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The New Nature Movement Blog

FEATURED WRITING BY RICHARD LOUV

GROWING THE MOVEMENT: Because Every Child Has a Right to Nature

Fourteen years ago, my book Last Child in the Woods introduced the term “nature-deficit disorder.” The term was new, but the trend (of alienation from the natural world) was not. Parents, educators, caregivers had been witnessing childhood move indoors. They wanted to...
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BACK TO THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE: The Real Cutting Edge of Education Probably Isn’t What You Think It Is

In recent decades, many of America’s school districts have favored reduced recess, fewer field trips, longer hours sitting at desks, more tests, and more computers, iPads and even video games used as teaching tools in classrooms. Consider what may be...
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WELCOME TO THE NATURAL LIBRARY: The Essential Role of Libraries in Creating Nature-Rich Communities

Libraries exist in every kind of neighborhood; they already serve as community hubs; they’re often supported by Friends groups; they have existing resources (nature books); they’re often more flexible than schools; they’re known for being safe—and they’re a perfect,...
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YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN NATURE: An Interview with Karen Pittman

Karen J. Pittman is president and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan “action tank” that combines thought leadership on youth development, youth policy, cross-system/cross-sector partnerships and developmental youth practice with...
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TIME FOR A CAMP REVIVAL: The Return of Nature Camps and the Support for Those That Never Went Away

Dear friends, I hope you will join me at the 2019 Children & Nature Network International Conference in Oakland, California, May 16-18, 2019. The conference is anticipated to be the largest gathering of leaders, advocates and activists from the children and nature...
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A DOZEN WAYS FAMILIES CAN #OPTOUTSIDE EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

In 2015, the leaders of the retail outdoor equipment Co-op REI made a big decision. They closed their doors on Black Friday, the biggest day in the global retail calendar. Instead, they encouraged their 12,000 employees to Opt Outside (#OptOutside), to reconnect with...
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GOD AND MOTHER NATURE: Mister Rogers and the Gift of the Honest Self

It’s 1993. Fred Rogers enters a noisy hotel lobby, taking pictures of the people who have come to meet him. You realize that you have lowered the volume of your voice. I look down at my son, Matthew, who had turned 6 on the day before Halloween. Normally ebullient and...
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A TREASURE CHEST: What Mothers Leave Behind

My mother, perhaps like yours, gave the gift of nature. I remember her here. The old chest of drawers proved to be a treasure chest. It was a small piece of furniture, perhaps an old washstand, with three drawers. It sat in a storage unit for over a year, and when we...
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DEAR VIRGINIA: On Writing

Dear Virginia, Time has slipped by, and I’ve been meaning to write to you. I met you about a year and a half ago at a conference of environmental educators in Asheville, North Carolina. You were 11 years old then. Your mother had brought you to one of my sermonettes....
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SINGING FOR BEARS: Reclaiming Our Senses, Including Our Sense of Humility

My son Matthew and I were wading up a stream of Alaska’s Kodiak Island. For a second year, Joe, our guide, was teaching us how to sense the presence of Kodiak brown bears, the largest grizzlies — the ones that can run 35 miles per hour, the ones you cannot...
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Richard Louv is our co-founder and best-selling author of the quintessential “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” and two follow-up books on nature connection, “The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,” and “Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life.”

Columns by Richard Louv

GUEST  BLOGGERS

HEADING TO THE FOREST: Bringing Joy, Accomplishment & Hope to Children

by | January 16, 2020 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

This is the second installment of a two-part series. In the first part of this article, we visited a nature-based early childhood program in a forest preserve on the western edge of Chicagoland. Here, children found treasure, became pirates, engineered a raft/bridge...
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TOWARDS ECOPHILIA:  Being Hopeful in Spite of It All

by | January 9, 2020 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

This is the first installment of a two-part series. A plague of digitalization is sweeping through American youth, infecting all whom it touches. Teens quake in horror when their cell phones are out of their grasp. Only a regular diet of media stimulation fends off...
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CELEBRA LAS AVES: A New Generation of Bird Enthusiasts in Peru

by | December 19, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

They left at five o’clock in the morning and traveled all day, sitting in their dugout canoes called peke-peke under the punishing tropical heat. Nearly one thousand Peruvians made the long, hot journey this past September. They were gathering to celebrate rainforest...
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ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED: How Mayors Are Redefining Nature Connections for Kids

by | November 25, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

When we think of children and the outdoors, of connecting children to nature, a city landscape is not the first image that comes to mind. But, many mayors across the country hope to change that.  As part of the Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative, mayors...
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STRENGTH FROM NATURE: How Growing up in Nature Helped Me Through My Greatest Challenge

by | November 20, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

I grew up in a town called Scarborough on the southern coast of Maine. Although I was not born here, it’s the only place I remember living. Here, among the balsams and oaks, the sound of coyote puppies howling or tom turkeys attracting a mate, and the plentiful...
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STAGES OF NATURE CONNECTION: Three Steps to Better Health

by | November 5, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 1 Comment

Agrowing body of research tells us that a connection to nature offers us a host of physical and mental health benefits. Most of us could improve our connection with nature. The good news is that doing so is fun— and simple. Just 30 minutes per day, a couple of...
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The Neighborhood Play Project: A New Play Story Unfolds in Queensland Neighborhoods

by | October 22, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

In just one generation, the average Australian childhood has shifted from a largely outdoors, active, independent, social, community-orientated play to a mostly indoors, sedentary, technologically immersed, highly structured, fearful and risk-averse play space. The...
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MOTHER’S HOME REMEDY: Understanding the Ocean’s Healing Powers

by | October 3, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

I grew up in South Florida, so I spent a lot of time at the beach. As a child, if I got a cut or wasn’t feeling well, my mom always told me to go to the beach. “The ocean will heal you,” she’d say. I don’t know if it’s a Caribbean thing, a Floridian thing, or both....
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OUTSIDE I CAN: A Campaign to Reconnect to the Outdoors

by | September 19, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

Here’s a stark fact: we spend ninety-five percent of our lives indoors. The outlook doesn’t look good for the next generation as younger Americans spend more time in front of screens than ever before. And for low-income and minority groups, who often lack the means or...
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RAISING WILD KIDS: Why I Endanger My Kids in the Wilderness

by | September 5, 2019 | The New Nature Movement - Columns by Guest Writers | 0 Comments

A glacial wind pours through a snowy pass in the remote mountains of Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park. Virtually devoid of vegetation, the terrain offers no refuge from the relentless current of frigid air. Some of the troops are hungry, a little tired, and grumpy;...
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Blog posts from guest writers worldwide sharing their work and ideas to connect children to nature.

Blog posts by Guest Writers

RAISING WILD KIDS: Why I Endanger My Kids in the Wilderness

RAISING WILD KIDS: Why I Endanger My Kids in the Wilderness

A glacial wind pours through a snowy pass in the remote mountains of Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park. Virtually devoid of vegetation, the terrain offers no refuge from the relentless current of frigid air. Some of the troops are hungry, a little tired, and grumpy;...

By | Sep 5, 2019

BEYOND SHOPPING MALLS: A Green Evolution for the Suburbs

BEYOND SHOPPING MALLS: A Green Evolution for the Suburbs

Thanks to the greater children and nature movement, access to nature is expanding to include more members of our increasingly urbanized society. For several years, the National Park Service has recognized the need for an Urban Agenda to better serve marginalized...

By | Aug 1, 2019

HIKING IN HUARACHES: Finding Home in Nature

HIKING IN HUARACHES: Finding Home in Nature

Huaraches can take you anywhere. (Photo by José González) ¿Y tú quién eres? Soy los sueños y memorias de mis antepasados Sueños de momentos aún no llegados Memorias que cargan historias Del campo, del monte De un horizonte Lleno de esperanza La adivinanza De ¿Qué eres...

By | Jul 18, 2019

Nature RX: The Best Medicine

Nature RX: The Best Medicine

The late neurologist and author, Dr. Oliver Sacks, was a true believer in the power of nature to heal. Sacks, who would take his patients to gardens whenever possible, described two patients for whom nature was literally the best medicine. One patient, a friend of...

By | May 23, 2019

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