The American Recreation Coalition (ARC) was delighted to welcome Mike Ensch, Chief of Operations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Directorate of Civil Works, as the special guest for the May 2008 Recreation Exchange. Mr. Ensch focused his remarks on the factors impacting the Corps’ ability to continue offering outstanding recreation experiences. The USACE manages over 460 lakes, mostly in eastern urban areas, said Mr. Ensch. “We have a tremendous number of visitors,” remarked Mr. Ensch. Currently, the Corps manages 56,000 miles of shoreline and hosts nearly 400 million recreation visits annually.

Mr. Ensch addressed the intense competition for recreation resource funding. “With the President’s agenda to balance the budget by 2012, support the War on Terror and now provide economic stimulus, where will the funding for our recreation operations and infrastructure come from?” he asked. Mr. Ensch predicted that the recent increase in gas prices will create an “interesting difficulty for us,” as families put off cross-country trips and stay closer to home, increasing the visitation to the Corps’ near-urban projects.

April 25, 2008 - (Washington, D.C.) Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne joined National Park Service (NPS) Director Mary Bomar, a potent group of Members of Congress and a large group of park supporters to announce 110 national park projects and programs, funded by private and public funds, under President Bush’s National Park Centennial Challenge Initiative. For 2008, Congress appropriated $24.6 million for the Centennial Challenge Fund and the private sector responded with nearly $27 million in matching contributions, totaling $51 million for the projects announced on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

A preview of the first-ever National Get Outdoors Day will be held in the Washington, D.C. suburbs on May 31, two weeks before events will be held across the nation to help all Americans – and especially American families with children – discover opportunities for healthy fun. The preview will be hosted by the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America at Camp William B. Snyder with the involvement of dozens of national and regional organizations.

National Get Outdoors Day, which promotes the fun and value of time outdoors, is a signature event of “Great Outdoors Month,” the designation given annually to June by the White House and governors across the United States. For the last two decades, Americans have turned indoors and to less physically active leisure pursuits. Visits to national parks and most other public recreation sites have declined and obesity has increased rapidly among the American people, with significant health consequences, including projections of life expectancy declines of 2-5 years for today’s youth. The USDA Forest Service and the American Recreation Coalition have each pledged $100,000 to the inaugural National Get Outdoors Day in an effort to reconnect children and nature and to reverse these dangerous trends.

Lindi L. Harvey, National Park Service Deputy Director, spoke to the April 2008 Recreation Exchange. Deputy Director Harvey focused her remarks on the National Park Service Centennial Initiative and her agency’s efforts to reconnect today’s youth to the parks. Ms. Harvey applauded the Recreation Exchange participants’ partnerships with the National Park Service and called on the group to further lend their expertise in moving forward the Centennial legislation and supporting youth-outreach projects.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tevi Troy was the guest at the March Recreation Exchange, a special session held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the National Park Hospitality Association. Dr. Troy opened his remarks by recognizing that, while science and medical advancements allow people the opportunity to be among the healthiest who ever lived, “good health care is not up to others. Health care starts with self care.” Dr. Troy said that far too many people are not making the effort to take care of themselves, and as a result, chronic diseases have replaced infectious diseases as major killers. “Largely preventable chronic diseases cause seven in 10 deaths and consume three out of four dollars spent on healthcare,” he said.

Washington, D.C. (February 28, 2008) Participants from dozens of federal agencies and non-profit organizations and the recreation industry gathered in Washington to launch National Get Outdoors Day, a new annual event to encourage healthy, active outdoor fun. On June 14, 2008, and each June thereafter, these partners will offer sites for American families to experience traditional and non-traditional types of outdoor activities. Prime goals of the day are reaching first-time visitors to public lands and reconnecting our youth to the great outdoors.

Washington, DC (February 12, 2008) More than 40 organizations formed a unique team of outdoor advocates to help tens of thousands of visitors to Glendale, Arizona, drawn by Super Bowl XLII, discover healthy fun in the Great Outdoors. For four days, the organizations produced the first-ever Outdoor Recreation Village at one of the world’s top media events and used the Village as a platform to announce new initiatives to connect all Americans, and especially American youth, to the nation’s wonderful array of parks, forests, refuges and other public lands and waters.

Washington, DC (February 11, 2008) The leadership of the nation’s top provider of public outdoor recreation opportunities today expressed solid support for a new recreation strategy for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) that links agency recreation efforts both to the overall mission of the Corps and the U.S. Army to protect the nation’s health, safety and security and to special efforts to aid active duty, retired and reserve military and their families. The strategy seeks to continue the agency’s leading role in providing public recreation opportunities in America. It now hosts nearly 400 million recreation visits annually.

Dr. David Ludwig, a respected physician and researcher at the Children’s Hospital Boston and professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote an article which appeared in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine. In his paper, he compares obesity's consequences to those of global climate change:

"Without effective intervention, the costs of obesity might well become catastrophic, arising not only from escalating medical expenses but also from diminished worker productivity, caused by physical and psychological disabilities. Future economic losses could mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy for Medicare, between expanding and shrinking health care coverage, and between investment in and neglect of our social infrastructure, with profound implications for our international competitiveness. The human costs would be incalculable."