Connecting With Nature Is Good for Kids—and for the Planet

When I was a kid, I used to love stepping into a meadow on a quiet morning and feeling the tall grass brush against my knees. And sitting around a campfire, listening to crickets and frogs sing the song of the forest at night. I still do those things, and I love them just as much.

Studies have found that time in nature is good for us. It lowers stress, helps us focus, and makes our bodies stronger. A walk in a park can do things for your brain that an hour on a phone or tablet never will. Spending time outdoors can help you when you are upset about something, whether it’s school or bigger worries about the world around you. And it also helps the planet: Nature is easier to protect once you have stood inside it, felt it alive around you, and realized your own connection to it.

This is why the Sierra Club has made connecting young people with the outdoors one of our highest priorities. Through Inspiring Connections Outdoors and other Sierra Club programs across the country, volunteer leaders organize hikes, campouts, river paddles, and ski trips for kids and families.

Not long ago, leaders with our Detroit Outdoors program in Michigan took a group of high school students to Yosemite National Park. For many of them, it was the first time they had ever been there. Shelton Johnson, a park ranger and former student at their school, talked about Yosemite’s rich history and explained how public lands like these are meant for everyone to enjoy.

“I can barely believe the things that I did,” said Arcia Quinn, one of the participants. “I climbed a mountain; I hiked down a mountain. Seriously, it felt like freedom.”

When someone gets that first chance to sleep under the stars or look out over a vast, wild landscape from a peak they just climbed, something in them shifts. And forming those bonds with nature early, as a kid, opens a whole world that too many of us spend a lifetime missing out on. However, the doors to that world stay open only if the places themselves are protected and cared for.

Early last year, the US Congress took an important step to make the outdoors more accessible by passing the EXPLORE Act—a law the Sierra Club had fought hard for. The EXPLORE Act includes the Every Kid Outdoors program, which gives fourth graders and their families free entry to more than 2,000 national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands. It also provides access to green spaces near major cities, helping kids in urban areas get out in nature.

But the promise of that law depends on the people who carry it out, including the rangers and other staff who keep America’s parks, forests, and trails safe and welcoming. Agencies like the US Forest Service and the National Park Service have been hit with drastic budget and staffing cuts and are struggling to keep up with their missions. This makes it harder for you, me, and everyone else to enjoy our treasured public lands and waters.

June is Great Outdoors Month. It’s the perfect time to join us in the fight for more access to wild spaces and outdoor activities. And it’s a great time to just get outside—to deepen your connection to the joys of being outdoors and remember what we’re fighting for.