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Today’s tree planting at Oquirrh Park is dedicated to the letter P: Patience, Perseverance, and Pickaxes!! 

Patience, because as we started it was a cold and rainy day. Leaving only a few people showing up at the beginning of the event. Luckily, as the clouds cleared and the sun warmed us up, other volunteers joined us.

Perseverance, due to the 10 trees we had to plant, but so few individuals at the start to help. 

Pickaxes!, because the dirt was so hard we had to break out the big guns! Even though we thought the rain would help to soften up the soil, we each had to take shifts hammering our way through each layer of dirt. Who needs the gym when you have Oquirrh Park?

Even after all of the obstacles. This was a great way to finish off the Spring tree planting season!    

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Bring in the big trees!!

This week, Let’s Move! Outside helped out TreeUtah with their annual Arbor Day event. We started the day out at the stunning Westpointe Park with snacks, games, and preparedness speech to get us all ready for handling 200 pound trees. A Boy Scout finishing his Eagle Scout Project, brought along his troop... and some donuts! In order to make sure the donuts didn’t melt in the hot sun, we made sure to eat them all before heading out to plant our trees.

In total we planted 32 various types of trees along the West side of Westpointe’s soccer field. All of which will grow to about 50-60 feet! Providing shade to the youth playing in the field, and the families cheering them on.

Happy Arbor Day!!  

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When it comes to a “BioBlitz” it’s all about the little things.

Let’s Move! Outside had the honor to participate in the first ever BioBlitz at Timpanogos National Monument! A BioBlitz is a gathering of citizen scientist volunteers working together to find and identify as many species as possible in one given area. 

It gives you an opportunity to pay attention to every little detail around you. Every flower, bird, insect, tree that stands out. Turning over any rock to discover what may be taking home underneath. All to help the global science community! 

We had so much fun, it’s hard to believe we were all within a 200 foot radius during the entire event!  

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Happy National Trails Day!!

Let’s Move! Outside joined the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, and a dozen other community partners to participate in the 2016 National Trails Day. Though the day’s forecast was for rain, it ended up being a beaUTAHful day!

Once the event started rolling, we broke up into nine groups, each working on a different section of the soon-to-be new section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Not to be out-shined, we chose one of the hardest sections of the trail! Filled with rocks, roots, and working off a steep slope, we finished our portion of the trail in about two hours. All together National Trails Day was able to create more than 1,400 feet of new trail!!

What amazing sights visitors of the new trail will be able to see!   

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HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

We spent the day with kids from elementary schools around Salt Lake City. Engaging in awesome, outdoor activities at Hidden Hollow’s ecologically diverse outdoor classroom. It was an opportunity for multipule community partners to come together in order to provide an amazing learning experience for the kids. Our goals were to connect the youth to Utah’s great outdoors, instill stewardship principles, and inspire interestin natural science through recreation, education programs, and a service project planting flowers near the Draw at Sugarhouse Park. 

We wish we had more pictures, but we were all too busy having a great time!

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Today was a lesson in learning that kids can enjoy just about anything!

Let’s Move! Outside teamed up with Seven Canyons Trust and Entheos Academy, to make an amazing day by the Jordan River. Though the day of the event we faced a lot of downpour, and had to change most of our plans, the kids still had the time of their lives. Give them some gloves, grab-claws, and shovels, and they’ll be more than happy to cleanup litter and dig out invasive weeds! 

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Last month Let’s Move! Outside had such a great time planting tree.. we decided to do it again!! This time, we were in a new park, with a new type of tree to plant. Who knew there were different ways to plant a tree??

At Cottonwood East park, we broke up into groups of several groups of 15 to complete our goal of planting 750 seedling trees native to Utah. Days be for this was done, a group from TreeUtah came to the park to uproot the invasive tree species called “Russian Olive”. After the Russian Olives were taken care off, we brought new, native life to the park; bringing in the trees that once flourished in the area!

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Spring has sprung, and so has outdoor activity from Let’s Move! Outside! After a cold Winter, with many Red Air Quality days, we teamed up with some students from the University of Utah’s Honor Society to join in on TreeUtah’s first Spring Season Tree Planting!

The event took place over at the beautiful Redwood Nature Area. Where hundreds of families and individuals run, bike, and walk through each day. We spent our time near the water table planting Cottonwood Tree Poles. Tree poles, are branches cut off from an existing tree. Which are then soaked for a week in a growing agent. Finally, you are able to plant the pole for it to then grow into its own tree!   

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We had a great time today for National Day of Service on the Hill!

Let’s Move! Outside spent the day hosting a table, and talking with Utah’s legislators about why we want Salt Lake City’s youth to have opportunities to Play, Learn, Serve and Work in the outdoors!  

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Join us on TYO (Transforming Youth Outdoors)!! Let’s Move! Outside is setting our base-camp of communication on this amazing website!

If you are a person who loves the outdoors, and loves to get kids into the outdoors, sign up for TYO here:  http://mytyo.org/

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A big thanks to the 9th annual Salt Lake County Watershed Symposium! This was our very first time getting to host a booth at a conference and talk to everyone about the mission of Let’s Move! Outside. Based on everyone’s response, we will make sure to get out to every community event we can! 

Thank you to all involved! 

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Let’s Move! Outside now has an official website!!!

During our summit, we had many people tell us that not having a website for central communication to go to is one of the biggest hurdles in getting the youth in our community into the outdoors. We spent the last few weeks planning and building a website we hope Salt Lake City will find to be an amazing resource! You can find it at slcletsmoveoutside.org

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Let’s Move! Outside Initiative was extremely excited to host their first event in Salt lake City. The YMCA of Northern Utah and HawkWatch International joined forces to make a day to remember for the kids at the YMCA. Gathered under a stonework pavilion at Jordan Park, Hannah from HawkWatch educated the youth on the declining population of the American Kestrels, and the actions that HawkWatch is taking to combat the issue. Particularly, their nest box and banding project along the Wasatch Front. A program designed to build more homes for kestrels, and stewardship for those homes.

After the presentation, it was time to explore. Home to the International Peace Gardens, Jordan Park offers 33.5 acres of architecture from around the world. The youth from the YMCA had 30 minutes of unstructured time to explore, discover, and most importantly, learn. After running over Chinese bridges, finding the Little Mermaid of Denmark, and attempting to scale the Matterhorn, the kids eventually found their way to the newly built playground in the Northeast corner of the park, where they played until they could play no more.

 If you’d like to find out more information on the kestrel program with HawkWatch, visit: http://hawkwatch.org/our-work/kestrels