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Children in Nature

LKRLT Receives Grant to get Kids out on the Land

The Lower Kennebec Regional Land Trust recently received funding from The Merrymeeting Bay Trust for a series of events ranging from book discussions, lectures, picnics, fairy house building and treasure hunts aimed at getting children of the Lower Kennebec Region outside to play.

Volunteers from Morse High School at Thorne Head

A recent study found that children spend an average of 6 hours each day in front of the computer and TV, but less than 4 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play, leading researchers to discover a new condition specific to this generation that they have called “nature deficit disorder”. The American Medical Association reports that unstructured free play in the out-of-doors brings a host of benefits to children—from being smarter to more cooperative to healthier overall.

In cooperation with the Bath school district, The Patten Free Library and local book stores the Lower Kennebec Regional Land Trust will promote Richard Louv’s popular book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, in which he describes the growing gap between young people and nature.

Louv says, “For years, educators, conservationists, health care professionals and parents have worried about the implications and dangers of the growing gap between the young and the natural world. This issue has an almost primal power to bring people together, people who may not agree on very much – people who then begin to think about health care, education, the design of our neighborhoods and cities, in new ways.”

Last Child in the Woods will be promoted and available for increased circulation through the library in late spring. Outdoor activities are scheduled for early summer on publicly accessible lands owned and managed by the Lower Kennebec Regional Land Trust.