Bringing Kids Back to Nature by Theresa Gawlas Medoff
Child’s Play Bringing Kids Back to Nature By Theresa Gawlas Medoff 24 / O UTDOOR D ELAWARE Winter 2012 the Kaiser Family Foundation, today’s to connect with nature, and to gain school-age children spend 6.5 hours a day a sense of stewardship,” says Rachael with electronic media — and just minutes Phillos, nature center manager at Killens playing outdoors in unstructured activi- Pond State Park. ties. That’s a statistic that the folks at DN- The Educational Side REC’s Division of Parks and Recreation State park naturalists say that they are are acutely aware of, and one they are astounded sometimes by the naivety of trying their best to turn around. The some of the children who come to the Participants in Bellevue major part of the mission of Delaware parks on school fi eld trips. “They step off State Park’s Youth Fishing Tournament State Parks has always been to get people the bus and see more than four trees to- show off their catch. outside and into nature, says Ray Bivens, gether and think they are in the jungle,” DNREC operations, maintenance and Phillos says. programming section administrator. But “We often have kids who’ve never at a time when children are increasingly been in a forest before,” adds Angel nature deprived, our parks are doing Burns, naturalist at White Clay Creek more than ever to attract families by add- State Park. “They’re very concerned ing new programs, making people aware about going into the woods and want to of existing offerings, and increasing the know if there are bears out there.” accessibility of the parks.
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