Thursday, January 31, 2008

Author Richard Louv at Missouri Natural Resources Conference Speaks About Getting Children and Adults Outdoors

Author Richard Louv spoke today at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference. He talked about the importance of getting children, and adults, outdoors. Louv has more information about his books and efforts on his Web pages. He included as he talked a message of the positive benefits that will result in the future as more people experience and rediscover nature and the outdoors.

Lorna Domke writes about Louv in her blog, Fresh Afield and notes how the Missouri Department of Conservation has programs to help children and families experience nature.

I also thought about the hunter education classes, taught by volunteer instructors in Missouri, that provide hunters of all ages the basic skills needed to go outside and hunt safely.

In addition, I listened to a talk in the afternoon about the Go Fish program of the Missouri Department of Conservation, presented by Denise Otto.

All of these efforts help to accomplish three things that Louv said are important:

  1. Get information about nature, the outdoors, and outdoor activities to parents.
  2. Encourage and help parents to go outside into nature with their children (this also helps the health of parents).
  3. Institutions and organizations must help parents with support and information so they can take their children outside into nature.
Louv reminded the audience that many of them probably remember outdoor experiences as a child. I remember going outside as a child. I still go outside for a wide variety of outdoor activities. Those are great memories and experiences that have provided me with lifelong skills and interests. Surely spending all that time outdoors helped my health as well.

There are many ways to experience nature. You can find more information about where to go in Missouri on the Web pages of the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Department of Natural Resources.

Go outside!

Using Blogs and Social Media to Communicate Conservation Information in Missouri

The Missouri Natural Resources Conference is an annual conference in Missouri that is sponsored by four professional resource management societies.

On Thursday, January 31, 2008, I'll make a presentation at the conference about using blogs and social media to communicate conservation information.

You can view the program and more information on the conference Web page.

In the presentation, I'll show examples of blogs being used in business, government, and conservation. I'll highlight some of the online videos on Youtube from the Missouri Department of Conservation. I'll define a few terms about social media, like what a blog is, and some of the social media services like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Facebook, and MySpace.

Although I'll only mention the growing level of Internet use from recent surveys, this presentation at the Pew Internet and American Life Project has useful and insightful statistics about adult and youth Internet use.

I'm looking forward to the response and questions I might receive after the presentation at the conference.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Your Opinion Counts for Deer Management in Missouri

Your opinion certainly counts for the staff of the Missouri Department of Conservation. The Department of Conservation wants to hear from Missouri hunters about their opinions for deer management in Missouri. A series of 16 public meetings are being conducted to allow anyone the opportunity to provide comments. There will be two meetings in each of the Department's eight regions throughout the state.

You can read about the meetings on the Department's Web pages.

You can provide comments online if you can't attend a meeting.

You can hear about deer management efforts and why the Department wants to hear from hunters from online videos posted by Department staff on YouTube and MySpaceTV.

You can read about the meetings and efforts on the Department's blog, Fresh Afield.

You can read about the effort from an online fact sheet that includes a mailing address and comment card.

You can contact a regional office at the locations described on the Department's Web pages.

The video on YouTube:




And on MySpaceTV:

Deer Management Public Forums - 2008

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