DECEMBER 14, 2011
In the Obama Administration’s never-ending expansion of government, yet another new federal advisory committee has been empaneled to help “underserved” low-income populations succeed.
The new agency was actually created under the more popular theme of conservation, specifically of the nation’s best-known natural resources such as landmark forests, beaches and mountains. The administration made a case for the new initiative as a necessary tool to protect those precious natural resources and reconnect Americans to the great outdoors.
To lay the groundwork, a special report was issued earlier this year outlining how Americans have become increasingly disconnected from our great outdoors and thus the “natural and cultural inheritance that has shaped our lives and history.” The nation’s natural resources remain central to our economic vitality yet they are under intense pressure from development and fragmentation, unsustainable use, pollution and impacts from a changing climate, the report says.
The solution to ensuring that our natural heritage is passed on to future generations is to engage young Americans in public lands and water restoration, according to recommendations included in the document. This means improving career pathways and reviewing “barriers” to jobs in natural resource conservation and historic and cultural preservation. It also requires establishing a new 21st Century Conservation Service Corps to engage those young Americans.
Step one was to create a 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Federal Advisory Committee, which happened just a few days ago. This new panel will cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, according to its charter. The investment will be well worth it because the committee will brainstorm about ways to help “low-income, underserved and diverse youth” gain valuable training and work experience.
In fact, when the administration announced this month that the committee is up and running, it stressed the new panel’s key mission; to empower young people—including low-income, underserved and diverse youth—with valuable training and work experience. Of course, all this will happen while also accomplishing important conservation and restoration work for America’s great outdoors, waterways and cultural heritage sites, the announcement says.
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