Chris Rief
In the midst of another divisive election year, the outdoors continues to be a unifying force and a bright spot in a challenging landscape. The benefits of spending time in nature are many. For example, greening our neighborhoods can improve the quality of the air we breathe and ensure our kids have places to run and play. Getting outside in nature can reduce stress and improve our mental health. Recreating outdoors contributes $1.2 Trillion to our economy and accounts for 5 million of our jobs across the U.S.
We all deserve access to these benefits, but unfortunately far too many low-income and communities of color face barriers to fully and safely enjoying our shared public lands, including a lack of nearby nature, the availability or cost of transportation, and a lack of opportunities where we live, learn, work and play.
Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign serves to ensure more communities can benefit from the transformative power of nature. Whether we’re engaging people on outings or advocating for policy changes, we’re making progress because of the incredible community of partners, supporters, staff, volunteers and members who all agree that access to nature is a necessity, not a nicety.
Here’s a look at some of our collective accomplishments from 2024:
Connected children and youth with the outdoors
At a time when around 28 million kids don’t have nearby access to neighborhood parks and green spaces, the Sierra Club is committed to securing universal access and opportunities for our children and youth to connect with nature. We’ve long championed the Every Kid Outdoors (EKO) program, which invites all 4th graders and their families to visit our federally managed public lands, waters and shores for free. This year, I have a fourth grader myself, so I am seeing first hand how valuable it is for our kids. The program reached more than 150,000 kids last year, and has opened opportunities for more than 4 million fourth graders living in the U.S. The program, while popular and bipartisan, is set to expire in 2026. We’re making progress to ensure the program continues and to ensure more and more parents, teachers and caregivers know about this wonderful opportunity. Along with our partners in the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), we’ve been advocating for the program’s expansion and organized a Month of Action to bring attention to the Every Kid Outdoors program. We’re also making progress with our chapters in Michigan and Wisconsin to bring similar benefits to fourth graders in these states.
Our advocacy also led to the creation of the American Climate Corps, which promises to employ young people in jobs that help protect our public lands and build climate resiliency across our communities. Already, more than 15,000 young people have enrolled in the program and are on the path to earn a living getting outdoors and improving our communities.
In the field, we ensured thousands of children and youth had opportunities to get outdoors. For example, our team in Detroit, brought a group of high school students from Detroit to Yosemite National Park for Buffalo Soldiers Day, to learn from Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, who is also from Detroit. Sierra Club’s Inspiring Connections Outdoors chapter programs also connected young people to nature through an incredible network of volunteers from San Diego to Philadelphia, and many places in between.
We’re finding that young people who have been transformed from an outdoor experience also want to take the next step in ensuring more youth can access nature. That’s why we’ve deliberately been engaging youth in opportunities to lift their voices and be part of our campaigns. This year, we hosted dozens of youth from across the country virtually and in Washington, D.C., including during the annual meeting of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids. There, we provided advocacy training and ensured young leaders had opportunities to meet with their decision-makers and share their stories on the importance of getting outdoors.
Uplifted Veteran Voices
Veterans play a unique and critical role in our outdoors work, as many are looking to continue their service after leaving the military and are finding community and purpose in the outdoors. With 12 Sierra Club chapters and partners across the country, we hosted nearly 5,000 members of the veterans and military community on outings. From Alaska to Florida, our chapters are partnering with groups like Healing Hearts, Guardian Revival, YMCA, and the Wounded Warrior Project to deliver the benefits of the outdoors directly to participants. In New York, we celebrated the launch of the Lifetime Liberty Pass for veterans. I also had a chance to catch up with our team in Minneapolis to learn about our work to connect unhoused veterans with housing and outdoor opportunities.
As our work expands, our Military Outdoors team decided to spend some time learning more from the veterans we serve and conducted a listening tour with in-person stops around the country and a virtual women’s session. The findings from our tour were used to produce the Outdoor Access for the Military Community Recommendations Report released earlier this year and shared with federal agencies and veteran serving organizations during a virtual briefing and Q&A session.
Celebrated historic investments in nearby nature
The National Park Service manages a little known program called the Outdoor Recreation and Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program, which provides resources for park projects in communities that have historically experienced disinvestment. Ten years ago, when the program began, it provided only $3 million to park equity projects. Thanks to the steadfast advocacy of our campaign, along with many partners and activists, in 2024, the National Park Service made its largest contribution to the program yet at $360 million ($58.3 million in March, $46.7 million in August, and $254.68 million in September) supporting 78 projects across this country, improving parks in red and blue districts alike.
In another victory for communities everywhere, we celebrated the US Forest Service’s historic $1.5 billion investment in tree canopy projects through the Urban and Community Forestry Program. Sierra Club chapters participated in events in Phoenix, AZ, Lansing, MI and Philadelphia, PA, to uplift the importance of expanding tree canopy to improve air quality, reduce heat, and ensure more access to nature.
We also made progress in expanding our Transit to Trails initiatives this year, supporting our chapters in hosting outings incorporating public transit and advocating for state level legislation to expand public transportation options around trails and other outdoor spaces. We launched the Epic Trails and Epic Fails storymap, an interactive map showcasing stories where public transit to nature options are lacking and contrasting them with examples of existing, successful transit to trails routes.
Looking forward
And now, as I write this story, we’re calling on Congress to take one final unifying action before the year is through. Along with our partners in the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, we’ve been advocating for the passage of the bipartisan Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act. The EXPLORE Act contains many provisions - chief among them are policies to ensure the continuation of the popular Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership and Every Kid Outdoors programs; enhance outdoor recreation experiences for veterans and military families on federal lands by improving disability access and piloting a jobs program with our land agencies; and simplify permitting procedures to make it easier for outdoor leaders to do what they do best – connect people with nature. Decision-makers from both sides of the aisle agree that getting outdoors is a win for our people, planet and economy, so let’s get this done.
We’re well on our way to uniting people outdoors. Thank you to all our staff, volunteers, partners, supporters, members, and leaders in the movement for their dedication to the cause and invaluable contributions. The coming year holds a lot of unknowns, but I know our strength as a community will hold as we take more strides toward closing the nature gap and connecting people outdoors. I hope everyone has a restful and restorative holiday season filled with family, friends and nature. See you in the new year.