Field Notes From the Future

A walk in the woods, climbing a tree or patiently watching a fish rise to a dry fly will not solve everything, but it could go a long way to bring things into a more positive, hopeful perspective. Richard Louv’s “Vitamin N” (the health benefits of time spent in nature) should find its place in [...]

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child. If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens to that child? In [...]

One day, while driving down a freeway, I looked up to see an empty sky where there had been mountaintops. Dust was rising as massive earth graders rumbled across a now-blank plain. Seemingly overnight, they had sliced away the horizon. Later came rows of mini-mansions devoid of color or individuality or visual meaning, and shopping malls, [...]

After “Last Child in the Woods” was published in 2005, a handful of like-minded individuals came together to form the Children & Nature Network. Our mission: to help build a movement to reconnect children, their families and their communities to nature—for human health and well-being, cognitive development, stronger community — and for the good of the planet. For [...]

With the leadership of Richard Louv and the Children & Nature Network, and the hard work of many people across the country, the word is spreading about the critical importance of unstructured play in nature for children and adults.  Energy is now being focused on solutions – the cure, if you will, to “nature-deficit disorder.” [...]

I started teaching 5th grade nearly 15 years ago. In that time, I’ve done a lot of gardening with my students. Nothing gives me more joy than to spend time gardening with the kids and their families. Over the years it has allowed me to form very special relationships with the community I serve. Many [...]

“Nothing so important as an ethic is ever ‘written’… it evolves in the minds of a thinking community.” — Aldo Leopold. Do children – do all of us – have a right to meaningful connection to the natural world? Annelies Henstra, a Dutch human rights attorney, thinks so. She calls it the “forgotten human right.” In [...]

It’s the season — that time of year when, whatever our religious beliefs, we often think most directly about family ties. We’ve made the case at C&NN that nature experiences can tighten family bonds, most recently in our guide for families, “Together in Nature” (please also see Marti Erickson’s C&NN paper on family bonding and [...]

I love my work. I am afforded the opportunity to promote the value of connecting people with nature. Working with so many great people to help empower a new generation to be connected with nature is a blessing and a responsibility that I take seriously. One of the things I find to be a constant [...]

After Richard Louv gave an inspiring talk in Bend, OR, in May 2010, a group of children and nature advocates from around our region formed an informal network to keep the conversation alive. Members included representatives from the healthcare community, parks and recreation, Deschutes National Forest, geographic organizations, conservation education nonprofits and the schools – [...]

I was raised in the deserts and high country of the American Southwest. An only child, I spent hours and hours on my own, or with friends, including my cousins, exploring arroyos, climbing trees, and experiencing the sense of being at home that comes from being connected to the place where you live. Some of [...]

“A movement moves.” — Rev. Gerald L. Durley All of us involved with the Children & Nature Network recognize the challenges ahead, the miles to go, the promises and deadlines to keep. But for the children and nature movement, 2011 has been a banner year. Here are a few of the achievements accomplished during the [...]

It does not matter if you choose to take to the streets, the Occupy Movement has captured the imagination of everyone, and is not going away any time soon. The Occupy prompt has become a symbolic directive to give voice to a wide range of concerns – from corporate bastions, to conceptual ideals, to icons of popular culture. [...]

Like many professions, medicine being an example, landscape architecture is beginning to subdivide into specializations informed by empirical evidence. The design and management of children’s outdoor environments is one such area of practice, with evidence drawn from many disciplines, including landscape architecture itself. A burgeoning mountain of evidence supports the importance of kids spending time [...]

During the first week of November, members of the American Society of Landscape Architects and their colleagues from around the country – over 5,000 strong – met at the San Diego Convention Center. Saving the world was somewhere on the agenda. Could they be the group with the most influence on human habitat in the future, [...]

“Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.” —Gary Snyder. A few months ago, at the Minnesota Arboretum, several hundred people from a variety of sectors – tourism, housing development, health care, education, and others – came together for a conference focused in part on the Nature Principle. I was especially intrigued by [...]

Inspiration is a word used a lot these days, but it is also a word that we need to use more in these dire economic times. A couple weeks back I had to put the remote away, as I could not take any more images of exotic animals being shot in Ohio or a dictator [...]