Inner-City Kids Learn to Love the Great Outdoors

By Victoria Parsons

Can inner-city kids learn to love the outdoors?

Absolutely, says Rocky Milburn, chairman of Tampa Bay Sierra Club's Inner-City Outings (ICO) program.

"Kids who come face to face with the wilderness learn to love it — and then they learn to protect it," says Milborn, a former Eagle Scout who shares his love of the outdoors through the ICO. "You can lecture them all day and they won't pay a bit of attention, but if you get them outside, they absolutely understand why we need to protect our natural environment."

The Tampa Bay ICO is working with four groups of inner-city kids, from the Academy Preps in Tampa and St. Petersburg, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa and Plant City, and the University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC) Girls Club. The goal is to get kids, who might not ever have a wilderness experience, outside with adults who can share their knowledge and love of nature.

"It's not something we do once or twice a year," he said. "We do monthly events from August to May and the program always culminates with an overnight camping trip."

The most recent event with Academy Prep of Tampa taught students how to build bird nesting boxes that will be placed in Hillsborough County nature preserves. "We all got together at The Home Depot and built 30-some boxes to be placed at Cockroach Bay, Wolf Branch Creek and Golden Aster preserve."

Nesting boxes are particularly critical because birds like owls, woodpeckers and wrens typically nest in cavities in dead trees — usually the first type of habitat to be lost in an urban or suburban setting and relatively rare even in natural settings.

Building nesting boxes gave kids an insight into the importance of habitat, Milburn said. "You can't expect to hang a blue birds box in Ybor City and get birds, but you might get wrens because they tolerate a more urban ecosystem."

Other excursions include the Great Fort DeSoto Challenge, an annual event with kids "rescuing" rocks thrown into the surf, racing kayaks across the calm lagoons and a contest to see which team can pick up the most trash. The trip to Crystal Springs Preserve is a perennial favorite, with up to 50 people participating in nature walks and net dipping in the river. "We always seem to get a lot of parents and siblings for this trip," he said.

This year's camping trip is planned for May at Colt Creek State Park north of Lakeland, where kids will spend the weekend without electricity or running water. "This place is so wild that from inside the tents you can hear bob cats making a kill," Milburn said. "We'll go on a midnight hike with no flashlights so the kids can really see the stars, then we'll come back and sit around a campfire with s'mores and storytelling."

Get Involved with ICO

Leaders of ICO events have extensive training in both outdoor skills and first aid, but adults with outdoor experience are welcome to participate after completing an application online at http://ico.sierraclub.org/tampabay/ico_involve.htm.

Build a Better Birdhouse

At least 22 resident Florida birds nest in cavities in trees or branches, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Most depend upon natural cavities chiseled out by woodpeckers and then
abandoned, but dead or sick trees are typically trimmed in urban and suburban settings so these birds may need artificial nest structures.

When buying or building a bird house, make sure it is designed for a specific species – not just for "birds."

Commercial boxes are often built more to attract buyers than birds. Keep in mind that each species has preferred nesting requirements. The closer you match these preferences, the more likely it is that your nesting structure will become occupied.

For more information, visit http://myfwc.com/viewing/adventures/wildlife-viewing-at-home/cavity-nesters.

The first census of land trusts in five years shows big gains in land conservation by private trusts across the U.S., with 10 million new acres conserved from 2005 to 2010. Florida land trusts contributed to this success, reporting an increase of 98%, or 170,779 acres of protected land, over this period.