Nature Is One Of The Best Antidotes

We Have Such A Brief Opportunity To Pass On To Our Children Our Love For This Earth, And To Tell Our Stories. These Are The Moments When The World Is Made Whole. In My Children's Memories, The Adventures We've Had Together In Nature Will Always Exist.

The Dugout In The Weeds Or Leaves Beneath A Backyard Willow, The Rivulet Of A Seasonal Creek, Even The Ditch Between The Front Yard And The Road-all Of These Places Are Entire Universes To A Young Child.

What Happens When All The Parts Of Childhood Are Soldered Down, When The Young No Longer Have The Time Or Space To Play In Their Family's Garden, Cycle Home In The Dark With The Stars And Moon Illuminating Their Route, Walk Down Through The Woods To The River, Lie On Their Backs On Hot July Days In The Long Grass, Or Watch Cockleburs, Lit By Morning Sun, Like Bumblees Quivering On Harp Wires? What Then?

In Every Bio-region, One Of The Most Urgent Tasks Is To Rebuild The Community Of Naturalists - So Radically Depleted In Recent Years, As Young People Have Spent Less Time In Nature, And Higher Education Has Placed Less Value On Such Disciplines As Zoology……the Times Are Right For The Return Of The Amateur, Twenty-first-century, Citizen Naturalist. To Be A Citizen Naturalist Is To Take Personal Action, To Both Protect And Participate In Nature.

Now, My Tree-climbing Days Long Behind Me, I Often Think About The Lasting Value Of Those Early, Deliciously Idle Days. I Have Come To Appreciate The Long View Afforded By Those Treetops. The Woods Were My Ritalin. Nature Calmed Me, Focused Me, And Yet Excited My Senses.