Author's aim is kids outdoors

When Richard Louv coined the self-explanatory phrase "nature deficit disorder" in his 2005 New York Times bestseller, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder," he hit a sweet chord that continues to resonate.

Last weekend, Louv spoke in Saratoga Springs and Lake Placid as well as to an overflow gathering at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. I caught him at the Wild Center.

Heads of all ages nodded in furious agreement when Louv talked in anecdotal detail about the contemporary distancing of our kids from playing in and experiencing the unstructured, unsupervised natural world. A world many of us older types happily wallowed in and took for granted.

Nature, researchers tell us, gave us independence, accountability, patience, a more vivid imagination and sense of adventure, far better health obesity is five times more prevalent today than in 1960 not to mention an enormous appreciation for all things natural and a lifetime perspective for our place in the universe.

Louv's appearances were sponsored by Children in Nature, New York, a partnership dedicated to reconnecting children and nature in our state. An entirely worthy if daunting goal, considering the huge, glittery forces at play keeping kids out of the woods, and indoors instead. Still, the need to find ways to bring kids and nature back together has proved so strong a cultural longing, even if it is pushing against the tide, that Louv's book has led to what amounts to an international movement. "Last Child in the Woods" has been translated into nine languages and has been or soon will be published in 13 countries. Louv chairs the Children and Nature Network, hard at work keeping the movement alive.

At first, it seems the primary culprits keeping kids indoors these days is a blizzard of electronics, from games to the Internet to TV. But in truth, as Louv himself points out, we can't blame it all on Pokemon.

For a variety of reasons and perceptions, the natural world seems less kid friendly than it used to, notably for unsupervised play. Which from my perspective, is the very best.

As a kid growing up in the Catskills in the 1950s, when I wasn't in school and had finished my daily chores, I was turned loose as early as I wanted, no questions asked. My imagination and stamina dictated where I would go and what I would do and with whom, whether up on the mountain or down the valley stream, near or far. Often I was alone, which was fine.

But there were strict boundaries, too. Don't get hurt and don't give anybody any trouble. And I had to be in the door and ready for dinner at 5 p.m., whether I bicycled furiously to get there, or limped, or crawled. It mattered not. And a call from a neighbor to say I was on my way didn't cut it, either. It was be there, or suffer the consequences, and they were mighty. continue>>>

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