Meaningful and continual exposure to nature at a young age has been shown to improve overall mental health, enhance learning, increase interest in math and sciences and encourage outdoor activity. Through creative and unstructured nature play, caring for plants, and food our young and young at heart reap life-long cognitive benefits and the seeds are sown for future watershed stewards.
There is an effort to increase the amount of outdoor educational programming throughout the region, but many areas have limited access to parks. While interest in outdoor classrooms and schoolyard gardens is growing, too many of our schools offer only asphalt paving in playground. This creates excessively hot environments that are not supportive of learning and offer little to no exposure to the natural world.
Environmental stewardship cannot be completely conveyed from with the walls of a classroom. It requires hands-on experience in the outdoors as well. Education drives environmental awareness and appreciation while promoting the protection and sustainability of parks, open space and natural resources for current and future generations. When a community is faced with decisions on complex environmental issues, education is key in empowering the community to make well informed decisions that can help reduce negative environmental impacts within their neighborhoods, their communities, and the region.
