Teddy Project

My friend Jonathan, the refuge manager at Canaan Valley NWR, has been working diligently on an initiative he cooked up called the Teddy Project.

WV Public Broadcasting features the Teddy Project in a recent radio broadcast.


The Teddy Project is a partnership between FWS and the Arts Institutes, where student animators partner with a National Wildlife Refuge to create a short video featuring a cartoon Teddy Roosevelt and his friend Puddles. Dozens of these cartoons have been produced thus far, bringing arts students and viewers closer to the NWR system and Conservation.

Power of Words

Got an email from Rich Louv today--seems that the Oxford Junior Dictionary is eliminating a number of words for its next edition.

It all might seem a losing battle. But Mr. Bateman was nevertheless on his soapbox this week after revelations that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has replaced "beaver" - and friends such as the "heron," "porcupine," and "kingfisher" - in its pages with new, plugged-in alternatives.

More here.

This can't stand. Watch for more news on this at the Children and Nature Network.

Games

Saw this last week in the NY Times Magazine. Check out the faces of kids playing video games.

Perhaps a follow up would be their faces doing something cool outdoors. I remember having some intense expressions when faced with a ten foot wave on the Kennebec, or stepping up on that dime-sized nubbin in the Gunks. You get the idea.

Dirtbag

Check out the Dirtbag Diaries. This time--No Car, No Problem.

Kid Quiz

Have kids?

Take the quiz.

Critter Cam in CT

We used to love to catch snapping turles when I worked at Camp Tadma. Today the Hartford Courant reports on a new cam project, working with a common snapping turtle.

Tuesday, snapping turtles joined the list as "Jawless" — after being weighed and measured by a team of researchers who are studying the animal's eating, mating and nesting habits — was outfitted with the cylindrical camera glued to his shell and sent back into the cove. Once the glue wears off, the camera is supposed to float to the surface, where researchers track it down with ultrasonic signalers and radio transmitters.

"As soon as you let the animal go is when I start getting nervous," said Kyler Abernathy, director of resources for National Geographic's mission programs. "When they're out of your hands they're out of your control."

Green Noise?

Are we being overwhelmed by conflicting data? Can we figure out which green action is really green? Read.

An environmentally conscientious consumer is left to wonder: are low-energy compact fluorescent bulbs better than standard incandescents, even if they contain traces of mercury? Which salad is more earth-friendly, the one made with organic mixed greens trucked from thousands of miles away, or the one with lettuce raised on nearby industrial farms? Should they support nuclear power as a clean alternative to coal?

New FWS TV Advertisement

Was in the gym today and the TV was on the show "The View" Never seen it before, but I know how popular it is. During the program, and advertisement came on with some great children and nature message, and in the end messages about opportunities on the National Wildlife Refuge System. Don't have a link right now, but kudos to the Fish and Wildlife Service for producing such a timely and well done ad. Showing it on the view certainly gets it a lot of impressions.

News Round-Up

Lot's of news on this Memorial Day.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

"You can walk up stairs and count them or collect leaves," said Stipek. "There's no excuse for not spending a lot of time outside in California, and some kids are over-structured. But a lot of kids have too little structure, and they don't have anything to do after school."

Bird's Tender Tracks preschool is totally outdoors: Parents drop off their children at a Palo Alto park with lunch and a change of clothes. The kids then pile into Bird's rumbling white van for adventures. The parents who sign up tend to be outdoorsy types themselves.

"When I was a kid, we ran in a pack. There were about 16 of us, and we played games like hide-and-seek and found turtles and frogs in the creek," said Natalie Simison, who grew up in Palo Alto.

the Toledo Blade:

But we need to find a way to transfer that same youthful passion to the great outdoors. It's depressing to think that our national and state parks are increasingly becoming places for old people to go, while many of those same folks of a certain age are intimidated by the crush of young humanity at the shopping malls.

and Blue Ridge Now, from North Carolina.

Such lessons are central to Muddy Sneakers, which takes local students out of the classroom and into the great outdoors. The program's goal: Helping children combat "nature deficit disorder."

A Year in Two Minutes

I used to go to Jackson Hole three times a year. There's no place else like it.

Here's a link to a great video showing a year in Jackson Hole, in two minutes time.

Let's Be Careful Out There

Could the changes in society caused by higher gasoline, a less than optimal reputation in the world, and a budding realization that the mass media controls us in irrational ways actually be having an impact on our behavior, this time for the good?

Check out this blog, Free Range Kids, that actually asks:

Do you ever.....let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk alone to school? Take a bus, solo? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free Range Kid! At Free Range, we believe in safe kids. We believe in helmets, car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school age children go outside, they need a security detail.

More on this from the Christian Science Monitor.

Free Range Kids is a great resource for those who are tired of the daily drumbeat from both local TV news and cable news that will jump on a stranger danger story every time there's an opportunity. As the blog points out, your kid is 40 times more likely to be killed in a car accident than be abducted...

We recently let our 15 year old fly to a friends home down the east coast alone. It was tough, but the right thing to do, and everything was fine.

Three cheers for Free Range Kids.

Oil and an Adaptation

I've always enjoyed Vanity Fair. Here are two article links from this great magazine.

First, a piece from 2004 about two kids who make their own version of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

When 10-year-old Chris Strompolos and 11-year-old Eric Zala decided to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark, shot for shot, in the summer of 1982, they never imagined it would take 7 years—and emerge, two decades later, as a minor cult phenomenon. A tale of love, obsession, and pissed-off moms.

Then Robert Kennedy's latest on the future of oil and his vision for the future.

The United States has far greater domestic energy resources than Iceland or Sweden does. We sit atop the second-largest geothermal resources in the world. The American Midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind; indeed, North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas alone produce enough harnessable wind to meet all of the nation’s electricity demand. As for solar, according to a study in Scientific American, photovoltaic and solar-thermal installations across just 19 percent of the most barren desert land in the Southwest could supply nearly all of our nation’s electricity needs without any rooftop installation, even assuming every American owned a plug-in hybrid.

Films

I'm on the selection Committee of the American Conservation Film Festival. Each year we view lots of films, some great, some not so great. We're always looking for new films that look at our relationship with nature. Last festival, that film was Summercamp! This year, we haven't found it yet, although I read about this in production film, Play Again, with interest.

Do your children play outside? Do they know where to watch ants on the march or find a good climbing tree? Or are they inside, parked in front of a screen? Most important, what's in store for kids -- and society -- when children are cut off from nature?

These are urgent questions for two Portland moms, Tonje Hessen Schei of Sunnyside and Meg Merrill of Multnomah Village, who are making a documentary, "Play Again," that explores a culture in which the average child recognizes more than 100 corporate logos but can't name 10 plants.

News Roundup

Our house fire has left half the house without electricity, including my office, so internet access is possible only with a long extension cord.

Here's some recent news:

Endangered hunters in Florida.

“You think kids today want to get up at 4 a.m. to sit around and swat away mosquitoes and wait for something they’re not even guaranteed to catch?” he asked. “Nope, not when there’s a TV right at home.”

The Movement is covered in Iran!

Rich Louv blogs on Huffington Post.

1. Go for a family walk when the moon is full. There's a whole new set of animals, sights and sounds out there. Listen to animals calling. Owls and bats are looking for prey. Watch for things glowing, like worms and fungus on trees. And look up at the stars.

Junior Rangers in Hawaii.

The Haleakala park announcement said eligible children can apply to be Jr. Rangers if they enter the park on Saturday before 1 p.m. The program for children takes about two hours to complete. Children who are already members and their families can enter free by displaying their Jr. Ranger badges.

KidsPost

Natural thinking from Sunday's Washington Post.

So, you have to make time. Turn off the computer. Put down the Wii remote. Set aside the homework for a bit (it will still be there later) and head outside.

Friday Night

Being connected to nature does not mean you can't sit back and watch a movie on Friday night. Rick at The Thought Kitchen has a fun post on ski movies you might want to watch before it gets too hot out.

Where Do Children Play ?

If you're around Detroit, check out this documentary on April 15 on Detroit Public TV.

The hourlong Michigan Television production, airing at 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 15 (repeated at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 16), on WTVS/Channel 56 is a must-see for parents or anyone who cares about kids, a compelling, serious look at a normally carefree subject. Interspersing lovingly photographed footage of youngsters exploring their natural surroundings of woods and waters with opinions of experts from as far away as Great Britain (all seemingly shot outside; nice touch), Where Do the Children Play? makes a convincing case that free play in the outdoors, a function essential for normal childhood development and taken for granted by the postwar generation, has given way to video games, Facebook pages and fear of the world beyond the front gate.

More Good Opinions

From Tennessee, check this out.

It’s a hard sell at a time when television news features endless reasons for alarm – abductions, sexual predators and freak accidents (like children falling in wells or being attacked by bears) among them. We all need to unplug, for the sake of our children.
In his book, Louv sings the praises of allowing one’s offspring to roam the neighborhood alone. Nice concept, but often impractical. We live on a busy city street, not a suburban cul-de-sac. Scheduling dates with nature seems to be the next best solution.

New Edition

The Olympian has a brief on the new edition of Last Child in the Woods.

1. Yoo-hoo, butterflies: Bring a swarm of butterflies to your yard by planting lantana, black-eyed Susans or purple cornflowers. Migrating species need flowering plants even through November.

Be sure to check out the review on digital photography in the outdoors at that link too.

Subliminal Disney?

Interesting article in the Times Online from London on the role Walt Disney and his films played in shaping our 20th century attitudes on nature.

The stories of animated Disney characters, from Snow White in 1937 to the clownfish Nemo in 2003, have built “a critical awareness of contested environmental issues”, according to David Whitley, a lecturer in English.

While Disney movies are often regarded as little more than escapism, and have even been criticised as bland populism, many feature messages about conservation and the relationship between people and the natural world that have proved to be highly influential, Dr Whitley said.

Treehugger has the link and explains further.