The Bureau of Land Management's Take It Outside Initiative was prompted by a growing national concern that children are spending significantly less time outdoors that previous generations; becoming more disconnected from nature; and increasingly showing symptons of an epidemic in childhood obesity. These issues were articulated in Richard Louv's 2005 book "Last Child in the Woods." In response to this problem, BLM and many other Federal agencies are taking on the challenge of attemping to reconnect the Nation's youth and families with the many benefits of spending time outdoors.
Kids learn about the Salmon River
BLM Takes It Outside!
BLM's Take It Outside Initiative focuses on promoting and expanding existing BLM programs that engage children and families in outdoor activitites. Try some of these family outings.
Leave No Trace: Striving to educate all those who enjoy the outdoors about the nature of recreational impacts as well as techniques to prevent and minimize such impacts.
Tread Lightly: Offering a variety of tools to help arm recreationists and the industries that serve them with essential outdoor ethics.
Hands on the Land: a national network of field classrooms connecting students, teachers, and parents to their public lands and waterways.
Learning Landscapes: A national website that provides educational and enrichment opportunities associated with the 258 million acres of public lands that BLM manages for all Americans. Visitors can get fit, commune, contemplate, serve, renew, revive, and re-center.
Idaho Birding Trail: A network of sites and side-trips that provides the best viewing opportunities to see birds in Idaho.
BLM teaches children about birds of prey at an Idaho Children in Nature event in Boise.