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My 7th graders were riding the bus home to Leadville, Colorado, the highest incorporated city in the United States. Over the last three days, they had learned...

Time outdoors provides physical, mental and social-emotional health benefits for children, reducing stress while improving focus, mood and overall well-being. Yet, the United States lacks a consistent national framework to track children’s daily outdoor experiences in nature. To fill this gap, the Children & Nature Network partnered with the Nature & Health Alliance to add caregiver-focused questions to the 2025 American Nature and Health Survey. This survey of 865 parents and caregivers of children under 18 compared current youth outdoor engagement against 2009 data.

Check out the incredible work that’s been featured at Children & Nature Network events and developed by our program staff over the years. From a children’s art exhibit to posters presented by subject matter experts – these works are sure to energize and inspire.

The Children & Nature Network’s work over the past 20 years has created more access to nature for children in more than 100 communities. We’ve also built the evidence base for nature connection and a network of cross-sector leaders to advance it. We are uniquely prepared to deliver the benefits of nature to children at scale. In early 2026, we launched a new 10-year strategic framework to do just that. Over the next decade, we will create a nature-filled childhood for 20 million youth in the U.S. This document highlights the progress we’re making, made possible by the generous support of partners and friends like you.

If you spent your childhood climbing trees and catching frogs, chances are your kids get outside more, too. That’s the takeaway from a survey of 1,000 Tokyo-area families: Parents’ early outdoor adventures seemed to deepen their connection to nature, and that connection was linked to kids spending time outside. So what if you, dear parent, didn’t grow up outdoors? Start a new tradition, and let your kids be the first generation in your family to fall in love with nature. Scientific Reports.

We know time outdoors can sharpen kids’ focus and even improve reading and math scores. But does any patch of green do the trick? WashU researchers dug into data on roughly 12,000 American children to find out. A strip of grass won’t cut it, and exercise didn’t explain the boost. Kids living near tree canopy and parks scored better on attention and achievement tests, and cleaner air seemed to play a role. “People need something to be occupying them a little bit — but not too much,” says the study’s lead author Carina Fowler. “Nature can provide that really well.” The Source.

Is your kid a mud-and-beetles explorer or more of a tidy-garden type? Duke researcher Vanessa Woods noticed that split between her two children, and it sparked a study of 295 kids ages 3 to 13 in North Carolina and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The surprise: Fear and fascination aren’t opposites. Kids who were scared of spiders were just as likely as their fearless peers to welcome butterflies and beetles into their yards. Her advice for parents: “Don’t give up on your kid because they are terrified of one forest creature.” There’s still room for wonder. Duke University.

What’s your earliest memory of a tree? In India, licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Ashwini Tadpatrikar’s university ecopsychology team asked people that very question. For many, trees were childhood companions, places to play and quiet sources of comfort. “Nature was not an activity to be scheduled. It was part of growing up,” she writes. She encourages a fresh take on digital detox: Put the phone away, take a child for a walk among the trees, touch the bark, and notice the breeze, the birdsong and the light through the leaves. Deccan Herald.

In 2012, Richard Louv, author and co-founder of Children & Nature Network wrote about a landmark warning from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): The toxic stress...

This report explores the ways that green early care and education outdoor spaces can produce economic value. These spaces often include stumps, logs, wood mulch, sand, as well as trees and vegetable gardens, in addition to professional development for early educators on how to incorporate natural elements into children’s learning. They can provide many benefits related to children’s development and health, educator job satisfaction, ECE program financial stability, community development and environmental sustainability. These concentric circles of benefits begin with children and ECE providers, and spread into the community.

For Native youth in programs backed by New Mexico’s Outdoor Equity Fund, time outside is about more than visiting a beautiful place. These experiences “can mean connecting with landscapes they know through stories, songs and prayers and learning about places where their ancestors lived and cared for the land,” says Chas Robles of Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps. Since 2019, the fund has awarded about $12.8 million statewide, including to 241 tribal and rural groups. Now applications are up 141% and nearly half go unfunded, so supporters are urging lawmakers to double the fund to $10 million a year. New Mexico In Depth.

Yes, please! A new study pooled 30 systematic reviews and found nature-based activities, from gardening to viewing greenery, eased anxiety and depression, lowered heart rate and boosted relaxation. The effects resemble those of cognitive behavioural therapy, though it’s not a head-to-head test. These results are promising: Low-cost, accessible, nature could help those who haven’t responded to medication, families wary of side effects in kids and anyone facing long waits or high costs. Psychology Today.

Risky play lets kids have thrilling adventures within boundaries — think climbing a tree, paddling a stream or biking fast downhill. In a review of 74 studies, scientists at University of Exeter and University of British Columbia found that kids with more chances for risky play tend to have stronger physical and mental health, social skills and cognitive development. “If we focus only on keeping children safe and remove the opportunity for them to explore risks in their play, we are doing them a disservice,” says Professor Helen Dodd, director of Exeter’s Outdoor Play Research Centre. University of Exeter.

Ask Violet Clinton that question, and she’ll give it to you straight: “They’re important pollinators that people haven’t thought about already.” For seven months, the 16-year-old has been tracking moths in a New York preserve for a school research project. Entomologists call her project “impossibly ambitious,” and her field research won second place against college and graduate students in a Lepidopterists’ Society competition. Read on to learn how it all began at age 7 (spoiler: sidewalk caterpillars!) and her recipe for moth bait (it includes beer that her dad buys for her) The New York Times.

We wrote about One Million Kids Outdoors at its June launch. The Children & Nature Network is one of many partners on the initiative, and we’re really proud to say — huzzah, the initiative has reached 250,000 kids! That’s one-fourth of its summer 2027 goal. “Getting outside can help kids build healthier bodies and feel more confident, and a single outing can be the start of a lifelong love for the outdoors,” says Julia Hurwit of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK). “We’ll keep working to ensure every child has that chance.” Hear, hear! Sierra Club.

As Philadelphia’s nearly 200-year-old Academy of Natural Sciences closes, retired research chemist Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., mourns what’s been lost. In this impassioned essay, she argues that the problem starts in the classroom: Since the 1990s, a biology degree hasn’t required a natural history course, and public school teachers need no formal training in natural sciences. Kids have few guides to the living world — and they spend 5 to 8 hours a day on screens and less than 1 hour daily outdoors. She calls for bringing natural history back, citing the words of author and Children & Nature Network co-founder Richard Louv: “We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see.” The Marietta Times.

“Nature is such an extraordinary environment for us all and, in this tech-driven, digital age, spending quality time outdoors has never been more important,” says Catherine, the Princess of Wales, who has launched a project using nature to support young children’s social and emotional development. Part of her early years campaign, it will explore how nature, creativity and relationships help babies and young children thrive. The princess, who called nature her “sanctuary” during her recovery from cancer, hopes the research will make nature more accessible to families across the U.K. BBC.

Public policy and funding decisions at all levels of government directly impact children’s ability to engage with and learn from nature. Policies and advocacy efforts around the...

In our modern, tech-saturated world, the challenge of "indoor childhood" can feel overwhelming. Children and teens are spending more time on devices and less time engaging with...

“My mom doesn’t let me climb because I bumped my nose once.” In a recent study, researchers from Nottingham Trent University found that when 3- to 5-year-olds steer clear of mud and climbing equipment, it’s often because of messages they hear from adults, like, “Be careful,” or “Watch out.” The researchers helped a preschool rearrange equipment, add aprons for messy play and swap warnings for trust: “What’s your plan for climbing that?” and “I’m here if you need me.” Within weeks of the changes, kids were more confident and more likely to engage in risky, multi-sensory nature play. Phys.org.