{"id":111331,"date":"2015-07-02T17:56:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T23:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pitching-a-tent-for-wildlife-2\/"},"modified":"2015-07-02T17:56:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T23:56:25","slug":"pitching-a-tent-for-wildlife-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pitching-a-tent-for-wildlife-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching a tent for wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Whether
Whether it\u2019s camping in tents at Mancos State Park or in your backyard, campers can help wildlife during the Great American Campout.<\/span>Brian S. Peterson\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In southwestern Colorado, the Great American Campout isn\u2019t necessarily meant to draw campers to state parks. Or to draw campers, although that\u2019s part of it.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s more about camping with a purpose.<\/p>\n

The 11th annual Great American Campout, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation \u2013 and in-state, in conjunction with Colorado Parks and Wildife \u2013 runs through Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great American Campout is a great way to get into nature while also \u2018camping for a cause,\u2019\u201d said Brian Kurzel, NWF\u2019s regional executive director. \u201cBy registering your camping event, Coloradans support the National Wildlife Federation\u2019s protection of our iconic wildlife while enjoying the things they love best.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there is no cost to participate. Just go to www.nwf.org\/Great-American-Campout.aspx and click on the \u201cTAKE THE PLEDGE\u201d tab and fill out the short survey regarding your campout. The NWF will donate $1 for every camper who participates up to $100,000 for ongoing efforts to protect the outdoors, wildlife and its habitat across the country. Donations also can be made via the website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage our campers to learn about the program and register pledges to camp,\u201d said Scot Elder, park manager at Mancos State Park. \u201cThe mission is of getting more indifferent people out camping \u2026 preaching to as many campers as we can. It\u2019s as simple as making that pledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camping is the backbone of Mancos State Park, and Elder said the park campgrounds are pretty much booked through the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA camper can get on the website and register their pledge to camp \u2013 whether to pitch a tent in the backyard or come to Mancos State Park,\u201d he said. \u201cThe registration triggers a donation to the federation (NWF).<\/p>\n

\u201cMancos (State Park) is a great place for the growth of the program in that we\u2019re making certain campers are aware of the program. There\u2019s certainly a growing awareness of the program because of so much personal interface with our campers. \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Campout kicks off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[4409,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-outdoors-more-or-less","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111331"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}