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On Saturday, June 6, celebrate National Trails Day by taking a hike.  Sponsored by the American Hiking Society, National Trails Day aims to increase awareness and stewardship of hiking trails nationwide.  Women Outdoors partners with American Hiking Society and supports their efforts to inspire the public to discover and enjoy the wonders found along our favorite trails.

Women Outdoors Mid-Atlantic will celebrate National Trails Day with a hike at Sugarloaf Mountain in Frederick County, Maryland.  This will be the official launch of this new chapter of Women Outdoors.  Sign up for the hike by clicking on the Special Events calendar on the Mid-Atlantic region page and then scrolling over to June 6 to get to the registration form.

Women Outdoors applauds the passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 30, 2009.  Comprehensive in scope, the act is a dream come true for anyone who loves the outdoors.  

The Omnibus Public Land Act designates over two million acres of wilderness and adds over 1,000 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, 2,800 miles of National Trails, and 330,000 acres of National Conservation Areas.   In addition, the act addresses the National Landscape Conservation System and the Forest Landscape Conservation Service, and takes steps to improve our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

According to the American Hiking Society, a partner of Women Outdoors, “Not since the National Park System was created in 1916 has a single action of Congress had a greater positive impact on the hiking experience.  This is a terrific achievement for all hikers and a ‘crowning achievement’ for American Hiking Society, as we’ve been working for four years on key elements of this all-encompassing trails, wilderness and conservation bill.”

In his speech at the White House, President Obama captured the spirit of the law: 

“Winters hardships are slowly giving way to spring, and our thoughts naturally tend to turn to the outdoors.  We emerge from the shelter offered by home and work, and we look around, and we're reminded that the most valuable things in this life are those things that we already possess.

"Now, as Americans, we possess few blessings greater than the vast and varied landscapes that stretch the breadth of our continent.  Our lands have always provided great bounty, food and shelter for the first Americans, for settlers and pioneers, the raw materials that grew our industry, the energy that powers our economy.

"What these gifts require in return is our wise and responsible stewardship.  As our greatest conservationist president, Teddy Roosevelt, put it almost a century ago, "I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land, but I do not recognize the right to waste them or to rob by wasteful use the generations that come after us."

"That's the spirit behind the bipartisan legislation I'm signing today, legislation among the most important in decades to protect, preserve and pass down our nation's most treasured landscapes to future generations.

“It's a vision that sees America's great wilderness as a place where it was and what is and what will be, all are the same, a place where memories are lived and relived, a place where Americans both young and young at heart can freely experience the spirit of adventure that has always been at the heart of the rugged character of America.”

On March 20, women outdoor enthusiasts can celebrate not only the first day of spring, but also the rollout of a brand new web site, www.WomenOutdoors.org. 

Women Outdoors, a national, nonprofit organization that promotes leadership, friendship, adventure and enjoyment, created www.WomenOutdoors.org  as a way for women to connect with other women who share their outdoor interests and values.  

Check out the completely renovated Women Outdoors web site and here are some of the features you’ll find:  professionally designed graphics, photos by Women Outdoors members, lots of new content, and easy navigation.  Here’s a quick tour of WomenOutdoors.org.

The About Us section describes the history of Women Outdoors, how we’re organized into regions, how we’re managed by a board of directors, and the principles we value as an organization. 

 Our Regions offers a brief description of each of our nine regional chapters.  Click on any of those chapter links and you’ll open up that region’s own web page filled with photos, links to their calendar of activities, special events, news, and a photo gallery. 

The Gathering page offers loads of information about our annual get-together over Memorial Day Weekend in New England.  The Gathering brings together new and old members from across the country gather for a long weekend of outdoor experiences where women can have fun and challenge themselves in a safe and nurturing environment.  With the new web site, for the first time ever, you’ll be able to register and pay for the Gathering online.

Click on Latest News for press releases about what our national organization is doing as well as updates from the regions.  You can also subscribe to an RSS feed so you’ll know as soon as anything new is posted.

At Women Outdoors we want to share our love of the outdoors and the organization that helps us nurture our nature.  The Resources page offers information such as Women Outdoors trip guidelines and Leave No Trace guidelines as well as links to other web sites of interest organized into categories such as clubs and organizations, adventure travel, outdoor gear, and other helpful information.

We anticipate that after exploring our web page, many women are going to want to explore membership in Women Outdoors.  To make that as easy as possible, we have a special Join Us page where women can click a few buttons, fill in a few fields, pay online and become a new member of Women Outdoors. 

An all-volunteer organization founded in 1980, Women Outdoors sponsors nine regional chapters on the East Coast, which organize activities such as hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, rafting, climbing, skiing and snow shoeing.  Women Outdoors hosts regional chapters in Connecticut, the greater Boston area, western Massachusetts, Rhode Island/Southeastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire/Vermont, the Finger Lakes Region of New York, Albany, NY, the Mid-Atlantic and South Florida.

Women outdoor enthusiasts take note:  A regional chapter of Women Outdoors will be starting in the Mid-Atlantic later this spring.  We welcome women from Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware and West Virginia to join us as we seek adventure from the Atlantic Ocean to the Shenandoah Mountains.  Join Women Outdoors and register for the Mid-Atlantic region to receive the latest updates on this new chapter.

Women Outdoors Helps with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.  Trading in their hiking poles for hammers, ten members of Women Outdoors traveled to Louisiana in April 2007 to volunteer with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity the week.  The group helped build Musician's Village, 70 single-family, Habitat-constructed homes in the Upper 9th Ward.

Trading Hiking Poles for Hammers:

Women Outdoors Helps with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity

 

ALBANY – Trading in their hiking poles for hammers, ten members of Women Outdoors, Inc. headed to Louisiana, on Saturday, April 7, 2007, to volunteer with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity the week of April 9-13, 2007.  The group helped build Musicians’ Village, 70 single-family, Habitat-constructed homes in the Upper 9^th Ward.

 

Jane Rudden of Albany, the organizer of the Women Outdoors volunteer trip to New Orleans, said, “We were all very excited to join ranks of the thousands of other volunteers who have contributed their time and talents to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.  As Women Outdoors members, we brought our own special skills to this endeavor.  We thrived on the week of hard work and hope we were able to contribute in a small way to bringing New Orleans back.”

 

A national, nonprofit organization, Women Outdoors sponsors regional chapters across the country.  The ten women who traveled to New Orleans belong to chapters in upstate New York and Massachusetts. 

 

The Musicians’ Village, one of the current projects of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, will provide homes for some of the jazz, blues and other musicians who were forced to flee New Orleans by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Harry Connick, Jr., and Branford Marsalis are honorary chairs of the Musicians’ Village.  In addition to the 70 homes planned by NOLA Habitat for Humanity, the Musicians’ Village will also be home to the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

 

The volunteer group from Women Outdoors stayed at Camp Hope in Violet, Louisiana.  Since June 2006, Camp Hope has housed thousands of volunteers from across the United States as well as Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom who have traveled to Louisiana to help with rebuilding efforts in the New Orleans area.  Camp Hope can accommodate about 475 volunteers at one time.

 

Women Outdoors, Inc., a national, nonprofit organization, serves as a network for women whose vocation or avocation takes them outside.  Founded in 1980, Women Outdoors promotes leadership development, environmental stewardship and personal growth, or as some members put it, “We’re the women who learn, lead and have fun in the outdoors.”  Women Outdoors regional chapters are currently sponsoring activities in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont/New Hampshire, and the Mid-Atlantic states.