News Release - 06/08/09

State Fish and Wildlife Agencies Cheer the Creation of the 21st Century Conservation Corps and Urge Congress to Fully Fund It

Proposed Initiative Will Help Establish New and Creative Programs to Educate and Energize Young Hunters and Anglers and Encourage Youth to Seek Careers in Natural Resources

WASHINGTON, DC —At a press conference today at Constitution Gardens to celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, joined by White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, signed a Secretarial Order establishing an Office of Youth in Natural Resources at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), which will coordinate a new, program, the 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps.

Modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps that provided three million jobs in the 1930s, the 21st century version is intended to bolster recreation, environmental education and service programs throughout DOI, and engage thousands of youth in the outdoors.

To fund the program, President Obama’s FY 2010 DOI proposed budget contains a significant, new investment to connect children and families to nature. The budget targets $30M for educating young hunters and anglers—which would include $28M in grants to states, territories and tribes to improve recruitment and retention—and $40M (doubled from last year) for Youth Careers in Nature to encourage young people to seek careers in natural resources.

In addition to signing the Order at the press conference, Secretary Salazar recognized two special guests, Stacie and Scott Gilmore, wildlife biologists and alumni of the Colorado Youth in Natural Resources Program Salazar created when he was the state’s Director of Natural Resources.

Scott currently works as the Angler Education Coordinator for the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Stacie is the Executive Director of Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK), a non-profit she and her husband founded in 1996 to introduce Colorado’s urban youth to natural resources (www.elkkids.org). In 2008 alone, ELK educated more than 21,000 youth and their families. ELK also has a 98% graduation rate for high school seniors enrolled in its year-round program.

The Association supports the 21st Youth Conservation Corps and encourages Congress to fully fund the program, providing the means to implement new and creative opportunities at the federal, state and public-private partnership levels for fostering a life-long enjoyment of the outdoors while developing the next generation of fish natural resource conservation leaders.

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The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies —the organization that represents North America's fish and wildlife agencies—promotes sound management and conservation, and speaks with a unified voice on important fish and wildlife issues. Found on the web at www.fishwildlife.org .