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Leave No Child Indoors In fast-growing Fairfax County, parks and the wild outdoors preserved by parks are becoming increasingly important as connecting points between children and nature. In our parks, nature programs and nature camps, kids can come to their senses - hearing, smelling, seeing wonders at a distance and up close. Playing outdoors, they bend, climb, reach and move, using their whole bodies instead of just their thumbs on the remote control or the mouse. Certainly, computers are great learning tools and great fun, and kids can travel the world on their PCs. As a fourth grader told Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are." But it's a virtual world of pictures; it isn't real. Kids need to understand, appreciate and feel comfortable with nature's web of life every bit as much as they need the world wide web. We're looking forward to the release this year of research and analysis on how learning occurs in the natural environment, an outgrowth of the 2005 national conference of the American Association of Museums . Those findings should underline the importance of bridging the gap between children and the outdoors. It's a staggering divide, created by the popularity of computer games combined with Lyme disease, West Nile Virus, Stranger Danger and other perceived threats persuading parents that indoors is safer. Kids don't know nature. Many seem unnerved by the outdoors, anxious that they could be "poisoned" by poison ivy. And they worry that there could be bears in the woods and alligators, even sharks, in the wetlands. They need to get comfortable with nature. Already, there's an impressive collection of data that demonstrates the benefits of outdoor play for children and the dangers when they are restricted primarily to an indoor environment. The absence of nature in children's lives is linked to the rise in obesity, allergies, attention disorders and depression. On the positive side, in a nine-year study for the U.S. Forest Service that followed youthful participants in Outward-Bound-type wilderness adventures, the young people reported experiencing a sense of peace and the ability to think more clearly. Other studies suggest that nature may be a useful treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), even to the extent of replacing medications or behavioral therapy. In Sweden, Canada, Australia and the U.S., studies in schoolyards with both green areas and manufactured play areas found that children played more creatively in the green areas. In an environment dominated by play structures, they established their social hierarchy through physical competence, but in "vegetative rooms," children engaged in more fantasy play, and their social standing was based more on language skills, creativity and inventiveness. Nature deficit disorder may also be a contributor to difficulties today's children have in making connections. We see it in the scores of school groups that visit our parks. Teachers tell us the same thing and ask us to incorporate the scientific process -- observation, conclusion and more observation to prove the conclusion - in our nature programs. We also notice subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the children from nearby Frog Pond Day Care Center, who visit Huntley Meadows Park almost daily. They are calmer and quieter. They stop and look, crouching down to see a beetle or examine a leaf. They are at ease, comfortable with nature that is familiar to them, and they don't stomp on bugs! The children of today will become the future decision makers on the environment and open space. Our generation grew up outside, loving it, attached to our favorite turtle and the tree we climbed when we wanted a quiet spot to read a book. If today's kids don't find those passions, if they don't love nature and become comfortable with nature, who in the next generation is going to champion the environment? In your parks, there are endless options for natural adventure, discovery, wonder and fun and endless opportunities to get to know the natural world. Take advantage of them this summer and all year long. Together, we can ensure that no child is left indoors. Melissa Gaulding, Naturalist, Huntley Meadows Park