DENVER, Colo., – Take the Junior Ranger pledge vowing to teach family and friends how to love and protect the outdoors, or research public land areas in Colorado, or volunteer on an outdoor stewardship opportunity to care for public lands. These are just a few of the simple and fun activities anyone can do to help them earn their Public Lands Champion digital badge (pictured right). The Public Lands Champion badge was developed in partnership between the statewide nonprofit Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  

“The Public Lands Champion badge is designed to encourage and reward people – especially kids – for learning about and experiencing Colorado's public lands to then help promote their importance to others,” said Anna Zawisza, VOC’s Director of Community Relations & Strategic Partnerships. “Colorado’s public lands need our support, and more importantly, the next generation of stewards. This badge is a great way to teach kids about public lands, while also spending more time outside together as a family enjoying our state’s incredible public lands!”

To get started, users simply download VOC’s YourCO mobile app from the App Store or Google Play. Once logged in, people can find the Public Lands Champion badge under the “badges” tab and start completing tasks – each worth a certain amount of points – associated with the badge. Once the badge is earned, it can be easily shared on social media as a way to inspire others with a little friendly competition. As an added incentive, various prizes – such as reusable water bottles and lunch bags – will be awarded periodically to lucky badge earners.

This newest digital badge rounds out the 16 other digital badges available through the YourCO mobile app designed to build an ethic of stewardship among all Coloradans.

Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is a statewide nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to motivating and enabling people to be active stewards of Colorado’s natural resources. Since 1984, VOC’s award-winning volunteer, youth, and leadership training programs have engaged more than 110,000 people of all ages in caring for Colorado’s outdoors – a total donated labor value of $22 million. Such volunteer efforts have made a lasting impact on Colorado through hands-on work in wildfire and flood restoration, trail building and maintenance, tree planting and re-forestation, and much more.

The BLM manages 8.3 million acres of public lands and 27 million acres of federal mineral estate in Colorado, ranging from alpine tundra, colorful canyons and sagebrush steppe to mountains rising more than 14,000 feet above sea level. BLM Colorado manages this land for a variety of uses like recreation, energy development, conservation, wild horse and burro habitat, cultural resource protection and livestock grazing. The BLM works to balance these multiple uses and interests to sustain the health and productivity of BLM lands now and for generations to come.

Media Contact:

Kellie Flowers

303-715-1010, ext. 130