What is Take It Outside?
Idaho's Be Outside Movement
Find out about Idaho's Be Outside movement, the latest non-profit organization made up of federal, state, and non-profit organizations dedicated to getting kids off the couch and outside. Visit the Be Outside website to learn more!
Let's Move Outside - America's Move to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids
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.
Idaho's Be Outdside initiative has partnered with KIVI Channel 6 news about getting outside. Visit their website to see interesting ideas and fun activities you can do to get outside and enjoy nature! Click here to see the site.
![Kids learn about the outdoors](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.72496.Image.300.225.1.gif) 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.
Family Outings
Other Take It Outside Related Websites:
- Care Share Campaign: Sharing rangelands respectfully with others.
- Idaho Off-Highway Vehicle Information Project: State and federal agencies in Idaho promoting responsible use of off-highway vehicles.
- 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.
- Be Outside. Idaho Children in Nature: A website dedicated to getting children and families outdoors to enjoy nature.
- 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.
![Taking it Outside with BLM at Craters of the Moon](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education.Par.28024.Image.360.240.1.gif) Children enjoy time outside at Craters of the Moon National Monument
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Second Clearwater River Cleanup Day Yields a Bounty of Trash
Over 2,680 pounds of metal and almost three tons of trash were collected over three days of river cleanup along the Clearwater River. The river is one of the more popular rivers sought by sport fisherman in northern Idaho due to its abundant steelhead fisheries. The first clean-up day was held in early September, but volunteers quickly realized that additional work days would be required to really make a difference. Two additional work days were held on September 22 and 23. Volunteers from a variety of groups, including a local 4-H club, County Commissioners, Bonneville Power Administration, Idaho Fish & Game and BLM spent two additional days along sections of the river collecting scrap metal and garbage. The events were sponsored by the Clearwater Management Council, a multi-county and agency board that works to improve the quality of the river for the people that use it. The group has already planned next an event for next year on August 11, 2012.
Shoshone Field Office Takes Part in Educational Event
More than 350 fifth graders from Gooding, Shoshone, Wendell, Camas and Bliss school districts participated in the annual Little City of Rocks outdoor education event on September 29. Shoshone Field Office Cultural Resource Specialist Lisa Cresswell provided an introduction to Southern Idaho archaeology and Outdoor Recreation Planner David Freiberg taught the kids about Snake River Plain volcanic geology. Other stations included water quality (Soil Conservation District), fish and wildlife (IDFG), and paleontology (NPS). This program is presented annually by the Gooding and Lincoln County Soil Conservation Districts.
![Kids enjoy the Little City of Rocks](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.1297.Image.-1.-1.1.gif)
Students enjoy the Little City of Rocks
Take it Outside Program Features Owls of the Northwest
The crowd starting gathering at the Coeur d’Alene BLM pavilion along the shores of the Spokane River well before the Owl Hoot program began at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 25. The evening event was organized and funded through a Take it Outside grant prepared by Coeur d’Alene BLM Environmental Education Specialist Beth Paragamian. Paragamian was assisted by volunteers from the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Society, from students who help at the Wildlife Education Center and guests from the Spokane Valley Outdoor Learning Center.
![Kids learn about owls](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/owl_hoot_2010.Par.98646.Image.400.267.1.gif) Students learn about owls at the Owl Hoot. |
Paragamian linked the evening presentation to the Great Fires of 1910, describing how the fires burned through the areas in Montana and Idaho, displacing owls and other wildlife until the areas began to revegetate. Several live and taxidermied owls were presented, including a pygmy owl, Western screech owl, Long-eared owl, two Short-eared owls, a barn owl, Barred owl and the largest, a Great Horned owl. Special features of the owls, such as sight, sound and color patterns were described, along with their habitat needs. The crowd also learned what injuries the owls sustained that caused them to need rehabilitation at the wildlife centers, e.g., gunshot wounds, car accidents and fence entanglements. An “Owls of Idaho” poster was provided to each attendee, many of whom stayed after the program to view and photograph the owls. Chocolate owl “pellets” were provided as an evening snack, with many in the crowd staying to enjoy the social event of making s’mores.
Burley Field Office Hosts Bicentennial Celebration of Astorian Fur Trappers
Hosting over 200 students for a unique outdoor learning experience in the Snake River Canyon is no small feat. But thanks to the tremendous organization and careful attention to safety by the Burley Field Office staff and the Twin Falls County Historic Preservation Commission, the students within the Twin Falls School District enjoyed a one-of-a-kind learning opportunity. Shifting between five different stations every twelve minutes, the students learned about archaeology, wildlife, geology, botany and the history of the Astorian Fur Trappers. They also learned about the Hunt Party Disaster, where one of the fur trappers/explorers lost his life in the broiling rapids of the Snake River.
![Astorian Fur Trapper Day](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/take_it_outside.Par.12297.Image.400.300.1.gif)
BLM teaches students about the Astorian Fur Trappers
![Astorian Fur Trappers](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/take_it_outside.Par.59190.Image.400.300.1.gif)
"Fur trappers" talk about historical fur trapping.
“Exploring Wild North Idaho” Day Camp Engages Youth in the Outdoors
Coeur d’Alene BLM Wildlife Education Specialist Beth Paragamian orchestrated and conducted the “Idaho Discoveries” Day Camp near Coeur d’Alene, ID as part of the BLM’s Take It Outside program. The day camp, one in a series of activities funded through a youth initiative, included 15 youth between the ages of 8 and 12. Daily explorations in different types of habitat allowed the youth to investigate the occupants within the area including birds, fish, butterflies, insects, reptiles and amphibians. A volunteer artist provided pointers on drawing wildlife while the attendees completed journal entries; sketching wildlife and writing notes about their discoveries. Funding for the program provided supplies and transportation along with tote bags and journal/sketch book for attendees to keep. Paragamian, who has conducted thousands of educational and outreach programs, said it was a wonderful experience for all who participated and illustrates, “how nature and wildlife make connections with people.” She was moved by their excitement and eagerness to learn about wildlife and different habitats and how appreciative they were. Paragamian, who has already received several thank you letters from attendees’ parents, summed up the week-long camp by stating, “I also had the best time of my life!”
![Kids Learn about different types of habitat](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/take_it_outside.Par.59106.Image.450.278.1.gif)
Kids learn about habitats and wildlife at the "Idaho Discoveries" Day Camp.
Twin Falls Elementary Students Tour Tee Maze Cave North of Shoshone
Students of Mrs. Montoya's fourth grade class from St. Edwards Catholic School learned about lava-tube caves, cave life, cave conservation and cave safety while on a field trip to the Tee-Maze cave system on May 14. Hiking through multilevel cave passages, squeezing along narrow tunnels and helping each other up and down ledges gave the students an opportunity to experience an adventure most of them had no idea existed on nearby public lands. As part of the FO's Take it Outside Program, designed to get kids off the couch and out learning about and experiencing their public lands, many of the kids decided this may have been the best field trip they had ever taken.
![Students visit Tee Maze Cave](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.95057.Image.380.285.1.gif)
The students inside Tee Maze Cave
![Students outside Tee Maze Cave](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.3258.Image.380.419.1.gif)
Students pose for a picture before entering the cave
Twin Falls Elementary Students Enjoy Guided Visit to Black Magic Canyon
BLM-ID Twin Falls Elementary School fifth graders visited the uniquely sculpted lava rock of Black Magic Canyon in April. As part of BLM's Take it Outside Initiative, BLM staff and geologists took a group of 22 kids and chaperones on a self-discovery tour through the spectacular canyon.
The kids were thrilled to learn about the geology of the native Wood River channel and the effects of erosion on volcanic rocks. Spirits were high as the kids climbed and scrambled among the unique “bathtub” features scoured into the rock. They also spotted a few voles and watched as owls soared silently through the canyon.
The Shoshone FO is busy with Take It Outside adventures for Magic Valley area elementary students this spring. On Friday, May 7, 60 third graders will participate in a nature hike/scavenger hunt in Black Magic Canyon; the following week, 60 second graders will hike through Little City of Rocks. Finally, on May 21, 56 fifth graders will tour Tee and Maze Caves north of Shoshone.
Want to find out about Environmental Education events in South-Central Idaho? Call the BLM Twin Falls District Office, 208-736-2350
![Students in Black Magic Canyon](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.27331.Image.500.375.1.gif)
Students enjoy Black Magic Canyon
![Students after seeing the canyon](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120921105327im_/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/environmental_education/ee_site_photos.Par.43862.Image.450.357.1.gif)
Students cheer after seeing the canyon