MOBILE
NATURE — Saturday’s snow storm contributed to the adventure for about 100 kids 8-12 years old on a Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings boat cruise to view the annual gathering of bald eagles at Lake Coeur d’Alene.
“We spotted between 80-100 eagles perched and watched a dozen or so catch fish,” said Chris Bachman, ICO director in Spokane. “This despite the blizzard we encountered which just added to the experience. Lots of kid and adult smiles.”
The eagle cruise is just one of about 16 trips ICO organizes to help provide kids with outdoor experiences that connect them into real-world knowledge and serve as a healthy alternative to violence, alcohol, drugs and boredom.
Chris Bachman, who won a national Sierra Club award in September for working with youth, is featured in Monday’s S-R print edition story as he talks about his devotion to getting kids in the outdoors.
Read on for a few insights he offered that won’t make the paper.
“I read Richard Louv’s book, ‘Last Child in the Woods,’ which identified ‘nature deficit disorder’ in America’s kids,” Bachman said. “I became aware of huge impediments to kids getting outdoors, such as covenants that prevent building tree houses and no-trespassing signs posted on the pond down the street.
“Spokane is very fortunate for what it has easy access to. A quick bus ride gets us to the Little Spokane River or to Mount Spokane to ski or snowshoe.
“On our first trip to Mount Spokane, 90 percent of the kids thought it was a ski resort, which isn’t accessible to kids who can’t afford a lift ticket. We showed them the mountain was open to them, with all sorts of things to do and explore. That’s what we do: expose them and let them connect.
How to cure nature deficit disorder:
1. Get kids w NDD out into nature more and regularly
2. Increase NDD kids abilities to focus on animals and plants in the natural world through education and field-generated skill building.
3. Transfer hyperactive behavior from inappropriate targets (e.g. vandalizing businesses) to appropriate nature-based targets (e.g. rock climbing, hiking)
4. Once NDD kids have established 90% above baseline rates of self initiated nature interactions purchase them firearms.
5. After successful completion of firearm safety classes and attachments to positive bird and ungulate hunting adult mentors, teach NDD youth the joy of killing the beautiful creatures of nature they learned to experience and enjoy in steps 1-4.
On a serious note, kids don’t do half the crap outside they used to and that’s leads to a leaden-assed and spiritually-detached generation of cyber-heads who are not bothered by climate change because they will never have paddled a lake in early May, one they’ve paddled and swam in since childhood and realize the water is increasingly and strangely warmer the last 10 years and swim trunk-worthy in early May when 20 years prior it was only wet suit-worthy.