The Elder Statesman

Last Child in the Woods
Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder
By Richard Louv
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Quality Paperback $14.95

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

"Last Child in the Woods," is an updated and expanded version of Richard Louv’s national bestseller first published in hardback in 2005, a book Louv said was instigated by his ten-year-old son, Matthew who questioned him quite seriously one day, "how come it was more fun when you were a kid?"

Louv said he was puzzled by the question and asked Matthew what he meant. "Well, you’re always talking about your woods and tree houses and how you used to ride that horse down near the swamp."

Louv admits that like most parents he tended to romanticize his own childhood, but Matthew insisted that he didn’t have as much fun as Louv described in his own growing up years. Louv had to agree that today’s child is not afforded the freedom to play and explore the surroundings as he was able to do.

"Nobody in the 1950s talked about acid rain or holes in the ozone or global warming," Louv said, "but I knew my woods … I knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt paths." He said children today can tell you more about the Amazon rain forest than about the last time he or she explored the woods, listened to the wind or lay on their backs watching the clouds move.

The reason for that is manifested by our society that is teaching young people to avoid direct experience with nature and that theory is even codified into the legal and regulatory structure of our communities.

Children choosing a vacant lot for a sandlot baseball game today would be arrested for trespassing. Society has literally stolen their childhood not only through television and virtual reality electronic games, but also by overregulating their environment.

Louv said the book is not only about the end of unregulated frontier life, but it is also about a new frontier — "a better way to live with nature." At the end of this new, revised edition, Louv lists 100 actions that can be taken to see that this is not the "Last Child in the Woods."

In some ways the book is idealistic, even for a rural environment like Douglas County where we live on the edge of the woods, but still live in a world where signs prevent even the removal of a smooth stone beside the river, which incidentally is among the suggestions Louv uses to restore sanity to the joy of childhood. Rock collecting without a permit just might place a child in juvenile hall.

Most of the book is reminiscing about the author’s own childhood joys of building tree forts and in detailing the memories of others who grew up living in a freer world.

Louv is the author of seven books and is chairman of the Children and Nature Network. Louv won the 2008 Audubon Medal for his environmental work.

When his hardbound book was published, it created a national conversation about the disconnection between children and nature and began an international back-to-nature campaign. Now, three years after that publication initiatives have been adopted in 40 regions within 27 states and also in Canada, Holland, Australia and Great Britain.

For more information about how the reader can get involved, contact the Children and Nature Network at http://www.cnaturenet.org.

Interestingly, the paperback edition was released to the public on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, and is now available for sale.

In the book, Louv cites numerous positive advances toward changing an overregulated society into a friendly environment for children of the 21st century, including projects in Oregon where even large cities like Portland are creating natural areas, greenways and trails for both wildlife and people to enjoy. "A 1997 study by Portland State University," Louv writes, "identified a third of downtown Portland’s roofs could be converted to greenroof designs."

The author even quotes the Catholic bishops of the Pacific Northwest declaring the Columbia River watershed as a "sacred commons…a revelation of God’s presence…(that) requires us to enter into a gradual process of conversion and change."

What parent today hasn’t heard a child say "I’m bored," a word nonexistent in earlier times according to Patricia Meyer Spacks, a professor at the University of Virginia, whom Louv quotes as saying the word boredom came into the existence with the invention of labor-saving machinery that took away the drudgery of life, but left a void that the younger generation now fills at video arcades and with horror movies.

Louv wholeheartedly endorses ending boredom by reintroducing the child to nature. He urges leaders to involve young people in endeavors to restore the wonder of nature remembering the ancient Chinese proverb:

"Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand."

To Louv the driving force behind his work is that "the children and nature movement is fueled by this fundamental idea: the child in nature is an endangered species and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable."

(Bill Duncan can be contacted at bduncan@newsreview.info or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470)

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