Cross posted from the White House blog:

America’s national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other outdoor spaces are treasured for their beauty, their enjoyment, and for their value to our culture and history — sometimes, it can be easy to overlook that they also serve as economic drivers for American communities.  In sectors ranging from tourism to outdoor recreation and energy development, our nation’s public lands and waters are creating jobs and supporting local economies across the country.

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an annual visitor survey, which highlights how our nation’s forests are contributing billions of dollars to the economy and creating jobs in tourism, restoration, and renewable energy.  The report showed that USDA Forest Service lands attracted 166 million visitors in 2011, and, as a result, visitor spending in nearby communities sustained more than 200,000 full- and part-time jobs.  The survey also reveals that these jobs produced labor income of more than $7.6 billion, while forest and grassland visitor spending contributed more than $13 billion to the gross domestic product. Read more »

When President Obama recently called on federal agencies to help young people find more work in the great outdoors, the U.S. Forest Service – with 193 million acres of prime outdoor space —responded quickly with jobs for hundreds of underserved youths.

The America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists initiative will fund 20 projects, providing more than 500 young people with the experience of a lifetime working on public lands this summer work season. The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced $3.7 million in competitive grants through the initiative. Read more »

The new box culvert and open channel to Long Island Sound, which restored fish passage and tidal flows to the salt marsh. Volunteers installed the dune grass plantings.

We have a lot to learn from nature about teamwork. In fact, natural systems prove time and again that the intricate partnerships between air, water, soil, nutrients and plant and animal species breed success. So why, whether a singular agency, organization or landowner, would we ever think that we could “fix” a problem like fish habitat degradation alone? Read more »

A Menominee girl enjoys the sackrace fun with her classmate friends.

More than 300 children joined the First Lady’s Office and other administration officials recently for the launch of Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin. The event took place at the Keshena Woodland Bowl, where the children played and exercised outdoors after tribal leaders welcomed the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Office, White House Domestic Policy Council, and the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. Read more »

Cross posted from the Let’s Move! blog:

Last week, Secretary Vilsack joined St. Louis Rams quarterback and Cherokee nation member Sam Bradford in the USDA People’s Garden to talk about the importance of healthy lifestyles to improve the health of our nation’s kids. Secretary Vilsack and Sam Bradford were accompanied by the Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, Robin Schepper, Keith Moore, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education Director, and Janie Hipp, Senior Advisory to Secretary Vilsack with the USDA Office of Tribal Relations. The event underscored the value of programs like Fuel Up to Play 60, Let’s Move! Outside, and the People’s Garden to provide opportunities for parents, teachers and child care givers to get kids up and moving during the summer months. Read more »

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (at podium) and St. Louis Rams Quarterback Sam Bradford (blue shirt, left) met at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, to encourage Native American Youth to pursue a healthy lifestyle. More than 30 Students from Eastern and Western Tribes, Southeast Alaska, and Tuba City, Arizona came to the Nation’s Capitol to plant vegetable seeds that are indigenous to North America. Bradford is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. The garden is called The Roots of American Agriculture, and is part of the Headquarters’ People’s Garden. Also speaking at the event was the Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign Robin Schepper (center); Director of the Bureau of Indian Education. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

Cross posted from the Let’s Move! blog:

St Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford joined Secretary Vilsack in the USDA People’s Garden yesterday to urge Native American youth to spend the summer pursuing healthy outdoor activities.  About 30 Native youth from across the Nation, including Tuba City, Arizona and Southeast Alaska, planted a Native American Garden (part of the USDA People’s Garden) as Bradford, Vilsack and other dignitaries spoke. Read more »