On the opening day of the 76^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, a Special Session was dedicated to assessing the potential opportunities outlined in the Obama Administration's new natural resource conservation initiative. The America's Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations report, released on February 16, is the result of a national dialogue initiated by the Administration to identify priorities for conservation and for engaging future generations in natural resource management. Rather than an end result, the report is seen as the starting point for programs that can address the concerns and opportunities highlighted in the document, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

"Through the AGO listening sessions and public input process, we learned that there is a powerful consensus across America that outdoor spaces?public and private, large and small, urban and rural?remain essential to our quality of life, our economy, and our national identity," the report notes. "Americans communicated clearly that they care deeply about our outdoor heritage, want to enjoy and protect it, and are willing to take collective responsibility to protect it for their children and grandchildren."

There are three primary goals of the AGO initiative. ?First is to reconnect Americans, especially children, to the nation's landscapes, waterways, ranches, farms, forests and coasts. ?Second is to build on current public and private priorities to conserve outdoor resources and establish corridors and connectivity across landscapes. Third is to use science-based management to restore and protect land and water resources of the nation for the benefit of future generations.

Within the broad sections of the report are specific recommendations on how to achieve the goals. A top priority is fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund in order to address proactively another goal of implementing conservation at the landscape level. Working collaboratively across agencies, with organizations and communities and to cut internal red tape and bureaucracy to accomplish the initiative's goals is another priority. And in recognition that all conservation does not occur on public lands, the report recommends focusing on working landscape conservation through tax and other incentives. Finally, a large portion of the report focuses on getting youth and families to recreate within the natural world and to cultivate the next generation of natural resource managers.

The Special Session at the North American Conference, entitled America's Great Outdoors?What's in it for Wildlife? focused on the action items outlined within the report. Experts were invited to assess the potential opportunities and challenges ahead. They focused on the response to the report from the state agencies and conservation organizations and a "where do we go from here" approach.

"For the America's Great Outdoors report to become a working reality, whether your goal is recruitment of resource management professionals or simply healthy active Americans, it needs to be grassroots," commented panelist Christine Thomas, Professor of Resource Management at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. "We must think federally, but act locally. It requires the involvement of school districts, parents, local conservation groups, universities, state resource management agencies and federal land managers. The planning and implementation needs to involve constituents at all levels. The federal government has neither the funding and facilities nor the personnel to carry this out alone. Similarly, the local groups and agencies cannot do anything that is coordinated and far reaching enough to make a national difference. It is going to take all of us."

With the substantial budget hurdles ahead (see related story in this edition of the ONB), implementation of the America's Great Outdoors initiative is in question. However, the dialogue that the Administration has started and the recommendations within the report are generally seen as a positive starting point. (jas)