By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

The Osceola Heritage Park Exhibition Hall Thursday was filled with people from as far away as Fort Myers, from local high schools and area ranches to offer suggestions on conserving national parks, wetlands and wildlife refuges as part of President Barack Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative.

In a partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, people across the country are participating in events at home, online or at any of 25 “listening sessions.”

In these sessions, which occurred at Thursday’s event, participants were broken up into groups, asked a series of questions and had their answers recorded to be passed along in a national report to President Obama Nov. 15.

“We can’t form this initiative, this agenda without you,” said Francisco Carrillo, special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Fish and Wildlife and Parks of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

With children facing an obesity epidemic due partly to lack of exercise and global warming changing America’s landscape, the president is seeking opinions to create an initiative to protect the environment and get people outside.

Osceola High School’s swim team and students in the Central Florida YMCA’s Youth and Government program attended the event to voice what they want for the future of Florida’s green spaces.

Donya Nasser, 17, a senior at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando and a four-year member of the YMCA’s Youth and Government program, outlined three major points she hopes the initiative addresses: alternatives to fuels, pesticides and cars; implementation of outdoor curriculum in public schools; and the re-establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which would provide incentives such as jobs for young people to be interested in nature.

“Just give it a try, go outside more. You’ll feel better overall and be one with nature,” Nasser said. “It’s nourishment for your spirit.”

Wayne Humphrey, vice president of government and community relations for the Central Florida YMCA, said he was happy his students could share how the organization helps. “It gives them an opportunity to interact with the outdoors where they can appreciate their education and health and fitness,” he said.

The America’s Great Outdoors Listening Sessions began June 1 and Thursday’s event was the only one in Florida.

Will Shafroth, the Department of the Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, and Robert Bonnie, the Department of Agriculture’s Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture for Environment and Climate, Thursday toured the Osceola County parts of the Adams Ranch and met with local ranchers to discuss a working relationship between government and private landowners.

“We want to learn from the folks on the ground. We want to build from them,” Bonnie said. “Florida is one of the places where this type of relationship is successful.”

Shafroth said young people, including those in Osceola County, need better transportation and closer ties between the school systems and nature, such as more field trips and increases in outdoor physical education programs.

“If we don’t engage these young people, we will not have a generation who cares about the conservation of land and parks,” he said.

America’s Great Outdoors Initiative ties into First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Initiative by encouraging healthy eating habits and exercising outside, Shafroth said.

“If we don’t get kids outdoors, their generation is losing out,” Nick Wiley, director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation, said. “If they don’t appreciate the outdoors, they’re not going to support conservation programs.”

Leaders have heard more than 10,000 opinions in national listening sessions in person. Although only four national

sessions remain, suggestions also can be submitted at www.doi.gov/americasgreat

outdoors.