Remember the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit of over 500 youth from all over the US last June in New York City’s Central Park I attended? Well, the event organizers, the Outdoor Foundation, just released the data collected from the participants, and the findings are fascinating, resulting in a report that offers five top recommendations to President Obama to inform his America’s Great Outdoors Initiative including:

1. Engage, Employ and Empower Youth by working with Outdoor Nation and its community of Outsiders.
2. Engage Youth in the Outdoors during the School Day by collaborating …

Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times
Check out this intruging New York Times article brought to my attention by an Outdoor Afro community member about The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that helped black people find where and how to move about the United States for travel and leisure in the Jim Crow era. Living in these Obama tinted times, it can seem like a distant concept that in the lifetimes of our parents and grandparents, where black people might go to eat, spend a night, or merely venture …

June 19-20, 2010
New York City
Outdoor Afro had the wonderful experience this past weekend to be a part of Outdoor Nation, a youth summit designed to reconnect America’s youth to the great outdoors and inform organizations of what youth care about most. This was also the first official listening session as a part of Obama’s Great Outdoors Conference this past spring.

The event began with a mixer Friday night sponsored by Backpacker Magazine. Leadership from The North Face, VF Outdoors (TNF parent company), The Natural Leaders Network (Children and Nature Network), New …

I just got back from Washington DC on Monday after participating on behalf of the Outdoor Afro community in the first ever America’s Great Outdoors conference. This event was designed to bring leaders from around the country to discuss ways to re-connect Americans to the Great Outdoors and hosted the historic signing of the Presidential Memorandum on the topic.
Last Thursday night was the  pre-conference mixer at the Department of Agriculture, where we heard from the Department of the Interior (Ken Salazar), Department of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack), Council on Environmental Quality (Nancy Sutley), …

“Each Spring  these sons of slaves hiked hundreds of miles from San Francisco and Monterey to Sequoya, Yosemite and Kings Canyon serving in effect as our country’s first park rangers.” — Jackie Spier

This morning, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (San Francisco/San Mateo County) testified before a Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee.  Speier’s bill, H.R. 4491, authorizes the National Park Service to study the role the African American regiments played in establishing the National Park System and to honor their legacy.”

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to begin to tell …

In spite of budget cuts that threatened to close the kiosks and gates of over 100 State Parks all over California, the Governor steps in with a reprieve to keep them all open. Listen here for more: