Family-Outdoors

St. Regis River-Adirondack Mountains Copyright 2010 P. Allen Mann III- Family-Outdoors Part of this effort is a call to action.  I am calling on parents to get their families outside into nature in WHATEVER  capacity they feel so led.  This may differentiate my efforts with those of others, in that I have no strong inclinations as to how people should enjoy nature - that so long as they are truly engaged with their surroundings, and that they are engaged in activities not harmful to the environment (as for example can be some motor sports if done recklessly). There is little doubt that outdoor activities increase the well-being of children . The nature of childhood has changed: there’s not much nature in it. American childhood has moved indoors during the last two decades, taking a mental and physical toll on today’s kids. The negative impact of decreased time outdoors includes a doubling of the childhood obesity rate -- accompanied by an incremental hundred ...

Eleven Point River Near Greer Spring P. Allen Mann III Copyright 2010 Family-Outdoors There is little doubt that there is a marked change, in my mind for the worst, in the interconnectedness between people in modern society and nature .  My premise, and one that I will be exploring over time here, is that this change at least coincides with a marked decline in the health and general well-being of families. I will not make an attempt to show that the slippage of our connection to nature is causative of these declines.  I truly do not believe that this could be done.  What I will attempt to do is show that there is truly a natural solution for families to this problem.  I will be making the case, and hopefully be engaging in discussion with readers that reconnecting with the outdoors, AS A FAMILY,   can have a meaningful impact in a number of ways. I will indeed use anecdotal evidence for this argument, but will try and also support it with science....

Image via Wikipedia We just returned from a three week trip to the Adirondack Mountains. One of the things we did while there was take a three day paddle from Little Tupper Lake to Lake Lila . The route taken involves a chain of lakes and interconnected drainages. Many of these little lakes have some nice fishing opportunities. Here, David has on one of the better smallmouth bass he caught on this excursion. It went around 16". One interesting and sad aspect to the fishing here was that in a couple of the lakes there were supposed to be heritage strain brook trout only. As the story goes, when the state land that this wilderness is located upon was sold to the state, for reasons not clear to me, someone "salted" Little Tupper with smallmouth bass. The less pshychotic rationale for such an act would be to create some local smallmouth fishing opportunities. This seems unlikely as there are ample smallie streams and lakes across the Adirondacks. It is likely t...