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Kids & Trails
Hosted by AmericanTrails.org
Trails and greenways are a way to help kids be fit and have fun. Many organizations and agencies, including American Trails, are working to combat increasing childhood obesity. See programs, training, education, activities, youth employment, and resources:
- Getting Kids off the Couch and onto a Bike: Preventing Childhood Obesity
- America's kids are more inactive than ever
- Report Links Decline in Bicycling and Walking to Nation's Obesity Epidemic
- REI program offers tips to help kids get outside
- Foundation will spend $500 million to fight obesity in children
- See Resources for Health & Trails
- Locating playful paths for maximum impact
- Playful pathways: a national model in Germantown, TN
- Playful Pathways: changing the way families play
- "Pathways for Play" is a new way to get children and families outdoors on the trail
- Dirty kids are the best kind of kids, by Fredric Rice
- Bronx Lab School Underground Railroad Riders: A Journey Into Health and History
- Getting kids and families on the Waterfront Trail
- Discover one of North America's great family trails with the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure
- Emerging Trends in Pocket Bike Parks (pdf of PowerPoint 2.7 mb)
- Outdoor Recreation as a Motivational Tool for Youth
- Getting kids on trails: some educational and interpretive approaches
- Teaching natural history on Maricopa County trails with Desert Critter Scene Investigator program
- "Inside the Outdoors" brings environmental education to Orange County, CA trails
- Chugach Children’s Forest in Alaska aims to empower next generation of public land stewards
- Trails: an antidote for "Nature Deficit Disorder"
- Go Play Outside Alliance of Washington teaches kids about nature and fun in the outdoors
- Vermont Envirothon students evaluate impacts of outdoor recreation
- Engaging Children on the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (pdf of PowerPoint 1.6mb)
- A Trail to Every Classroom: Service-Learning & Professional Development (pdf 6.0 mb)
- B.R.I.D.G.E. Alternative High School students build Hancock trail
- The Walking School Bus: Combining Safety, Fun and the Walk to School
- BusRadio will promote stewardship to kids on the way to school
- Wyoming develops Youth Outreach Program for ATV safety education
- "Breaking Barriers" aims to engage youth in the outdoors
- Western Governors report on Connecting Kids and Families to the West’s Great Outdoors
- Task Force on Childhood Obesity addresses the "built environment"
- Richard Louv speaks to House Committee on Interior and Environment on the need for "Leave No Child Inside" programs (pdf 476 kb)
- The Powerful Link between Conserving Land and Preserving Health, by Howard Frumkin and Richard Louv (pdf 184 kb)
- Research documenting the "nature deficit" concept of author Richard Louv
- Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California
Getting
kids out on the trail has health
as
well as education benefits; on the
Rivanna
National Recreation Trail (photo by Diana Foster)
- Trips for Kids: taking on the mountain
- Conservation Corps and Transportation: Making the Connection includes a funding guide and case studies
- Connecting young adults, good work, and transportation funding
- Distribution of "Safe Routes to School" funds to states for 2008
- Pacific Northwest Trail Association SKY Program for Youth (pdf of PowerPoint 5.7 mb)
- Vermont’s No Child Left Inside Initiative
- USFS call for proposals for More Kids in the Woods
- IMBA's Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day is first Saturday in October
- Florida Youth Equestrian Trails Expo inspires young equestrians to action
- Trail work helps Colorado youth unplug
- Tahoe Rim Trail offers Youth Backcountry Camps
- Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbelle on Kids in the Woods: Making the Connection
- Congressman Sarbanes Introduces "Foundation for a Fit Nation" Act
- Teacher works with NOHVCC to get kids on the trail
- Congress Gets Behind IMBA's Take a Kid Mountain Biking Effort
- Trips for Kids 70+ chapters take disadvantaged youth on mountain bike excursions
- Sierra Club Inner City Outings provides opportunities for urban youth
- Children & Nature Network supports people and organizations working to reconnect children with nature
- California DOT solves problems to employ Conservation Corps
- Building Healthy Children with the Trans Canada Trail Mix
- "GEEKS in the Woods" reach out to the next generation
- Youth Programs from "Toolbox for the Great Outdoors"
- Texas Children in Nature Strategic Plan: Trails are a key way for kids to be more active outdoors
- Guide to Establishing a Safe Routes to School State Network
- Creating Safer Routes to School in California
- Safe Routes to School 2009 Policy Report: Implementation challenges (pdf 640 kb)
- An Active & Safe Routes to School Success Story
- Active & Safe Routes to School in Ontario
- Guiding principles for Safe Routes to School programs
- Implementing Safe Routes to School in Low-Income Schools and Communities (pdf 1.8 mb)
- Safe Routes to School funding available for states for FY05-09
- Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting from U.S. EPA (pdf 1.3 mb)
- Travel to School: The Distance Factor
- Why Johnny Can't Walk to School: neighborhood schools in the age of sprawl (pdf 368 kb)
- New Children’s “Adventure Trail Activity Book” Available From NOHVCC
- The state of environmental education and implications for America’s trails by Jennifer Rigby
- Help shape the future of Safe Routes to School: review draft strategic plan
- “Let’s Move Outside” Using Urban Parks and Trails, by Peter Harnik
- “Take Our Children to the Park…& Leave Them There Day” Are You In?
- First Lady Michelle Obama launches Let’s Move! campaign
- Forests Inside Out! launched to get city children out into nature
- Missoula Children and Nature Summit: Reclaiming the outdoors
- House Passes "No Child Left Inside" Act
- National Get Outdoors Day is a new June event to help kids connect with nature
- NPS Deputy Director Harvey addresses youth outreach efforts for Centennial
- California Outdoor School Administrators seek outstanding lessons for Teaching in the Outdoors
- Environmental Education and the No Child Left Behind Act
- Coalition intensifies efforts to rewrite No Child Left Behind Act
- When Kids Hit the Pedals, Good Things Happen; from the Washington Post
- Kids need trails, and trails need kids, by Dennis Madsen, President and CEO of REI
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