Children encouraged to get out

A back-to-nature movement to reconnect children with the outdoors is burgeoning nationwide.

Programs, public and private, are starting or expanding as research shows kids suffer health problems, including obesity, from too much sedentary time indoors with TV and computers.

“There’s a lot of movement all over the country, and it’s increasing,” says Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder,” a 2005 book that has increased interest in the topic. He says studies show that enjoying nature reduces kids’ loneliness, depression and attention problems.

In January, the U.S. Forest Service is launching a pilot program, More Kids In the Woods, that will fund local efforts to get children outdoors. Also happening:

“A Junior Ranger program, in which kids earn badges by completing activities at national parks, is opening Friday at Fort Clatsop in Oregon. Nearly 300 national parks have programs for kids 5 and older.

“The National Audubon Society, which has opened 30 nature centers in the past decade, will launch a new one this spring in Savannah, N.Y., and has plans for a dozen more in the next few years. Most serve elementary school kids.

“Wonderful Outdoor World, a group that gets public and private funds for programs for disadvantaged urban children, plans to expand its outdoor camping trips beyond its current six metropolitan areas next year.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill in March to study how outdoor education affects academic success and personal responsibility.

Nature “touches something very primal in people,” Louv says. Adults are quick to reminisce about their childhood treehouses or forts, he says.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne agrees and has been giving speeches on the topic.

“I can still describe to you the rocks, the buttercups and the smell of the pines” of the small forest near his childhood home in Spokane, he says.