The following is a repost from Elk Tracks – and it’s adorable.

I have been a volunteer with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for years and am currently co-chair of the Buffalo Chapter in Buffalo, Wyoming. We often pack up and travel around Wyoming to help volunteer at RMEF events and banquets across the state. Whenever possible, which is 90 percent of the time, I bring my daughters (Ahnya nicknamed Ahnie, 8, and Maye, 1) with me. They also tag along to committee meetings. I figure if kids grow up around the RMEF then one day they will step into our shoes as volunteers. Turns out I was right!

By Mia Sheppard

Kids are like running, babbling brooks that never stop moving, the continual trickle of curiosity, flows.

From crawling to walking, to listening to her pronounce her first word, “mama” to completing a full sentence a couple years later,  “why can’t a fish breath out of water?” Reminds me of my own curiosity as a child.

Tegan learns to row.

My mom was single most of my childhood, she worked hard to give us those simple pleasures such as a piece of candy or a new pair of shoes or playing hop scotch with us after work.  She also made sure weekends where dedicated to spending time outdoors, forgetting about the dishes that needed to be done or the bills that needed paid.

At that time, youth and ignorance was bliss...

Reuters reported that a three-year-old child can unlock unsafe gun safes and security experts warn that children can access vulnerable safes using paper clips, straws, etc. It’s important for every gun owner to ensure the safes they use for gun storage can restrict children from breaking in. It’s the gun owner’s responsibility to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.

Unprotected guns in the home pose numerous risks, including:

• Suicide cases are more possible as a result of the lack of safety measures.
• Crimes are more likely to occur.

It’s in children’s nature to be curious. They often like to do the things their parents or other adults ask them not to. In other words, they  are simply talented in finding things which their elders think are hidden...

Sally

As an only child of two very active and outdoorsy parents, I was probably a disappointment. Rather than kayaking the Finger Lakes with my mom, I wanted to go to the mall.  Instead of training for a bike race with my dad, I went to dance lessons.  Fishing, now that was the biggest long shot, except for the yearly family vacations on Lake Champlain.

Every year we got the same house; a family reunion outdoor utopia, between the Green and Adirondack Mountains on the island of North Hero, Vermont.  With limited cell service and no cable, the dock and rickety paddle-boat served as our family’s personal waterpark, and fishing poles and some bait were the ultimate ride...

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”

– Aristotle

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell met with five young outdoor enthusiasts last week to discuss America’s public lands and outdoor heritage.

The five were selected from across the nation as winners of the Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development’s essay contest on “The Importance of Public Lands to Me”. The winners were Jarred Kay, 17, Flagstaff, Ariz.; Haley Powell, 17, Rock Springs, Wyo.; Matthew Reilly, 18, Palmyra, Va.; Rebecca Brown, 17, Conrad, Mont.; and Noah Davis, 18, Greensburg, Pa.

Haley, the winner from Wyoming, opened her essay “Public Lands and Me” with the above Aristotle quote. She is the youth membership chairwoman for Trout Unlimited in Wyoming and says people care about our nation’...