U.S. EPA News - President Barack Obama today announced the administration's action plan, under the America's Great Outdoors Initiative, to achieve lasting conservation of the outdoor spaces that power our nation's economy, shape our culture, and build our outdoor traditions. 
"With children spending half as much time outside as their parents did, and with many Americans living in urban areas without safe access to green space, connecting to the outdoors is more important than ever for the economic and physical health of our communities," said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "Through the America's Great Outdoors Initiative, this administration will work together with communities to ensure clean and accessible lands and waters, thriving outdoor cultures and economies, and healthy and active youth."
"It's about practical, common-sense ideas from the American people on how our natural, cultural, and historic resources can help us be a more competitive, stronger, and healthier nation. Together, we are adapting our conservation strategies to meet the challenges of today and empowering communities to protect and preserve our working lands and natural landscapes for generations to come."
"America's farmlands and woodlands help fuel our economy and create jobs across the rural areas of our country," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This plan seeks to work in partnership with landowners, conservation groups, states and others to conserve our working lands and our public lands and to reconnect Americans – especially our nation's youth – with opportunities to stay active. This blueprint was developed with input from the over 100,000 Americans in all corners of our country who joined our national listening sessions and who contributed their ideas online."
"This initiative is an effort to reconnect Americans with the valuable resources all around them and shape a 21st century plan for protecting our great outdoors," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "It is important that our waters, lands and greenspaces are brought back into our daily lives. President Obama's initiative will help make these critical resources a national focus once again, and involve people of every background in conservation of the places that we hold dear." Additional information is available at: http://www.americasgreatoutdoors.gov
Haase Spoiler alert, if this is true...
Then the America's Great Outdoors will change drastically when the proposed budget calls for cutting aid to states for water quality by 27 percent and cutting off funding to restore the Great Lakes.If investing in our most "valuable resources", gives the U.S. a competitive advantage why would we remove basic and fundamental protection of the most important resource - clean water????
The great lakes initiative would give industry and job growth a boom in the Great Lakes region, home to about 40 million people, Studies estimate that every dollar spent on restoring the lakes will generate twice as much in long-term economic gains,
"It may not be obvious, but what is good for the ecosystem is also good for the economy,"
