Richard Louv Speaker Series

This is an article written by Suz Lipman, Social Media Director of the Children & Nature Network. We just reserved our tickets for the Seattle talk on May 12th. We are so excited! Richard Louv will be coming to Denver on June 7th & 8th. Click here to see if he is coming to your city.

Richard Louv will be appearing across the U.S. and Canada this spring in a series of book release events and presentations. Many of these local appearances are free and open to the public, providing an excellent opportunity to introduce community members and potential partners to the goals and vision of the children and nature movement.

In his bestselling book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv helped launch a vital dialog that spawned an international movement to reconnect children and nature. In his new book, The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder, Louv delivers another powerful call to action—this time for adults. He will be speaking about the book in various cities.

What do adults have to do with the children and nature movement? Plenty. While time in nature helps people of all ages vastly improve our physical, psychological and spiritual health, children cannot make the nature connection without the help of the adults in their lives. In addition, Louv suggests, it will take people of all ages, working together, to shift the cultural norms that apply to all of us, to address and restore the fundamental human need for nature that he describes in his book, calling on much current research to underscore his case.

The more high-tech our lives become, Louv writes, the more nature we need. The Nature Principle lays out a scenario that integrates nature into every aspect of our lives, from homes and family life to offices, urban planning and recreational spaces.

You can hear Richard Louv speak about The Nature Principle in the following cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Vancouver, Toronto and Saskatoon. More information is available about Richard Louv’s appearances. Not on one of the tour stops? You’ll be able to join him for live chats on Twitter, dates to be announced.

For more information about some of the concepts in The Nature Principle and how they apply to the children and nature movement, please see A Conversation with Richard Louv.

Explore Responsibly...Kate & Tracy

GPS Units determine geological effects of Chilean earthquake

In an interesting merge of nature and technology researchers from Ohio State were able to determine the geological effects of the February 27th earthquake in Chile using GPS units.

GPS measurements before and after the earthquake revealed that the town of Conception, the epicenter, moved nearly 10 ft to the west, while the larger city of Santiago moved over a foot.

For more information, please refer to this article: Chilean Earthquake

Historically used for scientific purposes, GPS units are a hot topic in the outdoor recreation world, with the increasing number of people worldwide participating in the activity of geocaching - similar to a treasure hunt - by which participants find caches based on GPS coordinates. Sometimes these caches are man-made, sometimes they are nature-based (a beautiful waterfall for example).

Thousands of caches are found in cities worldwide; an interesting (and peripheral) effect of a natural event like an earthquake, would be the shifting of these published geocaching coordinates.

For more information about geocaching, visit: http://www.geocaching.com/

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics recently began publishing educational materials that promote responsible enjoyment of this activity. For more information, please contact us.

Great American Backyard Campout

Over the weekend, we took part in the Great American Backyard Campout on Whidbey Island in Washington. The campout, a national program put on by the National Wildlife Federation, provides an opportunity for everyone to relive-or to experience for the first time-how much fun it is to spend a night sleeping under the stars and enjoying the sounds of nature. Campers at Whidbey Island were part of over 40,000 campers nation wide that decided to "unplug" for the night and get outside with the family.

Campers were offered a variety of activities over the weekend, including dutch oven cooking demonstrations by Northwest Dutch Oven Cooking Society, campfire activities, star gazing, surf fishing, gps & geocaching, archery, and, of course, Leave No Trace activities. We presented workshops for adults and children, focusing on ways the campers can leave no trace while camping out this summer. We had a lot of fun working with the navy families. Campouts are a great way to connect to nature, especially for children! So take the time this summer to get outside and spend a night under the stars- you won't regret it! A special thanks to Dave Meyers for all his hard work in setting up the campout! We are looking forward to working with Dave again later this week at a trainer course, also held on Whidbey Island!

Safe travels and happy camping...Kate and Tracy