NATURAL VERSUS VIRTUAL: Records show that Americans are spending less and less time in the great outdoors.
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Americans have been visiting national parks and other natural reserves less and less since 1987, new research confirms. Outdoor pursuits, ranging from camping to hunting, have entered a persistent and growing decline.
"Folks are going out into nature much less and decreasingly every year," says conservation ecologist Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental Leadership Program and co-author of the report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. "It would take 80 million more visits this year to get the per capita number back up to the level it was in 1987."
Zaradic and her colleague conservation biologist Oliver Pergams of the University of Illinois at Chicago analyzed trends in visits to national parks and forests, state parks, surveys on camping and the number of licenses for activities such as hunting or fishing. All peaked between 1981 and 1991 after 50 years of steady increase and have been declining at roughly 1 percent per year since for an overall drop of as much as 25 percent.
Even a slight increase in the frequency of hiking and backpacking trips did nothing to offset the overall decline. "The average American backpacked once every 12.5 years in the past and [is] now backpacking once every 10 years," Zaradic notes. Similar data on park visits in Japan and Spain showed the same trend. "It looks like, clearly from the Japan data, that this may be an international problem," she says.
The conservationists believe that the electronic world has supplanted the natural world as the leading diversion. Their statistical analysis shows that the increase in video games, movie rentals and other electronic entertainment most closely matches the decrease in camping and park visits, as opposed to income, vacation time, park overcrowding, foreign travel or other potential causes.
But Richard Louv, chairman of the Santa Fe, N.Mex.–based Children and Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods, ascribes the change more to increasing school and work pressure on children and parents as well as the rising cost of park visits. Plus, he says, there's the fear factor. "You didn't have the concept of stranger danger [in the past]," Louv says. "If you are raising a generation under protective house arrest, will they have a joyful experience in nature?"
Without such an experience, Louv, Pergams and Zaradic agree that the value of nature might be lost on such children and adults. "If we aren't out in nature, we aren't aware of our human footprint in nature. Then it takes natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina to recognize global warming," Zaradic says. "You don't see the subtle signs, you have to wait for something to hit us over the head."
Pergams and Zaradic plan to tackle the fear issue next. "If fear is a factor, what kinds of fear?" Pergams asks. "Fear of the unknown, fear of animals, fear of getting lost, fear of crime, fear of disease, all kinds of different fears that might come into play and to what extent they might play into the decline." In addition, they hope to compare the results of children's exposure to "virtual" nature online or on television with the real thing.
The solution may be as simple as getting kids into the woods or other natural areas in the company of parents, grandparents or other relatives. "This isn't a bitter pill," Louv says. "In order to give kids some semblance of unorganized activity in nature, we're probably going to have to organize a lot of it. It's a paradox we'll have to deal with with a sense of humor."
Biologist Edward O. Wilson argues that humans are hardwired for biophilia, or a love of wild plants and animals, and that putting them back in touch with the environment could resurrect that feeling. "We undervalue the playing in the mud kind of experience," Zaradic says. "Which, it turns out, provides a lot of education."
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18 Comments
Add CommentJoin the Boy Scouts; we go camping once a month and teaching conservation and respect for nature is a big part of what we do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of the biggest problems is the cost. It is the US Forest Service policy to sell or rent the forests to guides, outfitters, and concessionaires, frequently to the detriment of private citizens. Until that trend stop, there will be a continued decline in use.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIts the fear factor. American parents are afraid of letting their kids play in the yard, bicycle to school, hike in the woods. Totally irrational, but unfortunately true.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is ironic that a lot of SUV commercials feature great nature trips while the numbers of actual backpackers is decreasing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(a) I thought most Internet time came at the expense of TV viewing or maybe socializing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(b) Whenever I've been to a national park, it's packed with people. Yosemite requires you to make advance reservations.
(c) For me, a big factor has been suburban sprawl. It used to be I could hike in the woods near my house. Now, there barely are any woods near my house.
George
It's definitely true that park costs have gone up while park utility (both in terms of upkeep and crowding) has gone down, as Louv notes in the story. But the surveys and license numbers show that Americans just aren't camping or fishing or otherwise engaging with nature at the same rate anymore. That can't all be because the parks suck, especially since a lot of that used to happen on private land.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInterestingly, what has gone up is the amount of so-called "window camping." Folks who visit a national park but never leave the comfort of their vehicle. That's not exactly engaging with your natural surroundings.
Finally, suburban sprawl is tricky. On the one hand, it eats up nature, destroying woods as my colleague George notes. On the other hand, it can provide children with a backyard that, while not exactly a wilderness, can still deliver that playing in the mud experience.
I think, anecdotally speaking, that it is the fear factor. Parents are afraid that their children will be kidnapped from the front yard or that they'll contract some dread disease from playing in the sandbox.
The solution is education, but it is awfully difficult to conquer an irrational fear with rationality. Witness the ongoing fear of flying as compared to the blithe bypassing of the dangers of driving.
What's the Boy/Girl Scouts membership these days? When I was growing up, nearly everyone I knew was a Scout, but few of the kids I know today are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGeorge
Having grown up in a family with a summer cottage on a lake, and next to fields and forests, I not only have anecdotal evidence, but first-hand anecdotes! 1. No one swims in lakes. Fear of icky things? Overexposure to chlorinated pools? But they do jet-ski, alot. Hmm 2. No one walks anymore. Oh, they jog, or run or power-something. 3. No one rides a bike. They "bike" with weird spandexy stuff. In a hurry, in a line. Or with beefy mountain conquering gear 4. Where did all the tree forts go? Well 4 was a throw in. It feels like everything folks do today is regimented, like everyone is training for some extreme sport competition, or gas-powered, and on the clock. Who wants to share a quiet trail with this pack of sour fizogs? So I say fear of multiple forms; time, bugs, and failure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes. We are. I love the outdoors myself. More for me. But I worry about the public deciding to put a Hyatt on Half Dome. I've been scared in the outdoors though. Seeing a lion up close that was pretty clearly thinking about me as dinner did it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have always felt that the magnitude of mans' discontent is directly proportional to his distance from Mother Nature. Embedded in this discontent is a fear not mentioned here - silence. The phenomenal success of hyper-communication(computers, cell phones, instant video, etc...) is indicative of mans' fear of silence. Peace and quiet is the solstice for the soul. Mother Nature provides this solstice free of charge - if man would just shut-up and listen!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlenty of reasons to fear nature but none as great as simply crossing the street (a car or truck is far more likely to kill you than any animal). Still, it taps into something more primal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe real question is: can we love nature without experiencing it? Richard Louv made an interesting argument to me, saying that environmentalism had shifted from the heart to the head because the younger generations simply do not have the experience to love nature. Hence you get people carrying conservation around as part of their briefcase rather than a particular patch of forest in their souls. That will certainly change the reality of conservation and environmentalism in this country.
i am a foreign national and i'm in the us since 2002.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisus national parks are beautiful, but the continuous warnings (particularly in the west) concerning bears are a bit paranoiac. after the 2nd or 3rd warning my wife asks me to go back. In our first house we had a warning on windows (we lived at the ground floor) saying that coming to close to a window could result in death.
Nobody puts this kind of warnings on an interstate, where the probability of passing away is far more concrete than being killed by a bear or from falling out of a window -- at the ground floor
Could part of the problem be the increase cost of national parks? With the increasing gap between the have's and have not's it is no wonder why more adults (and therefore kids) are not getting outdoors to enjoy nature and learn in a meaningful setting. The outdoors has become a huge business, that a majority of people cannot afford to participate in. Yes, we can still walk outside, down to the local park but is that even true wilderness? We need to educate kids more about the outdoors by getting them outdoors via school programs, local community programs, and with their parents. Society needs to go back to their 'roots' and make connections with these special places.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGeorge, yes its true, membership in Scouting is declining. Just like other outdoor activities, its hard for us to compete against the allure of videogames, TV and the Internet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStill, I think Scouting is one way we can teach respect for nature and an appreciation for the environment in more than a theoretical way.
Its great to read about nature in school or watch it on TV, but there's no substitute for actually getting out in it and camping under the stars!
This could be happening because of the "GRAYING" of the population. As the Baby boomer generation ages they are less likely to be going and doing camping and hiking. They are the children that were raised by people that were very in touch with nature and outdoors. At least my parents were. The boomer children are being drawn to techonology that was not there for thier parents. I feel sad as some of my fondest memories are camping and going out in a boat with my parents. I still kayak but do not camp as sleeping on the ground is just to hard. Do not let the wilderness fade.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShows we're getting sensible. Nature is full of ugly bitey things that want to eat you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are also greater legal and economic constraints on taking school groups on literal "field trips." Fewer and fewer university courses have outdoor laboratory components.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKids usually lack the means, transportation in particular, to get out in nature. They may also lack role models who are nature lovers. ADULTS are the key! If adults will show the interest, take the time (a scarce commodity in some families), and provide the transportation, kids will develop a love of nature. Urban parks, nature centers, and museums can get young interests started. But there is no substitute for frequent tramping around in the woods, walking the shoreline of a lake or ocean, or examining rock outcrops and roadcuts in person. Next time you are looking for a family outting or vacation, skip the theme parks and visit your state and national parks and forests. Pack a lunch. Buy or borrow nature guides from the library and take them along. Identiy the leaves/trees, birds, flowers, rocks, shells, and critters that you encounter. Get a little dirty and have a load of fun for not much money! Nature just keeps getting better every time you and your kids get out there!
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