IN RESPONSE to recent trends that show how children are disconnected from nature there is a bill before Congress that may turn things toward the outdoors.
The No Child Left Inside Act (H.R.3036) extends the National Environmental Education Act through fiscal year 2009 and funds it with $14 million.
The bill also authorizes the creation of a competitive program to be administered by the Secretary of Education, for innovative environmental education programs in state and local education agencies or nonprofits. The Senate companion bill, S. 1981, has not seen any action since it was introduced in July 2007.
The idea of the No Child Left Inside movement was the work of Richard Louv, who wrote the book “Last Child” in the Woods in 2005. The book shows how an entire generation of children has been raised with little or no connection to the outdoors.
The book show that with the growing popularity of computers, video games, nature programs on television, structured playgroups or sports programs and with the fear of simply allowing a child to explore outdoors unsupervised, increased cases of childhood obesity, hyperactivity and depression have developed.
In his book Louv says, “Nature-deficit disorder is not an official diagnosis but a way of viewing the problem, and describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.”
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife will stock more than 20,000 brook, brown and rainbow trout throughout the state starting Oct. 7 as part of its Fall Trout Stocking program.
The trout, averaging 14 to 16 inches in length, and weighing up to two pounds each, will be stocked in 16 streams and 16 ponds and lakes over the two-week period.
Streams are stocked during the first week, and ponds and lakes during the second week. The stocking boundaries for streams are the same as in the spring, and there are no closed dates during the fall stocking period.
The complete list of waters and the stocking schedule is available at http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/flstk.htm or through the Trout Stocking Hotline at (609) 633-6765.