One Cure for Nature Deficit Disorder:     
Leave No Child Inside                           

Lauren holds the first watermelon of the season

Smack dab in the middle of the country is the Arbor Day Foundation in Nebraska City, complete with a fabulous lodge and extensive grounds 
where people who care about kids and nature can explore what’s next on
the horizon. The eco-friendly playgrounds here are designed to bring
out the creativity inherent in children, and there’s not a monkey bar in sight.

Tree houses and marimbas are part of one naturally designed play area that cost one-third of the typical $100,000 playground, and the children
I observed there were happy to discover amazing things without asphalt separating them from the earth. The butterflies and worms and frogs were part of the fun! At the close of the second annual conference on Sept. 19, Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods” and founder of Children & Nature Network, announced that a bill to “Leave No Child Inside” had been passed in the US House of Representatives. Cheers erupted from the educators, parks and wildlife experts, health experts, parents and community organizers, all of whom had gathered together at the site where the first Arbor Day inspired the planting of one million trees in Nebraska on April 22, 1885.

The national movement envisioned by so many in the room was beginning to take shape with the support of policies and people who care about what Richard Louv describes as a human right: for all children to have access to nature and the amazing discoveries that await outdoors.

Lynn Hinkle with author Richard Louv and friend