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More evidence for KEEP's central philosophy: Kids' time in nature vital
| Saturday, Feb 16 2008 7:10 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Feb 16 2008 7:12 PM
It was our last day at Montana De Oro State Park, the end of my week helping herd 11- and 12-year-olds up mountain trails, down narrow creekside paths and across the saltwater-etched cobblestone of coastal tide pools.
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Asher Weitzen, a naturalist who'd been leading rowdy queues of boys like this for five days, huddled the group atop a windy sand dune overlooking the Pacific and tried to tie it all together.
He told them he hoped they would all remember that week at Camp KEEP Ocean. He said he wished, as they grew up, they'd occasionally be reminded of this place and their experiences here.
Until that moment atop the dunes, the experience had ostensibly been mostly about natural-science education and hands-on exposure to the assorted critters and plant life sixth-graders might not otherwise recognize or appreciate. (To a lesser degree, it was also about prodigious volumes of bunk-bed flatulence in the boys' cabins, but that's another story.)
Weitzen was trying to take it to another level: He was introducing the concept of stewardship. These were the kids who would grow into the adults who in the decades ahead would be caring for public lands, including state parks, with their tax dollars, their ballot-box muscle, their advocacy, their presence.
Or not, as the case may be.
At about the same time Weitzen was trying to make some sort of cognitive imprint on his charges, the Nature Conservancy was releasing a study that fleshed out some of his implied points.
Americans are spending so much time sitting in front of their TVs and computers, and so little time outdoors, they threaten future efforts at conservation, as well as their own well-being.
Studying data over several decades, the researchers concluded that fewer Americans are visiting state parks, a trend that's particularly troubling in view of kids' ever-deepening immersion into video games and other electronic diversions. Because there could well be a connection.
"The time children spend in nature -- particularly the activities we looked at in this study (such as hiking and camping) -- determines their environmental awareness as adults," said the study's authors, Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic, in an interview posted on nature.org.
Pergams, a conservation biologist, believes that the beginning of the drop in outdoor activities coincides with an early-'80s spike in video game sales.
The folks who run Camp KEEP sense the connection. They don't ban all forms of electronic entertainment, including cell phones, simply because those things are huge distractions. It's because those things detract from the overall message: Stop and really listen to what's out here.
But they haven't been getting much help of late. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the same guy who last year signed the California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights (which among other things stipulates every child's right to "camp under the stars" and "follow a trail"), has proposed closing 48 state parks, including Montana de Oro, as part of an effort to shrink the state's budget shortfall.
Ken Taylor of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, which runs Camp KEEP Ocean and its sister campus in nearby Cambria, came away from a recent meeting with State Parks officials newly hopeful that most or all of California's 278 state parks will survive. Even if some parks close, however, he's confident that Montana De Oro -- home of KEEP Ocean -- will make the cut.
In fact, the two parties are discussing a new, long-term lease. At least one capital project -- replacement of the dome that represents the hub of camp activity -- is also on the table. Good to know.
Thanks to KEEP, a sizable number of Kern County school kids are getting the opportunity to see what's outside of their insulated world. That's an important tool in fighting what children's advocate Richard Louv calls "nature deficit disorder." Louv contends that a wide range of behavioral problems, such as attention deficit disorder, are directly attributable to kids' diminishing time outdoors.
But, generally speaking, kids get back to nature only if adults are willing to take them there.
I can vouch for the fact that, flatulent haze aside, KEEP's version of nature is worthwhile. Kids who go tend to agree.
One 12-year-old (mine), working on a class assignment about camp, noted these new discoveries: "I learned that I can go a whole week without playing video games ... that the wilderness is very fun ... (and) that naturalists have very cool jobs."
You want some hope? There it is.
Robert Price's column archive: www.bakersfield.com/110/index.html. Reach him at rprice@bakersfield.com or 395-7399.