Heed the call of the wild this summer with help from new Check Out Washington program

In 2005, Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder” lit a fire under educators and parents about the need to get kids outdoors. It was accompanied by an avalanche of research about the social and emotional health benefits, learning gains, and physical fitness improvements of free play outdoors.

There hasn’t been as much research about the benefits of outdoor recreation for adults, but we’d guess they are quite similar. (The only difference may be that adults call it recreation rather than play.)

In our state, the book was followed in 2007 by the legislature’s establishment of a state grant program called “No Child Left Inside,” intended to target kids who are struggling academically and/or from low-income families. Attempts to pass similar federal legislation have languished for many years but have optimistically been reintroduced this year.

Our state’s education office — the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) — also has been promoting outdoor learning experiences for students, and linking them to the academic standards outdoor learning helps them master. OSPI is also promoting the “greening” of school grounds, which means transforming expanses of grass with trees, shrubs, flowers and garden plots. They are relearning that kids like dirt, worms, bugs, and trees they can climb.

Washington is also the first state in the nation to license outdoor early learning and child care centers where little kids spend at least half the day outside.

Various nonprofits also support both teacher and student outdoor learning; the Pacific Education Institute, for example, has an ambitious and well-regarded Fieldstem program that integrates language arts, careers, cultures, science, art, and civics in outdoor programs.

This year there’s also a new kid on this block: Check Out Washington. This program provides libraries with kits that include binoculars, nature guides, and free Discover Passes for use at state parks, campgrounds and trails. The kits can be checked out from the library for free. This is a collaboration between the state Parks Foundation, libraries, and the Washington State Employees Credit Union, which contributed $52,000, and has already pledged an additional $40,000 for next year.

To promote equity, 10 library systems were chosen based on statewide health disparity data; our region’s Timberland Library System is among them. The hope is that the families who most need access to the outdoors will benefit.

And in spite of all the efforts of educators, the need for this program is acute: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that kids 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours per day in front of a screen – and that’s not counting the time they spent online for school during the pandemic. That is certainly not a recipe for a healthy life.

But kids’ health is not the only reason to get them out of the house this summer. The future of our communities and our planet depend on it. Young people need a sense of place, a grounding in the natural world, and an understanding that they will become stewards of it. They need to know that humans are one species among many on this spinning globe.

As Richard Louv has said, we must “save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.” Getting kids into the woods, onto the beaches, into the lakes and beside the rivers is a vital form of environmental restoration.

We salute all the educators who are engaged in this work. And we’re especially grateful for the dedication of the State Parks Foundation, the generosity of WSECU, and the willingness of our library systems to provide an innovative, equity-promoting way to help families access state parks and trails this summer.

As environmentalists often say, we will save what we love, and love what we know. That’s the very best reason for kids and adults alike to spend time this summer in our ravishingly beautiful natural world.

This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM.