ENVIRO-NEWS: White House Conference on America's Great Outdoors

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Makuch, Joseph" <Joseph.Makuch@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Mar 29, 2010 11:05 AM
Subject: [ENVIRO-NEWS] White House Conference on America&apos;s Great Outdoors
To: <Enviro-News@nal.usda.gov>

USDA
Release No. 0153.10
Contact: USDA Office of Communications (202) 720-4623

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON
AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS

WASHINGTON, Friday, March 26, 2010 - Obama Administration Officials
announced today that they will host a White House Conference on
America's Great Outdoors on Friday, April 16, 2010. Nancy Sutley, Chair
of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Ken Salazar,
Secretary of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture are
leading the conference, which will address the challenges, opportunities
and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the
importance of reconnecting Americans and American families to the
outdoors.

"America's outdoors are part of our national identity. They are the
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," said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House
Council on Environmental Quality. "Too many of these places are
disappearing. In launching this conversation, we strive to learn about
the smart, creative community efforts underway throughout the country to
conserve our outdoor spaces, and hear how we can support these efforts."


"Across the country, Americans are working to protect the places they
know and love, from the streams they fished as children and the parks
where families gather together to the battlefields and buildings that
tell America's story," said Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior. "The
Conference is a great chance to learn about these efforts, start a new
dialogue about conservation in America, and find ways to further the
work that is already going on in cities and towns, counties and states
throughout the country."

"There is no doubt that we face serious challenges to our natural
resources: climate change, air and water pollution, a lost connection
between some Americans and the outdoors, and a fragmentation and loss of
open space," said Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture. "We believe
that the best way to answer these challenges is to work with landowners,
conservation groups, sportsmen and women, local communities, and state
and local governments to conserve America's great outdoors, and in doing
so, reconnect Americans to our forests, working lands and public lands."


This conference will bring together leaders from communities across the
country that are working to protect their outdoor spaces. Participants
will include working ranchers and farmers, sportsmen and women, State
and local government leaders, Tribal leaders, public lands experts,
conservationists, youth leaders, business representatives and others who
view the outdoors as integral to their communities. The discussion will
center on the conservation opportunities in communities, the challenges
facing them, and the innovative solutions they are crafting from the
bottom up.

The conference will offer an opportunity for participants to engage with
each other, learn from past and ongoing efforts, communicate how the
Federal Government can support these efforts, and identify new
opportunities to work together to modernize our approach to
conservation, and reinvigorate the national conversation about our
outdoors.

Media credentialing information will be released when it becomes
available.

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