Creating a 21st Century Strategy for America's Outdoors

President Obama launched the America's Great Outdoors Initiative on Friday, April 16. In a speech at the Interior Department, President Obama said he intends to build upon "a breathtaking legacy of conservation that still enhances our lives." He said the tradition began with Theodore Roosevelt, whom he described as "one of my favorite presidents," although he added "I will probably never shoot a bear."

A memorandum President Obama signed to launch the initiative outlines policy goals that the administration prioritizes over the next few years: forming coalitions with state and local governments as well as the private sector, encouraging outdoor recreation by Americans and connecting wildlife migration corridors.

Four administration officials - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and White House Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley made statements at the event.

"It's really about getting people to think about the great outdoors again, and recognize what a tremendous asset it is to our country," Vilsack said.

American Whitewater provided the following Concepts for Enhanced Stewardship at the conference:

1.    Conservation and outdoor recreation are mutually dependent. Whether it is catching tadpoles in streams as a child or kayaking rivers as an adult, time spent interacting with nature forms the basis of the American conservation ethic.  Outdoor recreationists need natural landscapes and those landscapes very much need outdoor recreationists.    

2.    Agencies should not alienate visitors in meeting other goals. Recreation is often viewed by agencies as just one more impact to manage; something to be tolerated rather than encouraged.  Rules are often inequitably applied in a manner that allows resource extraction but discourages recreational use.  As a result, citizens are turned away, and small businesses like kayak instructors find it easier to lead trips to other countries than to nearby public lands.  Administrative direction in support of agencies encouraging human powered outdoor recreation could improve this problem.             

3.    Rivers should be universally recognized as valuable open space suitable for human powered recreation. Rivers and streams offer a free, existing, and vast network of close-to-home, public, nature-based recreation opportunities.  The federal government has authority to regulate and support public recreation on rivers and streams but does not do so.  Increasingly private landowners are allowed to close rivers to public enjoyment.  In states like Virginia, Georgia, and Colorado for example, very few rivers can be paddled without fear of prosecution. While a piecemeal approach is now delineating blueways or water trails, simple expression of existing federal rights could assure that every citizen, and every family, has a nearby venue for outdoor recreation.          

4.    Enhanced federal agency leadership could reduce conflicts and enhance conservation outcomes. Conflict wastes enormous amounts of stakeholder resources that would otherwise go to conservation.  Thus, where there is conflict nature loses, and where there is collaboration nature wins.  Consistent, clear, fair, and legal agency decisions reduce conflict.  Processes that clearly distinguish ecological issues from social and economic issues reduce conflict.  Often, major conflicts are the result of a lack of federal leadership regarding these topics.  Guidance from the administration and federal agency offices would reduce these conflicts and build trust with the American people.

5.    Climate change should not be used as an excuse to destroy our Nation’s remaining free flowing rivers and streams. The prospect of new incentives has triggered a rush to secure permits for new hydropower projects, and to build them.  These projects destroy rivers that now provide vital refugia for native species like salmon, as well as nature-based recreation.  This trend must be reversed.  Dams, no matter how big, devastate rivers and fracture American’s relationship with the natural landscape.

6.    Management plans and regulations should be accessible online. It is extremely difficult for the public to access general management plans and Wild and Scenic River Management Plans.  In the name of transparency and to support collaboration these plans should be made available online in an easy to find location.

For more information on Creating a 21st Century Strategy for America's Outdoors visit the White House blog.