More Kids in the Woods – National Recipients:

Nature Field Work Partnership – Harlem Link: Project supplements the school’s science curriculum by exposing its students to surrounding forests, wetlands, and restoration sites throughout the New York City region. Partners include: Harlem Link Charter School, Meadowlands Environmental Center, NY Botanical Gardens, Forest Service Northern Research Station, NY.

Project amount: $35,000

Schoolyard Habitat & Education Project: Project provides opportunities for Baltimore City underserved youth to explore and understand their environment, both the urban and natural aspects, and to assist teachers in providing meaningful outdoor experiences for their students. Partners include: Parks & People Foundation, Hooked on Nature, URBANtells, USFWS, Forest Service Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry.

Project amount: $53,100

Youth Conservation Outreach Project: The partners’ Youth Conservation OutReach Project (Y-CORP) includes a discovery school for K-12 students and summer youth programs, both of which include disadvantaged youth locally and from across the nation.

Partners include: Glacier Institute, MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Glacier NPS, Flathead National Forest, MT.

Project amount: $91,600

My WOODS: Students take part in a five-week long program at Phillips Farm County Park that highlights the area ecology. Students will have opportunities to hike, fish, and perform service projects throughout the Clearwater National Forest. Partners include: Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Center, MSD Adventure Club, USFWS, Clearwater National Forest, ID.

Project amount: $27,300

Culture Camp in the Tongass NF: Project helps native youth 10-17 to connect with their culture in a wilderness setting. The youth will be immersed in the Tongass National Forest , a temperate rainforest, as part of a week-long excursion. Partners include: Ketchikan Indian Community, Tongass National Forest , AK.

Project amount: $34,000

Eco-Week: Project helps students experience the Rocky Mountains through a 3-day residential “Eco-week.” They learn ecology standards, teambuilding and develop a connection to the natural world. Partners include: YMCA of the Rockies, CO State University, Poudre School District, Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, CO.

Project amount: $165,000

Denver Youth Naturally: By immersing students in science education and leadership development through hands-on field activities, outdoor recreation, local excursions, and overnight wilderness experiences, the project will ignite curiosity and inspire students in their academic studies, career searches, and outdoor recreation. Partners include: Environmental Learning for Kids, Gates Foundation, Denver Public Schools, Pike-San Isabel National Forest, CO.

Project amount: $121,000

Live the Miracles of Nature: The project provides at-risk youth the opportunity to experience nature in a quiet setting, where the emphasis is on learning, strengthening self-esteem, and fostering a sense of overall well-being. Partners include: Big Brothers & Sisters, Psychology Clinic of Laramie, Albany County Dept of Family Services, Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, WY.

Project amount: $27,600

Natural Resource Internship: Participants will receive wilderness and “leave no trace” ethics training, participate in high-adventure activities and earn certification in first aid and CPR. The intense curriculum also includes weekly service learning experiences and multiple overnight wilderness experiences in the Jemez Ranger District. Partners include: San Felipe Pueblo, Santa Ana Pueblo, Bernalillo HS, REI, NM Game & Fish, American Red Cross, Santa Fe National Forest, NM.

Project amount: $27,300

Healthy Kids, Healthy Watersheds: Project draws teenagers from the community to be educated on forest issues such as invasive species, fisheries/clean water, wildlife issues, wilderness management, water safety, trail use and repair, wildland fire topics, and stream restoration. Partners include: Snake River Fund, Friends of Pathway, Latino Resource Center, Jackson Hole Ski Club, Teton County Schools, Bridger-Teton National Forest, WY.

Project amount: $36,000

Explore Idaho !: Project combines the expertise of several outdoor recreation and environmental education organizations to get more kids in the woods. Organizations will work together to increase programmatic activities that introduce youth to the outdoors. Partners include: Wild Science Explorers, Adaptive Wilderness Sports of McCall, Teens Restoring Earth's Environment, Payette-Nez Perce National Forest, ID.

Project amount: $34,200

Snow School : Project trains and uses volunteers to give students hands-on lessons in integrated environmental stewardship. Funds from this grant will be used to hire a part-time seasonal SnowSchool coordinator, to revise the curriculum, print a bilingual promotional brochure. Partners include: Winter Wildlands, Bogus Basin Recreation Assoc, Primedia Digital, Bogus Basin Nordic Group, Boise National Forest, ID.

Project amount: $62,000

Nature’s Outdoor World – Northern Utah: The project trains after school and summer program leaders in nature-based learning activities and ways to encourage youth recreation in the outdoors, emphasizing the youths’ connection with the surrounding national forest and Wildlife areas. Partners include: Alliance for Youth, Logan City & Cache Schools, 4-H, Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, Stokes Nature Center, Hispanic Coalition, Nature’s Outdoor World Northern Utah Program, Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Utah.

Project amount: $93,700

Outdoor Experiences Program: Through a curriculum-based combination of education, outdoor experiences, and restoration projects, the Outdoor Experience program introduces participants to the concept of public land stewardship and raises awareness of how human activities impact natural environments. Partners include: LA Conservation Corps, Outward Bound, Asian American Drug Abuse program, Neighbors Acting Together Helping All, Inyo National Forest, CA.

Project amount: $92,000

SSTARS Summer Camp: During the summer, at least 40 youth from the SSTARS Jr. Leadership Program camp will work for five days at the SSTARS Camp in the Sequoia National Forest. Throughout the year, 160 junior leaders, ages 10 to 17, participate in day trips to the Forest. Partners include: Community Services & Employment Training, Tulare County Health & Human Services, Backcountry Horseman, Foodlink SSTARS Jr. Leadership Program, Sequoia National Forest, CA.

Project amount: $29,400

Resources And People Camp: The Resources and People (RAP) Camp was started in 1992 by a group of employees from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and local University Extension Offices. Students are not only exposed to many career ideas but learn firsthand how our natural resources are managed and are given tools to critically assess the issues that managers and society face today. Partners include: TEACH Inc, OR Dept of Forestry, Inner City Youth Institute, Jeld-Wen Foundation, Klamath Watershed Council, Fremont-Winema National Forest, OR.

Project amount: $71,700

Mount St. Helens Field Trip Scholarship and Volunteer: Each year approximately 8,000 schoolchildren come to Mount St. Helens for its educational programs. The award money will assist in reaching another 800 students. The funds would also be used to expand the institute’s volunteer program in providing pre and post classroom activities. Partners include: Columbia Sportswear, Northwest Interpretive Association, Mt. St. Helens Institute, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, OR.

Project amount: $133,500

The Cascade Exploration Project: The Seattle Parks’ Outdoor Opportunities program is an environmental education, conservation and stewardship program designed to serve underrepresented and multi-ethnic high school youth. The project will exposes students to these topics through overnight trips, service projects and after school programs. Partners include: Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, STEPS, Wild and Scenic Institute, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, WA.

Project amount: $44,700

Latino Legacy: The project will offer on-site conservation education activities and programs designed specifically for Latino youth and families. The project design includes working within the Latino community to develop culturally appropriate programming; training 16 bilingual high school students to help facilitate on-site programs; evaluating developed program models; and providing program templates for other national forests. Partners include: Stephen F Austin University, Conroe Hispanic Force, USFWS, National Forests of Texas.

Project amount: $59,800

LBL Field Trip Grant Program: The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Kentucky, Field Trip Grant Program provides support for public school children within 100 miles of Land Between The Lakes NRA to get out of the classroom, out of the city and into the woods. The project is to meet the increasing need for support of schools in these difficult budget times so they may take advantage of the opportunities to study in the woods at LBL. Partners include: Friends of LBL, Murray State University Center for Environmental Education, Ecotone Services, C. County Women's Club, Farm Bureau, Land Between the Lakes, KY.

Project amount: $50,700

Urban Forest Adventures: The project will expand an existing environmental education program to underserved, low-income youth in Ithaca, New York. Five groups of pre-teen, age 9-12, youth will take part in weekly outdoor activities for eight weeks, culminating in an overnight wilderness adventure in the national forest. Another group of teenagers, age 13-19 youth, will participate in year-long outdoor activities while serving as mentors for the pre-teen group and preparing for possible summer employment .

Partners include: Cooperative Extension Assoc, 4-H, Cornell University, Finger Lakes National Forest, NY.

Project amount: $62,055

Sci-Fun Project: The project teaches students about Forest Service outdoor recreation research and biological research issues and methods and requires them to conduct outdoor recreation research and biological research on public lands in the Detroit metropolitan. They will report electronically to other Detroit students about their experiences and help evaluate the effectiveness of the project. Partners include: Henry Ford Academy, Greenfield Village, MI Dept of Natural Resources, USFWS, Urban Connections, Forest Service Eastern Regional Office, WI

Project amount: $34,500

American Indian Math & Science Camp: The Rocky Mountain Research Station, Montana, assists with the American Indian Math and Science Camp (AIMS) which is an ongoing, successful collaboration with the Salish-Kootenai College since 1997. Seventy 6 th graders attending schools on the Flathead Indian Reservation participate in this week-long sleep-away camp at Blue Bay Campground on the shores of Flathead Lake at no cost. The goal of the camp is to engage the interest of these children in math and science and their environment in the context of their traditional culture.

Partners include: Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, Salish and Kootenai College, local businesses, Rocky Mountain Research Station, MT.

Project amount: $78,850

National Hispanic Environmental Council, Minority Youth Environmental Training: The project will develop a science partnership with the National Hispanic Environmental Council thereby supporting the 7th Annual “Minority Youth Environmental Training Institute” in August 2007. The Institute will be held at the Glorieta Lifeway Conference Center in the scenic mountains of northern New Mexico.

Partners include: National Hispanic Environmental Council, Rocky Mountain Research Station, NM.

Project amount: $53,350

News Release: Forest Service Works to Improve Children's Health

More than 250 proposals were received. The Forest Service sought proposals that focused on underserved and urban youth; provided hands-on recreation and conservation education; engaged in solid and broad-based partnerships; and incorporated innovative techniques.

The Forest Service has been a leader in conservation education and recreational opportunities for more than a century. In addition, national forests provide opportunities to urban and rural kids; therefore they are an ideal location for most of the projects funded by this program. Beyond that, government, with its influence over parks, open spaces, education and health care, has a crucial role to play in helping our nation realize the physical, emotional and cognitive benefits of the great outdoors. The rise in childhood diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease is a growing national crisis. All of us have a role to play to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children. Outdoor experiences in early childhood can help get our children on the pathway to a healthy and active lifestyle.