael mentoring Kevin prior to a shot

The Outside Adventure Film School provided our vets with the tools they need to tell their own stories in the outdoors. These same tools will allow them to continue to tell not just their own stories, but those of their fellow veterans, and those of the wild places we go to heal. Much like David Brower and Ansel Adams initiated massive change  in bringing our wildest places to America after World War 2 through the medium of film, this new generation of veteran film makers will do the same for our  warriors and the wild places they defended. 

Michael, Scott, and Dan review a shot

A special thanks to the Sierra Club, The Outside Adventure Film School, Veterans Expeditions, and most importantly, our team of veterans in making this an extraordinary trip.

Please view the films here at the following links:

Scott  - West of Weightless

Dan - Power of the Outdoors

Bella - My First Crappy Film 

Mike  - Challenge

 

Sierra Club ICO Volunteers win President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition Award

Congratulations to Sierra Club Inner City Outings volunteer leaders!! They just won the 2013 President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition Community Leadership Award. Sierra Club's ICO volunteer leaders are connecting kids and communities with the natural world.

From the President's Council: 

"Inactivity and poor nutrition are nationwide problems that affect people of all ages and abilities. We recognize the importance of organizations like yours that are motivated and willing to help others experience the mental and physical benefits that physical activity, sports and proper nutrition provide. Congratulations on receiving this honor. We wish your organization continued success in future health and fitness endeavors."

Congratulations, ICO!! Keep up the great work.

Learn more about our 52 ICO groups and do us a favor, take a kid outdoors!

On the Boy Scouts Decision: Diversity and Inclusion Are Necessary in the Outdoors

Last week, the Boy Scouts of America announced a bit of a confusing decision to change their policy to allow gay Boy Scouts, but not gay Scout leaders or Eagle Scouts.
 
Here at the Sierra Club, we welcome people of every culture, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation to walk, paddle, climb, and lead with us. We believe that bringing diversity to outdoor recreation is essential to preserving our natural heritage for future generations.
 
The freedom to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet appeals to communities of all backgrounds, and it is our responsibility as outdoor leaders to make our outdoor spaces and wild lands accessible, available, and inviting to all.
 
The Sierra Club's Mission Outdoors program is combating the growing divide between America and the outdoors by increasing opportunities for everyone to improve their well-being through exploring and enjoying the natural world.
 
The Sierra Club's 2.1 million members and supporters include people of every sexual orientation, and they are all as entitled to live their lives open and proud as they are to the clean air, water, and beautiful landscapes they fight to protect.

-- Stacy Bare, Sierra Club Mission Outdoors Director

How the Outdoors Helps Our Nation's Heroes

When Paul Wilson took a job in the early 1970s in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, shortly after returning home from Vietnam, he didn’t anticipate the contrast between living in the outdoors and serving abroad.

"To go backpacking and fishing, it just really had a calming, introspective influence on me. It was something that probably saved my sanity on more than one occasion," says the former Marine. "That quote by John Muir about going into the mountains and getting their good tidings is pretty apropos."

Now a 25-year Sierra Club member living in West Virginia, Paul volunteers through Trout Unlimited by teaching fly-fishing to returning soldiers. Tying a fly, he says, provides cognitive therapy for those recovering from combat.

"This is a way to get away from everything and rejuvenate," says Paul. "What I do isn't really about catching fish. It’s about slowing down and learning to relax and reconnect."

Memorial Day is a day to honor those who have died and a reminder of how important it is to reach service members and their families. That’s why the Sierra Club partners with several organizations, such as the National Military Family Association, Armed Services YMCA, and Higher Ground, that provide outdoor experiences to service members and let them enjoy the freedoms of the land they helped defend.

This includes reaching children of military families through the Military Child Outdoors campaign and other programs -- many kids of service members move multiple times during their adolescence -- which helps reduce stress, promote fitness, and provide a sense of community for kids with one or more parents deployed.

These organizations let all of us give back to our country's heroes and show appreciation.

Watch our new short documentary, Mission Outdoors: Glacier National Park, about service members and the outdoors, and click here to learn more about the Sierra Club’s history with the armed forces, which dates back to World War I. 

A Jewell of a Morning

 This post originally appeared in Sierra Club's Lay of the Land Blog

It was a beautiful sunny spring morning yesterday at the 15,000 acre Prince William Forest Park. Debbie Sease and I, along with a diverse array of over 50 outdoors and conservation leaders, joined Secretary of the Interior  Sally Jewell and National Parks Superintendent Jon Jarvis to discuss how to connect American families with nature and our special places.

Secretary Jewell clearly and passionately understands that connecting kids and families outdoors is absolutely critical for the future of our communities, public lands and wildlife.  She spoke eloquently of the power of private and public sector partnerships, and her great optimism that working smartly together we can collectively make a big difference.

Debbie and I highlighted the Sierra Club's growing outdoors programs  that get over 250,000 kids and adults outdoors--from inner city kids to military families-- as well as our own Jackie Ostfeld's leadership in the Outdoors Alliance for Kids  where she pushes for policies and funding to get kids outdoors.  We got some great kudos from Sheri, with Blue Star Families, about a recent Sierra Club grant to help them get their military families to an outing in the Park.

Secretary Jewell ended her comments by highlighting the need to consolidate all the mapping data out there to better identify lands of high value for wildlife and recreation, cultural and historical values, as well as those of high energy development value.  She urged all of us to be active and smart as we work together to create a healthy future for our children and our public lands.  We're looking forward to what is in store.

--Dan Chu, Sr. Campaign Director, Our Wild America

Secretary Sally Jewell Wants to Connect More Children to Nature

In case you missed it, yesterday Interior Secretary Sally Jewell hosted her first live web chat. We already knew she was a champion for connecting kids with the great outdoors when she was the CEO of REI, but we were wondering how she would tackle the growing divide between children and nature in her new role.

During the chat, we posed the following question: "How will you as Secretary of the Interior ensure that more kids have access and opportunities to explore and enjoy America’s Great Outdoors?"

And here’s how she responded.

“The next generation of leaders, in this country, are the children that are being born today, and playing in our playgrounds today. There is a growing disconnect between children and nature across our country for a variety of reasons. We think about screen time and how much time kids spend in front of a screen, but also homework, organized youth sports, things that create time for adults to be telling children what to do. I think that it is critically important that children have time to explore on their own terms, to exercise their curiosity. It is very important in an urbanizing world, and particularly in our country, that kids in urban areas have an opportunity to connect with a park or an open space and explore that to satisfy their own curiosity, to make up their own rules and not just have an adult telling them what to do all the time. I think America’s Great Outdoors provides a great place to do that, whether it is the great outdoors close to home in an urban area or whether it’s the vast lands of the BLM or our National Parks. I look forward to finding opportunities to work across agencies and states and local areas to connect more children to nature overall.”

Watch the recording of the full Earth Day web chat and let us know some of your ideas for connecting kids with nature.

 

Celebrating Our Military Families in North Carolina

For our second weekend of Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors events, Sierra Club volunteers and partner organizations hosted a fun day of activities at Sturgeon City Park in Jacksonville, NC, near Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Kids learned about animals and played games with our partners at Barney’s Almanac, they learned about water safety with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, enjoyed some snacks from the USO, saw and touched flounders with Sturgeon City, blew bubbles and played cornhole with Blue Star Families, and made pinwheels and hiked around the wetlands with the Sierra Club. The hit of the day was kayaking with Camp Lejeune Outdoor Adventures and the Sierra Club.

It was many of the families’ first time kayaking and everyone enjoyed being on the water. It was fun to watch as the kids conquered their nerves and became confident in their boats. A couple of boys who had been hesitant to go out on the water without their father were soon proud of their new paddling skills and wanted their mom to send pictures to their dad overseas.

Although, this was my last weekend with the Sierra Club, COMCO events will be happening all across the country through June. I can’t think of a better way to say thank you to our nation’s youngest heroes and military families. I’ve been honored to do this work and have been inspired by the passion and support our partners have shown for our Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors initiative. Letting us know that our work has been a success, one of the girls toward the end of the day exclaimed “this is the best day ever!” Find an event near you and take someone outside with you this weekend!

All photos courtesy of Nancy Card

Kicking Off the Month of the Military Child

Last Saturday, April 6th, was our Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors kickoff at Prince William Forest Park near Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia. Sierra Club Mission Outdoors worked with dozens of local and national partners to offer a free and fun day in the outdoors to honor our nation’s military kids and families. The day went spectacularly well; we had perfect weather, an excellent turnout, and a ton of fun with military families in the great outdoors!

Aspiring climbers negotiate the rope ladder

Families enjoyed a range of activities including kayak demonstrations, organized hikes, nature lessons and games, bird watching and more! They also collected benthic macroinvertebrates from a local creek, learned climbing skills, and saw birds of prey from the local raptor conservancy. Some of the most popular activities (tree climbing and leaf throwing) were provided by the park itself.

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis joined us as our keynote speaker, shared stories of his life with the National Park Service, and described the connected history of the military and our national parks.

Rangers were on hand to give out the annual America the Beautiful Pass, which is free for all U.S. military personnel and dependents. Sierra Club Board President Allison Chin also joined us to kick off the day, thanking military children for their unique service to our country and announcing the launch of our Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors initiative with over 20 events, hikes, and outings scheduled across the country to connect military children with the outdoors.

Timeless fun - tree climbing

This event would not have been possible without Laura Cohen and the Amazing team from Prince William Forest Park. A huge thank you to all of our partners and volunteers for making the day great: Blue Star Families, National Military Family Association, OAK-the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, National Park Service, Children & Nature Network, U.S. Forest Service, Virginia and Maryland Sierra Club  local and ICO outings groups, Raptor Conservancy of Virginia, Team River Runner, Sportrock Climbing Center, Dog Tag Bakery, National Wildlife Federation, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, NatureBridge, Alice Ferguson Foundation, and the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program.

A special thanks to Marianne Weaver with Blue Star Families, as well as Josh Brandon and Sara Carmichael with the Sierra Club for doing a fantastic job coordinating logistics and handling much of the work for the day.

Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors events are happening all across the country throughout April, the Month of the Military Child, and into June. Find a full listing of events at sierraclub.org/GETOUT. If you don’t see an event in your area, you can find resources at sierraclub.org/missionoutdoors to organize your own and show your support for our nation’s youngest heroes!

COMING HOME: How Nature Programs Offer Peace, Healing to Veterans and Families

Originally published on the Children and Nature Network Blog

Getting outside makes coming home from war easier for our military service members, veterans, and their families. Even if returning service members do not have a physical or mental health injury, most, families or veterans, will still struggle with coming back into their families or society to a routine which is very different from war.

The level of struggle will vary between families and individuals, but outdoor activities can be universally applied for all individual veterans, military families and especially children, for ensuring success in integration, employment, and education. Outdoor activities may take on additional importance for those returning with physical or mental health injuries that require adaptations due to a loss or limited use of a limb or traumatic brain injury.

We know from repeated testimony that increased confidence, family and social connections, learning how to live with a new physical adaptation, improved mental health, and even recovery from addiction, are attributed to time spent in the outdoors by veterans and military families.

Unfortunately, children, spouses, and caregivers are often forgotten. While one parent is deployed, children, spouses, and caregivers all take on different roles than when the military parent was at home. These roles can be difficult to relinquish or redefine when a parent comes home.

The outdoors provides an opportunity for kids to be just kids and for families to reconnect. Children can see in the outdoors that just because Mom or Dad may be missing a hand, Mom or Dad can still be an active participant in their childhood.

The National Military Family Association’s Operation Purple Camps and Retreats, Outward Bound for Veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project’s Project Odyssey, and the collaborative effort between 4H offices and National Guard and Reserve families that created Operation Military Kids, alongside the YMCA and several adaptive sports programs located at different winter and summer resorts, set the standard early on for outdoor recreation programs. Families and veterans can find opportunities through 125+ organizations, and that number is increasing, that cover the spectrum from afternoon picnics to multi-day expeditions.Programs like the collaborative agency and organization effort, Celebration of the Military Child Outdoors helps, on a community level, to connect local outdoor organizations with the local military and veteran community family. It is an outgrowth of a years long partnership between The National Military Family Association and Sierra Club to shift to a low cost, high impact partnership with more than 20 other organizations, the National Park Service, and United States Forest Service.

Some programs, like Higher Ground and Project Sanctuary include a deliberate therapeutic component. Others, like Project Healing Waters and Veterans Expeditions, argue that time in the outdoors, fly fishing or climbing respectively, inherently provide the therapy. Most programs fall somewhere in between. Increasingly, programs are finding ways to collaborate to save on resources and maximize impact.

Project Rebirth’s Resiliency in the Outdoors program, being led by US Army MAJ Aaron Leonard in his free time, aims to prove to military commanders that outdoor activities shouldn’t just happen after deployments, but when done before service members head overseas can improve mental health resiliency and expand on traditional leadership skills.

MAJ Leonard’s work is helping to shift the context of the outdoors for the military and veteran community from something nice to do if you have the time and the resources, to an integral, fundamental part of being a healthy soldier or veteran. If a day hike, or family picnic can provide the mental health relief and confidence building needed to find a job or get through a rough day at work or school, even if that work is combat, it should, and is, being prioritized. The positive implications this will have on outdoor recreation in general should not be discounted.

The Department of Interior has stepped up to make accessing public lands easier by offering free America the Beautiful passes While the Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors ensures long term, repeat engagement outside for families, kids, and adults before or after they experience multi-day opportunities.

Across the spectrum however, we need to better tell our story and enlist the support of media outlets and not just those focused on outdoor recreation. Specialty magazines are great, but the outdoors and outdoor activity needs to become part of our total cultural landscape not just the reprieve of flannel and plaid wearing adventures normally profiled in outdoor magazines. Hand in hand with improved story telling, we need to significantly expand the body of research that shows with data, what we know through testimony to be true about the value of the outdoors.

The great news about military families, veterans and the outdoors is that it is an easy way for everyone to help and get involved. Next time you go on a hike, invite a veteran or military family!