Allies News
Built Environment
California and Nevada Fish and Wildlife Service – June 27, 2007
Clint Eastwood hosts a Children and Nature Workshop
By Scott Flaherty
Organized by California and Nevada Fish and Wildlife Service and hosted by actor and director Clint Eastwod, the event brought together key leaders from the business and developer community, as well as government regulators. In his brief remarks, Eastwood told the group, “This is an idea that’s long overdue. We probably won’t get through all the barriers and solutions today, but we can start.”
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Built Environment
Sacramento Bee – July 03, 2006
‘Last Child’ inspires rethinking among land developers
By Mary Lynne Vellinga
The Sacramento Bee reported in July 2006 that Sacramento’s biggest developers, Angelo Tsakopoulos and his daughter Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, who together run AKT Development, “have become enthusiastic promoters” of Last Child in the Woods. “This book is really going to change how we build neighborhoods," said Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis. Meanwhile, Derek Thomas, founder and chief operating officer of Newland Communities, the nation's largest privately owned residential developer, has committed his company to changing its design approach. “We need to find more ways to integrate community into nature,” he told CBS News in a report on nature-deficit disorder.
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Leadership
Economic Outlook Sparks Business Enthusiasm for Nature.
The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), which represents hundreds of companies selling everything from backpacks to kayaks, reports good sales of upscale products — but sales of traditional entry-level gear are nearly dead in the water. Discouraged by the trend, some companies have dropped their entry-level product lines. The rapid increase in child inactivity and obesity has “sent a big message to the industry that we need to do something to reverse this trend," according to Michelle Barnes, OIA’s vice president for marketing. This sense of economic self-interest extends well beyond the Outdoor Industry Association.
C&NN has designated April "Children & Nature Awareness Month." As part of this effort, we invited network members (like you) to list their April programs and share their strategies for building public awareness. Find out what's happening in your community on the C&NN Movement Map.
As part of our ongoing efforts to build the movement, the Children & Nature Network has published two new resources for leaders, organizers, and participants at the local, national, and international levels:
An annotated bibliography of 20 premier studies focusing on the children and nature connection.
