• Building tree houses;
• Catching frogs and fireflies;   
• Splashing in creeks;        
• Daydreaming in a special hiding place; or
• Digging holes “to China.” 

    These activities are all nature play:  unstructured childhood play in “wild” areas, whether it’s the vacant lot next door, the local neighborhood park, or the “back forty” of your farm.  

    At its very best, nature play isn’t scheduled, planned, or
led by adults, nor is it confined by grown-ups’ rules.  Instead, it’s open-ended, free-time exploration and recreation, without close adult supervision.  For many of us, this sort of nature play virtually defined our childhoods. 

Why Is Nature Play Important?

    There is a growing body of research data about the multiple positive impacts of nature play on children’s social, emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being.  Richard Louv has done a great job of reviewing these benefits in his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods:  Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

        However, for Green Hearts' 
    mission the most valuable
    impact of nature play is on
    conservation.  Multiple studies
    in several countries, over more
    than 25 years, have found
    that frequent, unstructured
    childhood play in natural
    spaces is the most common
    influence on the development
    of life-long conservation values
    and conservation behaviors.  

        Thus, for the task of building
    greater future societal support
    for conservation, frequent
    nature play is more powerful
    than education, participation in
    youth groups, or even the
    influence of parents and other
    mentors.  Nature play is strong
    stuff!
     

The Challenges to Nature Play

    Unfortunately, many factors are converging to make nature play increasingly rare in American childhoods, including:

• Less children’s access to unregulated green spaces where they can freely play;
• Growing parental fears of letting children play outdoors without close supervision;
• The mushrooming allure and availability of plugged-in play;
• Longer school days and increasing amounts of homework; and
• The trend to over-schedule children in structured, adult-led activities.

    The unhappy result is that most American children no longer enjoy regular nature play.  In fact, one study found that our children now spend an average of just 30 minutes per week in unstructured outdoor play.

The Environmental Impacts of Vanishing 

Nature Play

    Nature play has been found to be the most common influence on the development of adult conservation values.  Now it is fading away.  Without the lasting impacts of nature play, what will guide future generations into cherishing the natural world?

    Many people believe that increased amounts of formal
environmental education might lead to more wise conservation behavior in our society.  Unfortunately, research shows that the lasting conservation impacts of school-based environmental education are limited, at best.  In fact, broader research finds that learning is not a prime determinant of most human behavior.  Instead, many other factors drive our behavior, with our emotions and immediate needs often being the most powerful ones. 

    As a conservation organization, Green Hearts’ ultimate aim is to help make conservation behaviors a dominant value in American culture.  To achieve this, we believe that we must find ways to put nature back into children’s hearts, not just into their brains.  Nature play is the key to this challenge.

Restoring Nature Play

    Nature play can be brought back!  First we must expand public understanding of the importance of nature play — an effort that is now underway across the United States.  Then we must develop and implement structured (and hence replicable) ways of bring unstructured nature play back to childhood.

    Green Hearts is certain that this can be done, using methods such as:

• New approaches to neighborhood design and home landscaping;
• The creation of schoolyard nature play areas;
• Development of nature play areas within community parks; and
• The expansion of nature preschools, where young children enjoy daily play and explorations in green spaces. 

    Green Hearts was founded to help lead the way in this work.  To learn more about how we are doing this, please review the "Services” portion of this website.