The Gazette

He has a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account and his own book. He's had his picture snapped with such high-profile figures as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, filmmaker Ken Burns and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
By many accounts, Buddy Bison is a celebrity. He's also a woolly, brown plush toy.

The National Park Trust is using Buddy as a mascot to encourage children to go outdoors and to enjoy the experience of being in a national park. And some Potomac students are responding.

The Rockville-based land conservancy encourages children to take Buddy to a national park, snap a picture and submit it for posting on the trust's Web site, along with details about the adventure. The undertaking is a part of the group's "Where's Buddy Bison Been?" program, which is an arm of its "Youth to Parks" initiative.

"In this area, we have a lot of national parks in our back yards, but you'd be surprised at how many young people have never visited them," said Grace Lee, executive director of the trust, which is dedicated to acquiring and preserving national, state and local parkland and raising awareness about parks among young people. Visits to national parks have been declining since the late 1980s, according to the trust. Through the Buddy Bison program, the group hopes to foster a sense of land stewardship in children and ensure that parks are preserved for future generations, Lee said.
"The whole idea is to connect kids to the outdoors," she said. "But we believe in order to save it and protect it, they need to see it."

As part of a pilot program, several schools in the Washington area have partnered with the trust to spread the word about Buddy. One of those is the Bullis School in Potomac. The program kicked off with an assembly in November. Students can check out a Buddy from their homeroom teacher, take the toy to a park and document the experience with photos and an essay. The program also ties in with the school's goals of focusing on environmental sustainability and kindling curiosity in students about the natural world, said Amy Jones, Bullis's lower school principal.

Bullis students have reported taking Buddy to Acadia National Park in Maine; Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia; Swallow Falls State Park in Garrett County, Md.; and Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg.

"If not many people go to parks, not many people are going to know about it, and it's not going to be nearly as much fun," said Bullis third-grader Will Houston, 9.

Two Bullis students, twins Amos and Aaron Green, 16, received scholarships from the trust to attend an outdoor youth program last spring near Harpers Ferry.  The Silver Spring residents also took a summer road trip with their father across the West, stopping at many national parks along the way.

"It was a life-changing experience for me," Amos Green said. "I never knew the Grand Canyon was that big. Unless you go see it, you don't know what it's like."

In addition to the school program, Potomac author Rob Cohen has penned a children's book about the mascot, titled "Buddy Bison Goes to a Park." The book, which is not yet published, includes illustrations drawn by third-graders at the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in the District, which also is participating in the Buddy program.

Educators at Bullis said they hope the program will encourage families to spend more time together outdoors, Jones said.

"Family life is busier, traffic is worse, and people don't have as much time to spend together," Jones said. "If they do take Buddy and make a journey to a park, maybe that's changing a pattern in a very small way."

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