Written in response to "Back to Nature" (March 13, 2007 )

During a recent Sierra Club hike, we were discussing the lack of young people on the trails. We figured that the reasons were multiple.

Hiking requires time that the parents may not have and stamina that neither parents nor kids may have. Kids these days would rather stare into a GameBoy than learn the names of the plants and animals.

Yes, we need to get the kids out into nature to experience the natural world, away from human amenities and electronic annoyance.

They need to feel the ruggedness of our local mountains as they climb up a trail; to see the incredible variety of plants and animals even in the harsh desert; to smell the fragrance of cedars and chaparral damp with morning dew; to hear coyotes, owls and critters scurrying around in a pitch-black moonless night.

But I agree with the Bartschs. I, too, question the real motive behind the American Recreation Coalition's desire to get "more kids in the woods."

The ARC does not represent the public, it represents corporations that make, sell, operate, or provide recreational vehicles, equipment, facilities or services.

The ARC's interest in getting kids into the woods is not to help them connect with nature, but to increase and expand their customer base. 

As the article put it, the program is "aimed at increasing the number of youths using the outdoors and taking part in nature-based activities."
For ARC, nature is just a backdrop to artificially enhanced, product-dependent experiences that its corporate members just happen to provide and stand to profit mightily by.

 The recreation industries have spent the past three or four decades patiently steering the government towards handing over the administration of our public lands to their private interests.

They're brainwashing the public into believing that nature isn't free and that our enjoyment of nature is a product for which we should pay, even though neither the government nor the corporations manufactured it.

 The kids who go into the woods today have no idea that up until 10 years ago, people could enjoy their public lands without having to pay a fee. The kids today have no idea what freedoms they have lost to corporate greed and arrogance.

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