Curing the Nature-Deficit Disorder

When I was growing up in a Los Angeles suburb many years ago, we lived on an acre and a half with horses, chickens, rabbits, fruit trees, a vegetable garden and a river out the back gate. It sounds idyllic now, but it didn’t seem so at the time. Our home was in Garvey Acres, a lesser subdivision in working class El Monte. Our house wasn’t much, and I envied the kids who lived in the newer subdivisions with better homes on neat little lots with manicured lawns.

But we had the great outdoors—the once mighty Rio Hondo River, now tamed by dams, ran behind our house. It was no more than a trickle of water at times, and you could almost always wade across it, but still it held pollywogs and frogs. The riverbanks were lined with trees and brush, coyotes were on the prowl, quicksand was a danger, hobos slept under the Garvey Avenue bridge, and junk was dumped here and there. All in all it was a wonderful place to be—mysterious, wild, full of possibilities. I spent many happy hours wandering idly along that stream with my boyhood friend Raymond and many more hours there riding horses at a walk or gentle gallop with my dad, or at breakneck speed with Billy, a kid who was hoping to become a jockey.

The Rio Hondo River world I knew is gone. A government agency years ago put in a concrete flood control channel, uprooting trees and brush. The house where I lived was razed to make way for a poultry processing plant. A neighborhood that once held houses, a couple of stores and a church, is now mostly small factories.

But I still have my memories of growing up and playing outdoors, not just along the river, but also in the backyard, the front yard, a friend’s yard, a vacant lot and the street. That was a common experience of my generation, back when TV was new and long before computers, video games, iPods and cell phones came along as diversions.

Childhood Changes
These days, in a typical week, only 6 percent of children 9 to 13 play outside on their own, experts say, and there are reports of declines in activities like camping, fishing and swimming.

In 2005, Richard Louv, an author and columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, wrote a book called Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. The book not only sold well, it created a movement to reconnect children with nature, and has put Louv in such demand as a speaker that he has given up his newspaper column.

I had never met Richard until a few weeks ago when he came to Seattle to speak at Town Hall to 800 environmentalists, educators and others concerned about children and nature. Richard worked at the Arkansas City Traveler in Kansas nearly 40 years ago when my wife, Barbara, was the do-everything young reporter. Richard said Barbara became his journalistic model since she was all of 21 with two years of reporting experience, and he was only 19 and an intern on a summer break from college. Although Barbara and Richard have talked on the phone from time to time, they hadn’t seen each other in nearly 40 years until his Town Hall appearance, so it was a wonderful reunion, with Richard autographing a copy of his book for Barbara as “my first mentor.”

It also was wonderful to see what a powerful movement Richard has started. He came to Seattle shortly after being the keynote speaker at a ceremony in Washington D. C. where the U.S. Forest Service announced $500,000 in grants to support outdoor recreation for children. Earlier the Secretary of the Interior had invited Richard to talk to 300 of the top people in that department to stimulate discussion of ways to connect children with nature. And recently, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed legislation to provide a permanent funding stream of more than a million dollars a year for outdoor education, the first of a number of initiatives states are considering under the banner, “No Child Left Inside,” a direct result of the movement started by Richard.

Groups ranging from the Sierra Club to small community organizations have taken up the cause. And developers are showing an interest too, asking how they can make housing projects friendlier to outside play.

Universal Problem
Part of the problem, of course, is that development has eliminated many wooded areas and vacant lots. But children in urban and suburban areas are not the only ones cut off from outside play; children in rural areas are spending less time outdoors, too.

Television, video games and the Internet are time-consuming diversions, but Richard thinks an even bigger obstacle to outdoor play is the fear of strangers. Parents are afraid to let their children wander from home. Or, as Richard puts it, children are being raised under house arrest.

The media deserves some blame for this. The number of cases of children being snatched off the street hasn’t changed in 20 years, and the rate of violent crime against children is no higher than it was in 1975, but every occurrence is given such intense coverage that it seems like an epidemic. Of course, there are dangerous neighborhoods, and parents must protect their children, but we also must find ways to connect children with nature. Research has found that obesity, depression and attention-deficit problems in children can be related to a sedentary lifestyle, and has shown that creativity and learning can be improved through outdoor experiences.

What is encouraging is that the nature-deficit problem is solvable. Schools can restore physical education and recess, developers can incorporate nature trails and untouched habitat in their projects, nature centers can be developed, and organizations can take urban children to summer camp. As individuals, we can take action to see that our children and grandchildren experience nature on a regular basis.

Helping Children
Many people buy RVs for family camping trips not only to have fun, but also to encourage their children to appreciate the beauty and majesty of our natural world. It’s great if parents can bring along their children’s friends to share the experience, and it’s wonderful, too, if grandparents can include grandchildren in their camping trips.

Youngsters are so tied to iPods and electronic gadgets these days that they may not know how to amuse themselves outdoors. In this month’s issue, writer Jennifer Donahue, a mother of two young boys, offers advice to parents and grandparents who may be wondering how to manage children on a camping trip.

Like lots of parents, she’s concerned about her boys’ safety, but she gives them walkie-talkies so they can roam the campground freely and still stay in touch. She has lots of other advice that you will find on Page 8.

Richard Louv has founded the Children and Nature Network to further the movement to connect children with nature. You can find research on the subject and learn about grassroots efforts by going to the organization’s Web site at www.cnaturenet.org.

Write to Mike Ward, editor at RV Life Magazine, 18717 76th Avenue West, Suite B, Lynnwood, WA 98037 or e-mail editor@rvlife.com. Find First Glance on-line at rvlife.com.