Ex-prof's book cultivates new birders

By Sharon Wootton | For The Olympian • Published August 30, 2008

In a country where it seems almost impossible not to be out of touch with each other, we've grown increasingly out of touch with our natural world.

Burton Guttman, a former biology professor at The Evergreen State College, felt so strongly about the issue that he wrote a book, "Finding Your Wings" ($15, Houghton Mifflin).

He recalls a Doonesbury cartoon that tackles the out-of-touch issue. Doonesbury is taking his daughter to computer camp when they see a family of raccoons. When the counselor is told about it, the response was, "That's nice. What's a raccoon?"

"One of the major motivations for writing the book is that we're so isolated from the natural world. A large part of that is the electronic isolation," Guttman said, referring to the time we spend talking on cell phones, working or game-playing on computers, Blackberries, texting and iPods.

Artificial world

"People are trying to live in this artificial electronic world … and they're simply not in contact with the real world. It's a worrisome business. One of major reasons for writing the book was to encourage people to get out into the natural world."

Guttman, who lives just outside Lacey, says his grandchildren play indoors as well as participate in soccer and other organized activities. But when he was young in Minneapolis, "much of my free time was spent running around like crazy in the woods."

It also was a time when few seemed to worry about assault and abductions.

Big scary woods

"Today everybody seems to be so scared to let kids out that they never have a chance to enjoy the natural world. All their (grandchildren's) lives, we take them out in the woods, see everything, pick the berries, notice the birds.

"Our kids have had that experience and you can see it. Most kids don't, and I'm afraid people are so worried about letting kids out that they don't allow them to do the natural things."

His grandchildren love the woods. His youngest granddaughter asks, "Could we go out in the woods again?"