In the news, see below, and many other links to similar stories.
Athletes for public lands.
Judy, jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Go Team USA
Date: 08-20-2016 20:15
From: Joseph Vaile <joseph@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: PublicLandsForAll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/olympic-athletes-public-lands_us_57b77b93e4b0b51733a3911a?section=&;
[1]
U.S. OLYMPIANS MAKE THEIR CASE FOR PRESERVING PUBLIC LANDS
WORLD-CLASS ATHLETES TRAIN IN THESE OPEN SPACES.
08/20/2016 08:09 am ET
Kate Sheppard [4] [5]Enterprise editor/Senior reporter, The Huffington
Post
PABLO BLAZQUEZ DOMINGUEZ/GETTY IMAGESTriathlete Katie Zaferes trains on
public lands in California and Colorado.
WASHINGTON ― Olympians who train on U.S. public lands are speaking
out on why they want and need these open spaces preserved.
The initiative, dubbed Olympians for Public Lands, came together in
response to athletes’ concerns about a rising political threat to
federally protected lands.
“As an Olympic athlete and an American, I feel passionately about
preserving the integrity of public lands,” wrote pentathlete Margaux
Isaksen [6] in the Colorado Springs Gazette on Aug. 9, before her event
began.
Isakson finished fourth [7] in the London Games in 2012 and also
competed in Beijing in 2008. With her appearance in the Rio Olympics
[8], she became the first American woman [9] to compete in three
Olympic pentathlons.
Isakson’s childhood on a farm in northwest Arkansas near the Ozark
National Forest shaped her love for public lands. “As kids, we ran all
the trails and swam in all of the protected streams and rivers,” she
wrote. “Growing up next to the Ozark National Forest shaped me as an
athlete and pushed me to become an Olympian.”
Katie Zaferes [10], a triathlete competing in Rio, said it was the
opposite experience that inspired her. “I grew up in Maryland, in a
community that lacked access to public land. As a teenager, I ran on
roads without shoulders and swam largely in pools,” she wrote in the
Santa Cruz Sentinel on Aug. 13. “Now I have the opportunity to train
in these larger-than-life landscapes that afford me the luxury to run on
miles of single track and swim in pristine bodies of water.”
“As an athlete and as someone who is lucky enough to spend much of
life in public lands, I urge others to add their voice in support for
public lands. They create not just Olympians but also communities,”
wrote Zaferes, who will compete in the triathlon final on Saturday.
In recent years, some congressional Republicans have sought to limit
protections [11] for public lands, even proposing to sell off some
areas. The 2016 Republican Party platform [12] calls for turning over
certain federally protected lands to state control.
That’s why Olympians for Public Lands, with support from public lands
advocates in Washington, seeks to seize this moment of public
attention. Melissa Schwartz, a consultant working with the initiative,
said it is “an effort to give Olympians a voice in the ongoing
discussion about the value of public lands as a small community in
Congress attempts to undermine protections.”
Other Rio Olympians also plan to post their views, Schwartz
said, including archers, runners, bikers, rowers and canoeists.
___________________
[1]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/olympic-athletes-public-lands_us_57b77b93e4b0b51733a3911a?section=&
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/section/politics
[3]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/olympic-athletes-public-lands_us_57b77b93e4b0b51733a3911a?section=&#
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/kate-sheppard
[5] http://twitter.com/kate_sheppard
[6]
http://gazette.com/guest-column-the-importance-of-preserving-public-lands/article/1582262
[7]
http://www.teamusa.org/usa-modern-pentathlon/athletes/Margaux-Isaksen
[8] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/2016-summer-olympics/
[9]
http://www.teamusa.org/News/2016/June/01/Margaux-Isaksen-First-Woman-To-Represent-Team-USA-In-Modern-Pentathlon-At-Three-Olympic-Games
[10]
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20160813/LOCAL1/160819905
[11]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/opinion/our-land-up-for-grabs.html?_r=0
[12]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-republican-platform-full-text_us_578bce03e4b03fc3ee513eb9
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