 The hyping of the recreation industry's Richard Louv (Brand) - Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) campaign has taken an interesting twist with Maine Governor John Baldacci recently announcing: "We don't have to fly to Disneyland. We have Disneyland all around us." That statement is obviously false but it is a concept we hear with growing frequency. The recreation and tourism industry leaders who dictate public lands recreation policy and who have long been engaged in the 'Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild', find it beneficial to equate nature with artifice. Public land managers, following industry's lead, are amongst the worst offenders, continually equating the lands they manage with themeparks and other purely commercial forms of entertainment.
For years now we have been bombarded with a message which asks: "Isn't a day on public lands worth as much as a day at Disneyland?" The comparison is false and the question does not deserve a response. One can not, and must not, equate nature with artifice. It is wrong to price nature using artifice as a comparative reference point and yet this has all but become the accepted norm.
For the mass market to which the recreation industry has pitched it's message, the Disneyland comparison has raw nature coming up short. Nature needs to be improved upon, experiences need to be packaged and adventure needs to be made predictable if this Nature-Disneyland comparison is to hold true. In other words, Nature must be Disneyfied.
When reading the appended article about Balacci's new "Take It Outside" initiative, please remember that there is no such thing as "Nature Deficit Disorder". NDD is an idea put forth not by a psychologist or qualified medical professional, but by a newspaper reporter, Richard Louv. It was the recreation industry that successfully transformed the NDD idea and Mr. Louv himself into their self-serving public relations campaign.
Perhaps this quote from the appended article will help explain why this was so.
Acadia National Park Superintendent Sheridan Steele said the success of the initiative could be measured by monitoring park fees for children and sales of youth sporting equipment.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
Olympic gold medalists, governor, tell Mainers 'Take It Outside!'
August 1, 2007
CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine --Olympic gold medalists Seth Wescott and Joan
Benoit Samuelson have teamed up with Gov. John Baldacci to promote
efforts to encourage Maine youngsters to turn off their televisions,
set aside their video games and spend more time in the great outdoors.
"We don't have to fly to Disneyland. We have Disneyland all around us,"
Baldacci said of Maine's woods and waterways, as he met with reporters
Tuesday at Two Lights State Park to kick off his "Take It Outside!"
initiative.
The purpose of the campaign is to spur government agencies and outdoor
organizations to develop ways to get youngsters to overcome inactivity
and spend more time outside. A Blaine House Conference on Youth and the
Natural World will be held next spring to consider the ideas.
State agencies will seek about $250,000 in grants to fund the best proposals, Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan said.
"It's going to take money," McGowan said. "And it will not come from the General Fund."
The campaign was inspired by Richard Louv's book, "Last Child in the
Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder," which focuses
on how young people today are disconnected from nature.
Acadia National Park Superintendent Sheridan Steele said the success of
the initiative could be measured by monitoring park fees for children
and sales of youth sporting equipment.
"My message is not to get people to Acadia, even though the attendance
numbers at Acadia have been going down. My message is just to get kids
outside," Steele said.
Benoit Samuelson, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth and founded the Beach
to Beacon Road Race, said promoting outdoor activities can help curb
the rise of obesity and diabetes.
Wescott said his success in the 2006 Olympics was an outgrowth of his
ongoing love of "playing in Maine," surfing, mountain biking and, of
course, snowboarding.
Wescott said one of the few times he watched television as a child was
when his father took the television out of the attic in 1984 to view
Benoit Samuelson's Olympic marathon victory.
"When the closing ceremonies for that Olympics were done," Wescott
said, "the TV was packed back in a box, and the box was put back in the
attic."
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- Activism 
