• Tommy Millner (Cabela’s Inc.)
• M. David Allen (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)
• Jeffrey S. Crane (Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation)
• Robert R. Fithian (Alaska Professional Hunters Association, Inc.)
• John E. Frampton (South Carolina Department of Natural Resources)
• Thomas Franklin (Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership)
• Ron Heward (rancher, Bates Hole/Shirley Basin Sage Grouse Working Group)
• Robert Manes (The Nature Conservancy)
• Frederick D. Maulson (Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission)
• Robert Model (Boone and Crockett Club)
• Joanna Prukop (Freedom to Roam)
• Stephen L. Sanetti (National Shooting Sports Foundation)
• Larry Schweiger (National Wildlife Federation)
• Christine L. Thomas (College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin)
• George C. Thornton (National Wild Turkey Federation)
• John Tomke (Ducks Unlimited)
• Howard K. Vincent (Pheasants Forever)
• Steve Williams (Wildlife Management Institute)

Bob Wattendorf, a fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), recently received the “Conservation Educator of the Year” award from the Florida Wildlife Federation.

In 2008, Wattendorf initiated an effort to bring together a statewide coalition of agencies, universities and businesses to encourage families and children to participate in nature-based recreation.  The collaborative effort resulted in formation of Get Outdoors Florida! (www.GetOutdoorsFlorida.org), a coalition of more than 100 active partners, including major state and federal agencies and diverse groups interested in offsetting the problems associated with “nature-deficit disorder,” a term coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods.”

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and his Cabinet recognized the Get Outdoors Florida! Coalition in 2009, when they signed a resolution recognizing the Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights for Florida.  The coalition, integrated into the Children and Nature Network, is working to extend the reach of such programs as President Barack Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative (www.doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors), and first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Outside (www.LetsMove.gov) program to combat obesity.

“Conservation education today is all about integrating efforts to introduce newcomers to the beauty and value of an active, nature-based lifestyle,” Wattendorf said.

Researchers have documented the health, education and societal problems associated with too much time spent indoors and dealing with electronic media. Research now shows that embracing a lifestyle change — spending more time outdoors in nature, whether, fishing, birding, paddling, gardening or just hiking in the woods — leads to a happier, healthier and smarter population (www.childrenandnature.org).

During his 31-year career with the FWC, Wattendorf has served to promote Florida as the Fishing Capital of the World, worked with the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation to bring about best practices for “Boating, Fishing and Aquatic Resources Stewardship Education” and helped craft the “Federal Aid Supplement for Aquatic Education Programs.”

The Florida Wildlife Federation is a nonprofit conservation education organization composed of thousands of concerned Floridians and people from all walks of life who have a common interest in preserving, managing and improving Florida’s fish, wildlife, soil, water and plant life. As the state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, it has been helping Florida’s wildlife since 1937.

In presenting the award on behalf of the Federation, Preston Robertson, vice president for conservation, praised Wattendorf “for his tremendous efforts on behalf of conservation and the need to get Floridians outside and into the natural world.”

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer BASSonline – fishing@bassonline.com
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

By Leonard Doyle – Saturday, 7 June 2008

John McCain rode an airboat across the fragile and imperiled Florida Everglades yesterday to underscore his credentials as a conservationist, albeit of a uniquely Republican variety.

In the manner of his heroes, the bear-hunting President Teddy Roosevelt and the adventurer-author Ernest Hemingway, the Republican candidate presents himself as a hunting, shooting, fishing-style environmentalist. He also believes in global warming and proclaims that unlike President George Bush, he is prepared to undertake urgent but realistic action to combat it.

The Democrats routinely claim Mr McCain is running for President Bush’s third term. This is not true, he says. “You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I have not seen eye to eye on many issues.” He pointed to the “disgraceful” recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina and global warming.

But the rebranding came unstuck yesterday as his Republican colleagues in the Senate blocked an ambitious global-warming Bill that would have forced massive reductions in America’s greenhouse gases. Debate over climate change is already a core to the presidential fight, and now the most ambitious attempt to force change in the US will have to wait for a new congress and president. But Mr McCain’s visit to Florida and his attempts to “greenwash” his credentials also ran into problems. He was forced to explain why he voted to oppose a major piece of legislation that promised $2bn for restoration of the Everglades. Why, he was asked, did he vote that way if he was such an environmentalist?

Florida, once home to Hemingway, is a key swing state in the forthcoming presidential election and the Everglades are a must-see for any candidate seeking to woo voters. The fate of the Everglades looms large in the minds of Florida’s voters. The state depends on the Everglades for fresh water, and millions of voters see its degradation, from crass overdevelopment, as a symbol of many American’s indifference to the fate of the environment.

The ecosystem is actually a shallow, slow-moving river 60 miles wide and 100 miles long that flows into Florida Bay at the sub-tropical southern tip. Teeming with fish and wildlife which includes the alligators that nest in its sawgrass marshes, the Everglades are slowly drying due to water extraction and drought.

“I am committed to saving the Everglades,” Mr McCain said. “I will do whatever is necessary to do so and have made that clear.”

From Staff and Wire Reports
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