If we look back to our earliest beginnings, we lived in the open among predators larger and stronger than ourselves. We moved to caves and survived by using our wits and the more we used them the more knowledge we accumulated and the smarter we became. We joined forces, hunted and gathered in small bands , made fires, cooked our food and continued to learn more about our surroundings as we moved over the earth. Over time we built villages, but they were still surrounded by farms and land. Then we became industrialized and in countries like ours, change was rapid. Our cities expanded consuming the surrounding open space. Then we moved to the cities and sealed ourselves up to enjoy the luxury of controlled temperatures in our homes and cars. No more open windows, no screen doors, no sounds from the outside such as kids playing, breezes stirring leaves or bird song. The sights and sounds are inside; the television, probably someone’s radio is on and at least one or two people are checking their phones.
And then there is fear. Fear not of four legged animals as much, but of two legged animals like ourselves. Back in the early days of our tribe, fear is what kept us from being dragged into the lion’s den. We had to learn from a young age to take care of ourselves. These days the trend is that people marry later than they used to by ten years or more. When their first child is 5 years old, they are usually at least 25 years older and more removed from their younger “no fear” days of childhood. And it would seem understandable that these older, more educated adults would be more involved in protecting and regulating the lives of their children as opposed to allowing them some unstructured time on their own.
According to the people who do research in this area, especially as it relates to parental responsibilities and to the design of our public schools, we have drifted too far into the protection of children, thereby isolating kids from nature. This disconnect can have a significant effect on children’s’ physical and mental development. Issues such as obesity, ability to solve problems, deal with controversy, and to be future advocates of conservation. Margaret Stead, writing in The Guardian on this subject said, “Even here in the UK, a much less litigious society than America, ‘health and safety’ seems to have become a bar to everything from climbing trees to running in the playground”.
All this information caused us to think about what is happening with children as they experience more time in front of the television, computer or phone screen. The latest figures are that children spend about 8 hours per day in front of a video screen of one sort or another and only 30-40 minutes spent outside. So, that’s where we left the topic a year ago. Our thinking at the time led nowhere as we found the subject too amorphous and complex so we put it aside, but our awareness of the environment for child development never left us. Although we had shoved this subject to the background our newfound awareness made us watchers of kids. Whenever we watch children doing what kids do now, we naturally compare what we see to our own experience. We as youngsters did not have this disconnect from nature as we were immersed in nature to the extent that most of our free time was spent outdoors and without adult supervision. We never realized the value of connecting with nature at the time, but we do now in hindsight.
Then Michelle Ferley’s essay came across our desk, and we dug out our old notes. Looking back through our journals, we find two stories of children who are connected to nature. One comes from a second grader in Wimberley who responded to our questions about recess at school. Recess is an important subject because some schools in urban settings have eliminated recess replacing it with such activities as testing. Well, this second grader found her recess activities challenging. In response to our questions, she said that her recess play “was outdoors” and that the teacher was not present. Asking her about play she described several games she and her classmates invented and set their own rules for winning. They did all this by negotiating with each other. Then, as another example, at an antique car gathering in Martindale, we watched a little girl playing with a toy truck on the asphalt pavement, putting stones into the dump truck box. Unworried about playing on the gritty parking lot she was totally engrossed, as you can see, filling and dumping the truck with tiny pebbles; entertaining herself.
Figure 1 Child at car show in Martindale
We commented about her creativity to her parents who were not far away. They responded by saying, “Oh yes, whenever we say we are going to a car show, she gets her gravel truck or cars and is ready to go”. These two girls were totally unlike the little girl we saw in a third situation, in the local T-Mobile store. She was fidgeting until her mother gave her a cell phone to watch. She was totally engrossed in the animated characters, but none of the entertainment was of her own making. As Richard Louv reported in his book, Last Child in the Woods (2008), evidence supporting nature-based, place-based education or experiential learning (as this approach is variously called) has been building for decades. Louv has also written several other books on the importance of humans maintaining their connection to nature, his latest being Our Wild Calling (2019).
Figure 2 Richard Louv's latest book on nature
Louv is the Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network, an organization supporting the international movement to connect children, their families and their communities to the natural world. As we pulled out the handouts we had been given at Ryan’s talk, we noticed that they were all from the Children & Nature Network with titles like Green Schoolyards can (a) Provide Mental Health Benefits, (b) Increase Physical Activity, (c) Improve Academic Outcome and (d)Encourage Beneficial Play. Interested in finding out if any of these four concepts were being used in the San Marcos schools, we turned to Google. Nothing was found relating to San Marcos, but there were two interesting articles on Fort Worth and Austin. An article by Elizabeth Licata (1.09.2016) reported on Fort Worth’s Eagle Mountain Elementary. The Kindergarten and First Grade classes gained 3 new recesses to test the benefits of two 15- minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. Teachers were worried about losing class time and being unable to cover their daily material. However, they found that not only are the students paying better attention in class, they follow directions better, are attempting to learn more independently and solve problems on their own. And, there have been fewer discipline issues. With three more short breaks per day to exercise and blow off steam, their minds and bodies return to class ready to focus and pay attention. Reading from Education Week (12.08.2019): Elementary school students in Austin may soon get to enjoy thirty minutes of unrestricted recess every day. Right now, administrators in the Austin Independent School District are just trying to figure out how to make it happen. Elementary schools are required to provide 135 minutes of physical education or structured physical activities each week, but recess is left up to the individual schools. The district chief officer for teaching and learning, Edmond Oropez, said that just as it’s important for adults to have time to relax and socialize during the workday, kids need some unstructured time too.
Figure 3 Green Schoolyards Can Increase Physical Activity
As the picture above shows, more options equal more activity. Stumps, rocks, trees and logs, all- natural objects, provide things to climb, jump from, balance on and lift. As also shown in Figure 3, the shrubs make a great screen for one or two to flop behind and study the cloud formations or for two or more to hatch plans to sneak into Cochise’s stronghold behind the two big rocks in the next picture (shown below) and surprise the braves waiting there. Or who knows, those rocks may be the entrance to the castle they intend to pillage. That’s up to the kids.
Figure 4 Imaginative and cooperative play
We have seen that schools can make a difference. That’s what some schools are doing, but what about our cities and towns? From a November 25, 2019 article by Alejandre Pallais titled All Things are Connected: How Mayors are Refining Nature Connections for Kids. The author tells us that, as part of the Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative, mayors in 18 cities across the country are leading a national effort to ensure all children in their cities grow up with regular connections to the natural world. Rather than having isolated projects, or adding on to their staff’s work , mayors view nature connection as integral to their city and align this work with other city goals and priorities. “All of these things are connected. It’s not about doing one thing here and one thing there” said Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, Texas. “It’s about doing all of these things that align themselves together. Because parks and green space in a neighborhood literally can change that neighborhood for the better.” He went on to discuss the idea of inter-connecting neighborhood parks with hike/bike trails that could cross Houston without the travelers having to use any busy roads.
Figure 5 Future Emerald Crown Trail in Hays County
In the same context, the San Marcos Green Belt Alliance in partnership with San Marcos, Kyle, Buda and other park development agencies is looking for a way to connect the three largest cities in Hays County with a non-motorized trail system. Although work will not be starting any time soon according to Evelyn Garcia writing on 11-18-19, a master plan was released in May and people behind the project are in the process of gathering support from local governmental bodies.
So, what do we take away from delving into today’s children and their connection to nature? Are they missing out on using their five senses to the fullest? Nature still seems to be the main source for real first-hand information relating to the five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. When you listen to a recorded bird song that’s all you hear. It can be a useful way to teach yourself the identifying trills of, say, a Carolina wren, but it won’t register the same as seeing and hearing that wren outdoors. There you will see the bird moving, you will feel the warm breeze as it moves the bird on the limb, you will be registering its color, shape and size, adjacent vegetation, and the other sounds and smells in the air. You will be experiencing 4 of your 5 senses working together to record this memory should you want to visit it again. We wrote down some of the images of the five senses that we remembered from when we were kids and each took us to a specific place. And always, more senses were involved than the featured sense. We didn’t just hear a whippoorwill , we immediately heard one calling, in summer just after dark, behind Granny Granstra’s house in Ada, Michigan and in the backyard here in Texas. R remembers the sight and smell of cow manure and moldy dirt in Ada and the beauty of a brook trout pulled from Eleanor’s Creek. D sees, smells and tastes the wild strawberries and huckleberries that grew near her cousin’s cottage in Michigan and she can still feel the hot sun on her arms.
Many of those who were raised close to nature are now focused on preserving it with land conservation easements, entrusting it to the Nature Conservancy and working for and belonging to organizations with aims to protect our most precious commodity; the land. We have that advocacy right here in our community. Michelle Ferley wrote an insightful essay telling us how she and her family learn from nature on their land and enjoy all its benefits.
So, after this long introduction, here are her thoughts:
Our Piece of The Hill Country
If you leave Austin and head Southwest for about 50 miles, there's a small plot of land nestled between the towns of San Marcos and Wimberley. It spans just over 60 acres of quintessential Texas Hill Country, complete with grazing longhorns, limestone outcrops and plenty of whitetail deer to go around. To a seasoned rancher, 60 acres might seem rather small, but to my family our self- proclaimed “ranchette” is our legacy. After five decades of hard work and city living, my parents purchased this piece of land to settle into during their retired years. Over the years, we have come to learn the countless ways in which the land has served our family, friends and the native Texas wildlife. The open space affords us ample room to gather loved ones, a quiet place to rest our minds and bodies, and an extensive variety of wildlife to indulge our curious minds There are many little quirks that make this piece of land truly unique and special to me. One of the first things we noticed after purchasing the property in 2003 was a beautiful live oak that must have been standing there for at least a century before we ever arrived. We were amazed by the symmetry and beauty of this old tree -so much so that we ended up using it as a focal point for the house that would be built years later. A terrible rainstorm passed through a couple years after the house was constructed. Amidst the storm, a lightning bolt struck the old tree and took off the biggest branch. What used to be a picturesque creation of nature, was now lopsided and saddening to look at. All the while, the same creatures and critters that made a home there for many years didn't seem to notice or mind. The birds continued to build nests and dance back and forth between the surviving branches. The misshapen tree now stands as a beautiful reminder of the resilience of nature. We look forward to the brief couple of weeks when the butterflies migrate through the area and find a temporary home in our native landscaping. During their migration, the yard is blanketed with a beautiful swarm of colorful insects that leaves us wonderstruck every time. In the springtime, we spend our days trekking around the property looking for vibrant cactus blooms and marveling at the sea of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. Unlike the wildflowers, not all guests are welcomed with open arms. We suffer at the snouts of pesky hogs that root up our land and remind us that we are largely powerless to those night roamers. However, we would all agree that the longhorns are by far the most beloved animals on this land. Their beautiful orange hides and intimidatingly large horns truly make them the stars of the Hill Country. This is all to say that our quaint piece of property has shown me that so much life can flourish in a relatively small space when natural land is left to its own devices. The air smells fresher, the water tastes cleaner and the plants and animals get to exist without confronting many of the stressors of urban development. I've also gathered that you don't need to be far away from civilization to provide a space for wildlife to live peacefully in its natural state. I am fortunate to know that this land will likely remain in the hands of my family for years to come. I can depend on the trees to remain standing, the longhorns to continue roaming and the wildflowers to keep growing long after I'm gone. This is one small way in which we are contributing to the preservation of our beautiful state of Texas. Whatever the scale, large or small, these efforts are important, impactful and beneficial for the health of future generations in our great state.
______Sightings_____
Our lands have very few colorful red oaks, so in the late fall we need to depend on the cedar elms and the Flameleaf Sumac for some color. There are several stands of the sumac and this year they were especially colorful and lasted a long time. Here is one such grouping of sumacs found right alongside the road.
Figure 6 Flameleaf Sumac rhus copallina
