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You outdid yourself here. This is such a wonderful,
graphic
illumination of the present calamity!
Let me be MORE graphic, because the issue of Luring Kids to
Nature will likely be the biggest thing to impact the management of
Outdoor Recreation anyone has seen in a very long time. I fear that far too few people
have yet to understand the threat and that none are mobilized against it.
The wreckreation/tourism industry CONTROLS the Luring Kids to
Nature issue. The wreckreation/tourism industry also CONTROLS the
thinking of the their "partners" -- the land management agencies. The
wreckreation/tourism industry has lined up the support of a few big-name
conservation groups (such as the National Wildlife Federation) to help them push
their agenda. AND ... the wreckreation/tourism industry is simultaneously
pushing the related message saying that people have stopped going to the National
Parks and other public lands because raw nature is no fun. The
combination of these two messages has explosive potential.
Appended are the first few slides of a PowerPoint presentation that will, I
hope, help you to better understand the agenda and the threat. In an effort to Lure Kids to Nature, nature itself and the very nature of
outdoor recreation MUST be reconfigured. It MUST be commercialized, privatized,
and whenever possible, motorized. It must be transformed as was done in Brave New World. HERE is another quote from that classic. I
hope this helps you to better understand the agenda, and the threat.
The Director and his students stood for a short time watching a game of Centrifugal Bubble-puppy. Twenty children were grouped in a circle round a chrome-steel tower. A ball thrown up so as to land on the platform at the top of the tower rolled down into the interior, fell on a rapidly revolving disk, was hurled through one or other of the numerous apertures pierced in the cylindrical casing, and had to be caught.
'Strange.' mused the Director, as they turned away, 'strange to think that even in Our Ford's day most game were played without more apparatus than a ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting. Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It's madness. Nowadays the Controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.' He interrupted himself.
-- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World 1932
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
Reaching American Kids in the 21st Century:
New Strategies Needed
Two Key Steps to Success
•Provide a compelling product/service
•Communicate via
today’s medium to the right audience
If We Are Going to Try to Lure Today’s Kids to the
Outdoors and Then Limit Them to Yesterday’s Activities…
•Then save your time and resources.
•
They aren’t going to
come.
Get Their Attention
– Give Them What They
Want!
•Excitement / competition
•Adrenalin activities/challenges
•Life Style experience
•Music
•Social interaction
•Memories
Learn About
– How to Manage
– New Activities
…
•Mountain biking
•Terrain parks
•Boarding
•Geocaching
•Podcasted interpretation
•Destination wilderness
sites
Once You Have the Product …
•Understand how your target audiences make leisure time choices.
•Look at the communications trends of 2007 …
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