During the 81st legislative session, organizations including the Texas Wildlife Association, the National Wildlife Federation, Texas PTA, the Texas Pediatric Society, and many other conservation, education and public health organizations advocated for the well-being of children through the creation of a formal state plan to enable children to spend more time out-of-doors and to better understand Texas’ natural resources.
In fall 2009, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators requested that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, along with the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Department of Agriculture form a public-private partnership to develop that strategic plan. Over 80 professionals including representatives from state and federal agencies, NGOs, health, education, natural resources, community organizations and businesses, answered the call and formed the Texas Partnership for Children in Nature.
Carter Smith, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, chaired the effort. In January 2010, a 17-member Texas Steering Committee representing four state agencies, NGOs, health, education and business, convened to establish a work plan and stakeholder teams. The focus areas were Education, Health, Access and Community, and later, Marketing and Policy/Legislative.
Stakeholder teams formed for each focus area brought in a diversity of expertise and perspectives. Altogether, over 80 professionals from state and federal agencies, NGOs, health, education, natural resources, community organizations and business worked on this plan over the course of 10 months. The teams examined relevant issues, reviewed current research and explored the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities for the plan. From this they drafted recommendations for each area. The plan was presented to the TPW Commission and then to legislators and their staff in November 2010. The plan was also the focus of a state implementation conference held in Austin on December 3-4, 2010.
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Texas Children in Nature Partners
