Secretary Salazar Announces Office of Youth in Natural Resources
June 08, 2009
Ron Tull: The US Fish and Wildlife Services National Fishing Day 2009 on the National Mall was the backdrop for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement establishing the Office of Youth in Natural Resources at the Department of the Interior.
Secretary Salazar: What this order essentially does is it says that for the Department of Interior that we will be working together across the 73,000 men and women who work in this department to make sure that we are being inclusive of all young people and exposing them to some of the opportunities that we have in the great outdoors. This summer alone we will have 15,000 young people from all walks of life who will be part of the work of the department.
This program hopefully will grow in the years ahead. In the 2010 budget, President Obama has decided that we are going to move forward with an additional $50 million to teach young people how to fish and hunt and how to experience the great outdoors. And I’m confident with his leadership and his vision and with our efforts within the Department of Interior that we will be touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people. So before I introduce Valerie Jarrett what I’m going to do is sign this Executive Secretarial Order that basically will put the Office of Youth and Natural Resources in place in the Department of Interior and that office will be run by Bob Statton, who is the only person of color to ever be the Chief of the National Park Service in the entire history of the United States of America. And one of his charges will be to make sure that we are reaching out to young people in an unprecedented way in the days and years ahead so with that I have signed the order [Clapping] and we will move forward with that.
Ron Tull: In addition to creating jobs, thousands of additional young people will be engaged in outdoor programs in the coming months through stimulus funds, increased appropriations, new youth programs and expansion of existing programs.
[DOI employee hands young boy a worm. “Here you go.” “Eww” “Got ‘er? Alright”]
Reclamation Commissioner Michael Conner says his bureau, like others, is ready to get more involved with youth.
Michael Conner: Well I think we are going to do everything we can to meet the Secretary’s objectives with these youth initiatives, trying to get people involved and youth interested in natural resources issues. The Bureau runs a cast program which involves getting kids out in the regional areas, out on a fishing day just like this. So our ultimate goal is get them interested and maybe join careers in natural resources.
[Two children cast their lines into the water. As it hits the water one yells “Oh!”]
Ron Tull: This video is a production of the US Department of the Interior