Society supports youth through Outdoors Explorers Mentor Program

The Society for Wilderness Stewardship recently supported a Montana-based program, the Outdoors Explorers Mentor Program, in an effort to continue reaching out to the next generation of wilderness stewards.

From The Missoulain:

Saturday was not the best day to play outdoors.

The forecast high of 21 degrees was less than halfway there, and the previous storm's winds had crusted the snow like Styrofoam. The sky was primer-white, as inviting as an unfinished homework assignment.

So Jenn Lutman wasn't sure what to expect when she invited a dozen Big Brothers Big Sisters pairs and a bunch of University of Montana students to go animal tracking around McCormick Park. Could she lure them away from comfy living rooms, video games and a trip to the mall?

A bit to her surprise, the offer to brave the cold in search of critter signs earned a resounding "yes" at Saturday's first Outdoors Explorers Mentor Program gathering. After a quick lesson in track and gait identification from the Montana Natural History Center's Tina Hanke, everyone dressed for wind chill and headed for an irrigation ditch to see what they could find.
"Just getting them connected with their own backyard is really important," explained Lutman, who is interning with the federal Arthur Carhart Natural Wilderness Training Center at UM. "Then we can get more kids in the woods."

It sounds like something out of President Barack Obama's new America's Great Outdoors initiative, except the Outdoors Explorers idea was actually in the works before the national program was announced last week. Carhart director Connie Myers said this pilot effort could be the model the rest of the country could borrow.

Kids jump at Natural History Center invitation to get out and explore

Read the full article here: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_17d01020-4232-11e0-a71f-001cc4c002e0.html

For more information about Outdoors Explorers and the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, contact Jenn Lutman at (406) 243-4601 or go to www.wilderness.net.