Monday, September 17, 2007

Where did the Treehouses go?

Crystal Mountain, WA

I have just finished giving a keynote address to the 2007 Watcahable Wildlife Conference here at Crystal Mountain resort http://www.wildlifemou.com/2007WWC/index.html . The conference is made up mainly of tourism professionals and state agency folks. I was impressed with the participants determination to get children outdoors and the challenge in working together to come up with local based community solutions to address nature deficit disorder. During my keynote I outlined some of my main points on why children are disconnected from the outdoors. I think fear and community planning are two big reasons. If you look at statistics crimes against children have not gone up over the past ten years but what has gone up is the number of cable channels that need to have stories. Many of these stories are focused on crimes that have been committed against children. Who can blame a parent for feeling a sense of security in seeing their child eating cheetos and playing video games when at least they know their child is safe. We must find a happy medium between the security of a child and the reality and the fact that children being outside builds a sense of confidence. Another main factor I see is how communities are planned. With so may cul de sac or Truman show communities as I like to call them allow children to get outdoors and build a treehouse? Liability has become a word I wake up in a cold sweat about as planned communities are afraid that they will be held responsible for any injuries children have. Rich Louv has been talking with developers in California about how we can correct this and work together to have communities which encourage children to play outside. Here is an article on my speech and the importance of Rich Louv's book Last Child in the Woods http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/kitsapandbeyond/archives/121804.asp?from=blog_last3

A couple of quick updates, there is a great article in the Sacramento Bee today describing the Leave No Child Inside movement in California http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/383188.html
I do wish the article would have mentioned the Sierra Club's efforts which have gotten over 5,000 kids in California outside http://www.sierraclub.org/youth/california/

An update on the federal legislation 'The Leave No Child Inside Act' as it continues to move forward, please take action by going to the Cheseapeake Bay Foundation https://secure2.convio.net/cbf/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=467

Fall is coming, put on the sweater and get outside!