No experience is quite like the great outdoors

For the last few weeks I’ve been feeling pretty darn good. I think I must be responding to the lengthening days and better weather (well, maybe not all that much better — as I write this it’s pouring down rain).

Spring is here. The robins and juncos in my yard know it, and so does my 70-year-old self. How about you? Haven’t you been feeling better, or maybe you just haven’t noticed.

We usually drive past some wetlands on the way home from town. Come mid-February, my 14-year-old, Aaron, always says, “Let’s stop and listen for the frogs.” And one night, there they were, hundreds of chorus frogs calling for all they’re worth. Their performance, signaling the coming of spring, is so loud you hardly have to roll down the window to hear them.

Northwest Indians have a special name for this frog, The Announcer. What a wonderful concept; a diminutive creature speaks up to tell all us big folks that winter is past, and spring will soon be here.

Two weekends ago, Aaron and I went to our favorite outdoor place, the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Aaron has visited there regularly since he was young; in fact, stopping that day was his idea. It was a sunny afternoon, and we saw something that took me by surprise.

It wasn’t some rare bird. Rather, it was a great many young families out for a walk. There were moms pushing strollers and dads showing their kids this or that (or maybe it was the dads who were pushing the strollers). The parking lot was packed, and I think over half the visitors must have had youngsters with them.

Why surprised? Just the week before I had been reading about something called nature deficit disorder — the concept that youngsters today are being raised with little connection to the natural world. You know, spending all their time with electronic toys. In fact, the Legislature created the No Child Left Inside grant program, modestly funding activities to address NDD here in Washington.

If NDD might be a problem in your home (and there’s no reason to think this problem is limited to households with children), here’s my suggestion. Just go outside for a few minutes. And go with nothing else in mind other than noticing, really feeling, spring and the outdoors. You don’t need to go far. In fact, birds likely are singing right in your neighborhood, with more arriving in the next month.

But I encourage you to venture farther. In South Puget Sound we have an abundance of places where you can take children to experience natural areas, our great outdoors. Most require a car to get to, but several (I’m thinking of Olympia’s Watershed Park and Priest Point Park) are on bus lines. There might be one within walking distance of your home.

Our favorites are the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge (I-5 Exit 114) and two natural areas of the Washington Department of Natural Resources — McLane Creek Nature Trail, along Delphi Road (south of U.S. Highway 101), and the Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area, near the north end of the Chehalis Western Trail. There are many more, and several good websites are available with lists of kid-friendly nature hikes in our area. Just plug Thurston County nature into any search engine.

And here’s one more suggestion. Revisit the same location several times, separated by a week or two. Encourage the children (or yourself) to notice the differences. What birds are singing and what plants are blooming? You know, that trillium flower you spot in the woods this month won’t be back until next year. That’s the way nature works.

Based on the evidence Aaron and I gathered two weeks ago and the many natural areas we have available, I suspect NDD isn’t a big problem here. Why? Because we have many opportunities to experience nature — to feel the changing of the seasons and see nature at work. And we have governments — elected officials — who know just how important it is, too.

This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 5:01 PM with the headline "No experience is quite like the great outdoors."