The Importance of Building Human-Nature Connections: Fostering

stewardship through childhood nature experiences.

Kaela Christensen

CSUS Dept. of Environmental Studies: ENVS 199 (Thesis)

December 15, 2014

Table of Contents

Abstract and Introduction…………………………………………………................................1

Background………………………………………………………………………………………3

Biodiversity loss…………………………………………………………………………...3

Parental fear………………………………………………………………………………3

Technology………………………………………………………………………………...4

Nature-deficit disorder and environmental generational amnesia………………………..5

Childhood: the crucial time for nature experiences……………………………………………...6

Play in Nature…………………………………………………………………………………….7

Factors That Impact the Way Nature Is Experienced………………………………………...9

Gender differences………………………………………………………………………...9

City vs. rural living………………………………………………………………………10

Parental/peer influences………………………………………………………..………..11

What Makes a Quality Nature Experience?..............................................................................12

Ways to Increase Nature Experience Opportunities in Childhood………………………….13

Nature schools…………………………………………………………………………...13

Nature-based playgrounds……………………………………………………………….14

Backyards and gardens…………………………………………………………………..15

Park restoration and management……………………………………………………….16

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………17

References……………………………………………………………………………………….21

Abstract

Childhood nature experience opportunities have decreased due to the loss of nature areas

and an increase in indoor technological activities, which have been driven by both childhood

preference and parental fears. The decline of nature play opportunities has impacted childhood

development, and has caused concern for future generations’ formation of human-nature

relationships. Nature experience opportunities are crucial in early childhood to form human-

nature connectiveness that remains into adulthood as children are intuitively drawn to natural

areas (Aziz and Said, 2012). Play in natural settings provides physical, emotional-social, and

cognitive challenges that give children the opportunity to build on healthy development and a

relationship with the natural world through multi-sensorial interactions. The way nature is

experienced is affected by gender, urban versus rural living, and parental/peer influence,

although more research needs to be performed in order to determine how much of an impact such

factors have on nature experience. Nature-based playgrounds, nature schools, and ecologically

planned parks can help increase childhood nature experiences where opportunities are lacking

and fill the gaps when wild nature is inaccessible, since wild nature experiences are still seen as

the best quality action in the creation of a strong human-nature connection (Wells and Lekies,

2006). More research is still needed to look into the benefits of early childhood nature

experiences and the connection to adult environmental stewardship, as well as the positive role

nature-based playgrounds and alternative park landscape and management practices have on the

development of environmental awareness.

Introduction

Experiencing nature through physical interactions encourages humans to understand and

connect to the natural world, which is the starting point for environmental stewardship that

encompasses pro environmental values (Van der Werff et al., 2013). These experiences are

especially important in early childhood as they aid healthy cognitive, social, and physical

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development (Asah et al., 2012; Taylor, 2002; Wells and Evans, 2001; Wells and Lekies, 2006).

Children directly interact with the natural environment through observation and participation

with multiple senses, while utilizing the natural environment as the main focus of play and

interaction that create long lasting nature connections (Sebba 1991). In turn, adults with these

connections understand the need for preservation and restoration of the natural environment

since they have created an appreciative relationship to the natural world through their

interactions as young children. (Van der Werff et al., 2013; Wells and Lekies, 2006).

Young children today have fewer opportunities to interact with the natural world, and this

reduced amount of exposure can have a negative impact. Many children live within cities where

natural space has been reduced for human needs, and many of these children are kept indoors

driven by either parental fear or an increase in technological entertainment; therefore, missing

out on primary nature experiences (Grimm et al., 2008; Miller, 2005; Staemfli, 2009). Children

with reduced interaction with the natural world may never develop a relationship to the

environment, which could affect future preservation and conservation measures negatively, due

to the lack of human-nature connectiveness.

Reduced interactions can be impacted by many factors that affect the quantity and/or

quality of a child’s nature experiences. Gender differences, nature experiences in urban areas

versus rural areas, and the influence of parental/peer views play a pivotal role in the formation

of a child’s potential human-nature relationship. This paper will examine these factors and

investigate whether nature experiences in childhood influence human-nature connectiveness in

adulthood, while also exploring the positive impacts that nature has on childhood development as

they form a relationship with the natural world through play.

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Background

Biodiversity loss

Opportunities to interact with the natural world have decreased compared to past

generations, in part because urban sprawl has reduced wild spaces, fragmented wildlife corridors,

and decreased flora biodiversity (Grimm et al., 2008; Miller, 2005; Staemfli 2009). As a result

of decades of poor urban planning and development with regards to biodiversity preservation and

conservation, much of the remaining floras and faunas within urban areas are low in species

diversity and includes a variety of invasive species (Miller, 2005). Diverse nature areas, such as

in state parks or wild spaces, are often found in distant patches that may require access via means

of transportation, which may impede children from opportunities to experience such natural

environments.

Urban parks are the closest green spaces children living in cities can experience, but

many parks lack aesthetic and floras and faunas quality provided by wild spaces. Urban

planning and development has flourished, although it has not incorporated concern for the

preservation and conservation of biodiversity (Miller, 2005; Thompson, 2002). As a result, the

majority of urban green spaces have large strips of grass with a few trees that provide the same

aesthetics your-round (Baines, 1999; Thompson, 2002). Children’s experiences within urban

parks are, therefore, less distinct compared to diverse wild spaces where different species offer a

variety of tactile experiences, while offering more opportunities for children to explore and

interact with the natural world.

Parental fear

Opportunities for children to explore the outdoors have declined due to increased traffic

that has risen alongside rising populations within cities. The rise in automobile traffic has created

neighborhood environments that don’t provide a foundation for safe outdoor playtime and has

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increased parental safety fears (Carver et al., 2008; Clements, 2004; Gaster, 1991; Moore, 1997).

Many children are forced to stay indoors by their parents because they fear for their children’s

safety while playing outdoors or walking in the neighborhood unsupervised (Wyver et al., 2010).

Parents want their children to be supervised at all times but parents are often too busy to provide

the supervision they see fit. In turn, children are forced to find activities to do indoors, which

tend to be sedentary activities involving technologic entertainment other than active activities

that incorporates developmental competency as a whole.

In addition, parental fear has also been driven by technology where a wide access to

multiple forms of news media are available that emphasize topics related to crime, violence, and

danger (Altheide, 1997). The news media has helped aid in child abduction fears that has

resulted in children being overprotected; thus, in turn, hindering a child’s freedom to explore

the outdoors independently for fear of abduction (Kitzinger, 2002).

Technology

Parents don’t blame themselves entirely for the increase in indoor activity, but rather

many blame the heightened popularity of technologically driven activities such as television

and video games in playing a large part in lowering outside play opportunities (Clements, 2004;

Miller, 2005). It is unclear if the rise in technologically driven activities was aided by the

increase in parental fear, but what is known is these preferred sedentary activities can have a

negative effect on a child’s development through lowered self-motivation, vision and language

impairment, crippled imagination, and decreased patience and concentration (Cordes & Miller,

2000). Parents lacked the multitude of technologic formats of their children causing a parental

struggle on how to manage and judge a child’s time spent using technology (Plowman et al.,

2010). Ultimately, the increase in indoor technological play is affecting children, whether

children are preferring technological indoor play activities due to increased parental fear or an

increase in preference.

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Impacts caused by increase in technological activities have swayed childhood

opportunities to experience nature and build a human-nature relationship. Current technology,

which is expected to advance in the future, include simulated environments for individuals to

experience nature in their own homes, but these experiences are missing many sensorial

contexts. Real experience in nature provides multi-sensory interactions that simulated technology

has yet to achieve and has degraded the emotional value of real experience. The purpose of

simulated environments is to help promote nature awareness and preservation, but the focus is on

national parks, and, in turn, it has reduced support for local green spaces that are a key to

biodiversity and ecosystem health (Levi and Kocher, 1999). Experience in nature is still the best

means of helping to build human-nature relationships.

Nature-deficit disorder and environmental generational amnesia

The impacts on children from the lack of nature connections and experience opportunities

have decreased due to increased technological activities and safety concerns have affected many

children through the U.S. A childhood with little experience to nature has negative affects to the

wellness of the child causing a negative correlation between decreased outdoor play and

increased diagnoses for childhood obesity and ADHD that has been termed nature-deficit

disorder. Nature-deficit disorder is not a registered medical diagnosis, but is used as an over-all

label to be brought to society’s attention to emphasize that children are experiencing a loss from

the lack of nature experiences and, subsequently, a further loss to the environment as these

children grow into adults who lack nature connectiveness (Louv, 2008).

Experiences with the environment a child has through their growth into adulthood creates

a lasting view to which will be compared to as an adult. Environmental generational amnesia, in

which the experience a child has with the environment around them becomes the normal,

acceptable base standard for all future comparisons (Kahn Jr., 2002). If children are used to

having fairly large quantities of pollution, or small quantities of wild areas, then these will be the

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base standards in which pollution can increase or wild areas can decrease, instead of putting the

base standard at zero pollution or quantity of wild areas before settlement. Increasing a child’s

experience with the environment to provide a variety of views, while also including past

knowledge of what was before, can help lower environmental generational amnesia impacts.

The impacts from both nature-deficit disorder and environmental generational amnesia

start in early childhood, and both are related to experiences associated with the environment.

Increasing childhood opportunities to play and explore the outdoors can help to create a

relationship to the natural world, increase physical activity, and improve base standards for

pollution and wild areas. Future preservation and conservation advocates will need to have a

lowered pollution base standard, a higher wild areas standard, and a good human-nature

connection to carry out these measures to fulfill environmental needs.

Childhood: the crucial time for nature experiences

Early childhood is the prime time to start the formation of empathic abilities and human-

nature connections that are carried into adulthood. Children begin to observe the world

around them at birth, and these multi-sensory experiences help stimulate the brain and form

connections. Nature provides an array of multi-sensory experiences, and provides children the

opportunity to engage with an environment that interacts during cause and effect

experimentations; thus, helping to understand causal effects through multi-sensory evidence

(Chawla, 2007; Gopnik and Schulz, 2004). Children learn best through experience as they form

hypotheses and experiments when trying to figure out the world on their own. In experiencing

nature through contact and interaction children are able to form engraved memories and a

human-nature relationship.

Childhood experiences have a lasting impact on adult behavior and are the building

blocks that make an individual, which is why experiences weigh heavier on the formation of

behavior than knowledge (Hunt, 1944; Rutter, 1984). In the early 1970’s, early linear models

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show environmental knowledge can increase environmental attitudes that consequently increase

pro-environmental behavior, but these models have been debunked (Kollmuss and Agyeman,

2002). Increasing an individuals’ environmental knowledge alone won’t have an increase on

their pro-environmental attitude or behavior (Cheng and Monroe, 2012). For this reason, the

formation for adults’ positive relationships, attitudes, and behaviors with the natural world is

rooted in past experiences with the environment (Hinds and Sparks, 2008). Experience is needed

before knowledge can proceed, and experience can aid in understanding and awareness during

the educational processes.

Individuals having childhood experiences involving play in nature develop positive

attitudes and memories towards nature, which leads to environmental activities in adulthood

(Bixler et al., 2002). In fact, individuals who never visit wild places as children have a decreased

chance of visiting as adults (Thomspson et al., 2008; Yoesting and Burkhead, 1972). Adults

revisiting their favored nature spots bring their children with them to have the same experiences

as they had, which can help reinforce future generations of adults having positive environmental

attitudes towards nature to form lasting human-nature connectiveness.

Play in Nature

Play in nature provides a setting where healthy child development can take place,

and is one of the most beneficial learning experiences in early childhood, especially when it is

child directed (Ailwood, 2003). Risk play is an example of one of the many different types of

play a child can experience while playing in natural settings. Risk play involves surroundings

where children have the potential to injure themselves or be injured by an object(s), which gives

children the opportunity to encounter risky situations that provide them a chance to build better

judgment (Hansen Sandseter, 2009; Wyver et. al., 2010). Natural settings accommodate many

opportunities for play involving risk compared to modern playgrounds, and children are drawn to

play areas that provide challenges (Aziz and Said, 2012; Brussoni et al., 2012). These

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challenging and risky opportunities have been shown to provide many benefits to physical and

cognitive development. Having a good sense of risk judgment helps children build on their

perceptual abilities and through cause and effect learn how to regulate their play in dangerous

play environments or activities, since children who injure themselves learn from their ill

judgment (Brussoni et al., 2012).

Risk play is often associated with independent play that provides children the chance to

explore their surroundings independently from adults and develop a sense of place. Just as

infants and toddlers are encouraged to explore their surroundings to help build their

independence, exploration outdoors as children get older can help further build independence

(Bixler et al., 2002; Passini, 1980; Webley, 1981). Independent play in nature helps children

acquire the knowledge of how they fit in their surroundings, and having a good sense of how one

fits into the natural world is correlated with individuals who have positive environmental

attitudes (Schultz, 2000).

Providing the most opportunities for children to experience nature can have a positive

influence on their development. Play in nature promotes pretend play, which has a multitude of

cognitive benefits including joint planning, self-regulation, problem solving, and goal seeking, as

well as enhancing social and linguistic skills (Bergen, 2002). It is theorized that pretend play

triggers many parts of the brain and that is why it is so beneficial to child development.

Another beneficial aspect of developing strong ability to pretend is being able to take

a different perspective and build on abstract thought (Bergen, 2002). Helping children build

abstract thought and a strong imagination can help in the formation of empathy, because the

ability to take perspective is needed to acquire empathy. Children who acquire a higher

perspective intelligence have an increased chance of becoming environmentally concerned

adults, since they would have greater empathetic capabilities to be able to take perspectives that

are different from their own (Schultz, 2000).

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Factors That Impact the Way Nature Is Experienced

Gender differences

There are often gender differences in childhood play. Girls tend to play in mainly fantasy

scenarios, single role play (ie. riding a bike), unstructured play, and in small groups, while boys

tend to play in large groups, have team coordination with rules to the play, and are more likely

than girls to pretend to be objects (Carlson and Taylor, 2005; Lever, 1978).

One important difference the way nature is experienced is that girls are more likely to

take part in fantasy play, physically using little to no objects to help assimilate their play

experience, while boys are more likely to use and manipulate objects during play and have

utilitarian views for imaginary animals. As a result boys may incorporate more materials from

the environment than girls during nature play and may use these materials to build and

manipulate their surroundings. Girls would more likely use nature as their backdrop for their

fantasy play imagining trees and rocks to be something else, participating in flower picking, and

imagining to be an animal (Nabhan and Trimnle, 1994).

Society has had an impact on the freedom of play for boys and girls, which can impact

their degree of exploration. Males tend to have more independent play, and explore farther from

home than girls. Males have this increased freedom due to many parents stereotyping that boys

will be safer while girls are more vulnerable so they need to stay closer to home to be protected.

Nature can be experienced close or away from home if the home has a yard or garden, but girls

are hindered in their development for spatial awareness from not being permitted to go on

explorations far from home (Aziz and Said, 2012; Nabhan and Trimnle, 1994). In this way,

society treats boys and girls differently on their independence to explore the natural world

causing nature experiences to differ; therefore, girls are forced to interact with what the garden

offers and boys are filled with a sense of freedom to find a nature experience they are in search

of.

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Men and women’s attitudes towards nature are similar to childhood attitudes of play

within the natural environment. For instance, men in general tend to have a more utilitarian view

towards the environment, while women tend to have a more moral view as their play involves

much fantasy that includes pretending to be an animal that enables them to have heightened

empathy. Men and women never outgrow their unique ways of viewing and interacting with the

environment, but adulthood education can help to increase an individual’s knowledge and

attachment towards nature (Kellert and Joyce, 1987; Nabhan and Trimnle, 1994). As adults, our

views and attitudes towards nature can be positively changed through environmental education,

but the childhood experience still plays a crucial role in the formation of human-nature

relationships.

City vs. rural living

Nature experience in childhood can be impacted by the place in which one grows up and

resides. Individuals who live within a city have been shown to be aware of their environmental

responsibility, but have decreased positive environmental attitudes and connections, while

individuals who live in rural environments have an increased chance of having good

environmental values, an increase in positive environmental attitudes, a stronger nature

connection, and tend to act in an environmentally conscious way (Berenguer et al., 2005; Hinds

and Sparks, 2008). Perhaps being surrounded by wild nature helps reinforce the importance of

nature and gives a better sense of one’s role within the environment; thus, improving their

human-nature relationship. City residents tend to have an out-of-site and out of mind way of

living, in which the environmental consequences caused by the actions one takes are not directly

seen, and wild places are viewed as a recreational activity or retreat.

Additionally, urban neighborhoods have provided fewer supportive foundations for safe

outdoor play for children and, in turn, have lowered urban childhood access to the outdoors

within their neighborhood (Gaster, 1991). The decline in outdoor playtime is a large factor in

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why urban children score lower than rural children in having positive attitudes and values

towards nature (Bunting and Cousins, 1985). Rural children have more opportunities to have

access with the outdoors, due to lower traffic density around their homes, and the proximity to

wild nature at or near their homes gives greater chance for fostering nature relationships.

Parental/peer influences

Children’s opportunities to experience nature are heavily influenced by their parent’s

attitudes and values toward the natural environment, as well as their peers’ attitudes and views,

and rural children tend to uphold their family values much more than children who live in urban

areas (Bunting and Cousins, 1985). Rural children have far less outside influences, such as

advertisement, than urban children, where streets, schools, buses, stores, and homes are filled by

advertisements that may favor technological activities, or activities that don’t involve nature

experiences such as movie theaters or amusement parks.

Opportunities for outdoor play can be further impacted if parental preferences are for

sedentary activities or if parental views toward nature are negative (Bixler et al., 2002; Gronhoj

and Thogersen, 2012). Parents who don’t have a relationship with nature, or fear it, don’t spend

time in the outdoors and parents are children’s first teachers. Parental comments made toward

the natural world, or even the lack of acknowledgment, are seen and heard by the child who

grows to assume this is the norm.

As children get older they start to spend more time away from their parents and with their

peers, so if parents have a negative view towards the environment children can still have a

positive attitude towards nature through the positive influence of their peers (Bixler et al., 2002;

Chawla, 1992; Gronhoj and Thosersen, 2011). Peers can help provide outdoor play opportunities

for children coming from a family background that lacks positive environmental attitudes.

During pre-adolescence and even adolescence, children want to be just like their friends and

have a strong yearn for group conformity, which is why childhood peers are highly influential on

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social rules and values (Lombardi, 1963). Peers can help fulfill nature experience opportunities

for children who are severely lacking due to low parental involvement, to include nature

experience opportunities such as joining friends’ family camping trips or even just playing in

their backyard.

What Makes a Quality Nature Experience?

For children to get a quality nature experience, the environmental setting should have

certain qualities. To start, the area should have variation and diversity in both topography and

vegetation, which helps provide a complex experience. With a complex environment there are

more opportunities for children to play and challenge themselves, in which aids in cognitive,

physical, and emotional-social development. Included within a diverse environment are more

chances for children to encounter risk play where they are able to challenge themselves

physically and cognitively (Fjortoft and Sageie, 2000). Secondly, diverse floras structures that

vary in topography can provide a multitude of options for children to play, such as climbing

trees, pretend play, and construction play. Nature settings that provide quality experiences

provide a multitude of play opportunities and stimulating experiences that capture all types of

interactive interests and early childhood developmental growth.

Lastly, a setting that provides a quality nature opportunity is one that provides a positive

experience (Borge et al. 2003). Providing a positive experience makes the development of the

human-nature relationship grow because it was enjoyable and pleasant, brings fond memories

of attachment, and gives a child a sense of place (Schaffer and Kistemann, 2012). A child who

grows up to fear components of the natural world will avoid environments where such fearful

components are present. Having positive views helps to encourage an individual to explore the

outdoors, to discover their place within the natural world, and to form a human-nature

connection.

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Ways to Increase Nature Experience Opportunities in Childhood

Nature schools

Nature schools, or forest kindergartens, are popular in European countries such as

Germany, Norway, and Britain, where early childhood nature experiences are seen as vitally

important in the building of positive human-nature connections. These schools, often preschools

and kindergartens, are based in national parks where every day, rain or shine, the children walk

or hike to a different nature spot. These schools are child-directed schools where the curriculum

is based on childhood interests and questions, and often the natural environment provides many

opportunities for new questions and curriculum ideas. (Borge et al., 2003; O’Brien and Murray,

2007; Schaffer and Kistemann, 2012).

The reason why nature schools function so well for early learning is because the learning

takes place within the natural environment. These schools are based on constructivist theory

learning in which children learn as they interact and try and make sense of their surroundings.

This learning process is much more socially involved in that interactions between child and

teacher, and child and child, take place in higher quantities (Savery and Duffy, 2001). This way

of learning helps aid in building human-nature relationships as children acquire their

understanding and knowledge through a multi-sensory experience within wild nature as they

begin to receive answers to their questions to form a personal experience through each’s own

differential understanding.

The special and spiritual way that nature schools provide knowledge can help provide

more opportunities for U.S. children to have nature experiences, although it may not be an option

for every family. To start, parental involvement is much higher than in a regular school, and

many parents are asked to help the teacher in supervision. Since many are in wild areas, a low

child to adult ratio is needed in case of emergencies where one or more adults may need to leave

to get help, while the other(s) stay behind with the children. Since many parents work they may

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not be able to volunteer their time, which may have an economic stigma in that only certain

families will be able to take advantage of this kind of school (Schaffer and Kistemann, 2001).

Nature-based playgrounds

Nature-based playgrounds in traditional school settings, or even neighborhood parks, can

be another option to help increase childhood opportunities to experience nature, while gaining

the positive developmental benefits from nature play for children who don’t have the luxury to

attend a nature school. Nature-based playgrounds include a compilation of trees, grass, sand,

water, dirt, rocks, and shrubs, which provide opportunities for nature to be incorporated into a

child’s daily routine. Incorporating natural material opens up a chance for living organisms

to make their way into the play setting, which provides opportunity to observe, wonder, and

explore the diverse living organisms present.

In this way, nature-based playgrounds help to mimic a multi-sensory experience with the

incorporation of different tactile experiences found in natural settings, while children acquire

benefits such as increased socialization, increased physical development such as coordination

and balance, and an increase in imaginary play (Black, 2006). Traditional playgrounds don’t hold

a child’s attention for long, and play is often interrupted, while children who play in nature-based

playgrounds play the same thing for longer periods that can continue over into the next day

(Fjortoft, 2004; Louv, 2008). Just like natural play settings, nature-based playgrounds are

experienced in much the same way in that they provide multi-functional opportunities to enhance

a child’s interest and keep them occupied for long periods of time.

Nature-based playgrounds are slowly becoming popular in schools and neighborhood

parks, since more and more adults are becoming aware of the negatives associated with young

children’s lack of nature experience opportunities. Portland, Oregon’s Westmoreland Park was

refurbished into a nature-based playground in efforts to help increase childhood opportunities to

experience the natural world. The park incorporates environmental science for children to learn

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as they play, such as the addition of a concrete channel with water pumps for children to

manipulate the water flow. Nature-based playgrounds offer great nature experience

supplementation to children within cities, but the cost to build such a park is costlier than a

traditional one due to the materials and maintenance (Anderson, 2014). The quality of nature-

based playgrounds is much higher, and more highly beneficial to child development and to

fostering human-nature connectiveness than traditional playgrounds.

Backyards and gardens

Childhood experience in wild nature is still the most effective influence on adult

environmental attitudes, but other forms of nature (i.e. backyards, gardens, parks, etc.) still can

play a small part to help replace missing wild nature experience opportunities (Wells and Lekies,

2006). Not every household has a backyard, but the ones that do can have an opportunity to

experience nature every day. Although many backyards may resemble poorly planned landscape

parks, they can still provide a chance for children to have a multisensory experience with grass,

dirt, leaves, trees, rocks, bugs, birds, etc. Experiencing nature through a backyard can help many

children whose parents are overprotective, have work obligations, or who are low income and

have little access to transportation.

Having a backyard garden can also help increase the quality of nature experience within

a home. Gardens have the potential to help foster connections to nature, and create a connection

that is unique to each individual (Bhatti and Church, 2001). Gardens are seen as a child-friendly

activity that can help develop better social skills, and gain a better sense of how humans fit into

and affect the ecosystem (Laaksoharju et al., 2012). As children watch their plants grow from

seed they discover many ecological processes which further aids in the child’s understanding and

curiosity of their placement within the system. In a way, a garden is a miniaturized opportunity

for a nature school within a home and with enough parental involvement to help guide the child’s

questions and concerns a quality nature experience is provided.

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Park restoration and management

The increase in urban development has had a negative impact on the quality of most

urban ecosystems, even though the ecosystems in urban areas are just as important to

protect and restore as the ones found in wild nature (Niemela et al., 2010). Implementing a new

form of landscape design for urban green spaces that can help increase biodiversity as well as

support local ecosystems through sustainable management and conservation biology practices,

can help increase quality nature opportunities within urban areas (Deardorn and Kark, 2009;

Niemela et al., 2010). Providing diverse, sustainable, and native natural green spaces within the

city provide human and ecological benefits, such as noise reduction, micro climate regulation,

and air filtration, along with quality nature recreation (Bolund and Hunhammer, 1999). Restoring

urban parks to a diverse area close to its natural state is the best option, although there are many

difficulties in the restoration and implementation process associated with stakeholder issues:

landscape design, habitat protection, recreation, and individuals who yearn for full restoration to

an exact pre-settlement landscape (Gobster, 2001).

Parks today need to include multi-use attributes due to such diverse stakeholder

expectations, and individuals within cities have multiple uses and needs from parks that involve

cultural, ecological, and human wellness criteria. Recent park planning and management

knowledge has come to a better understanding involving urban planning needs to incorporate

ecological roles, and better planned and managed parks to help increase a city’s ecological

services, as well as to represent the natural world in which human beings are an integral part of

(Boland, 2001). Many cities are taking the lead in creating ecologically sound landscape parks,

and are turning abandoned railway yards into multi-functional parks, which serve as wildlife

corridors, safe pedestrian and bicycling routes, art and cultural facilities, and a place to foster

healthy well-being and human-nature connections. In Queens, New York, the city plans to turn a

3.5 mile long abandoned rail line into such a parks, and plans on keeping many of the already

existing flora that have established themselves during succession (Foderaro, 2014). Development

16

of the new park, called “QueensWay”, will consist of keeping a “wild” feel to the park, which

will also provide a safe pedestrian path that is linked to many other parks within the area.

Chicago also plans to turn their 2.5 mile elevated abandoned rail lines into an ecological park,

called “Bloomingdale Trail”, that will serve as a nature refuge for locals as well as a trail that

leads to other city parks, and a wildlife corridor that will consist of 125,000 newly planted trees

and shrubs (Rotenberk, 2013). Both of these examples are implementing a new park planning

and management regime where parks are being built to represent native wild areas and floras are

being planted that require little management. These parks offer a prime opportunity for quality

nature areas for city children, and individuals of all ages, to connect with the natural world close

to home.

Conclusion

The need for an increase in nature experience opportunities for children to develop a

relationship to nature is crucial in the formation of human-nature connectiveness that is carried

with them into adulthood. It is clear that children today are lacking in opportunities to experience

nature and access to the outdoors to begin their path in building their own human-nature

relationship. Increased fear for childhood safety and technology-based activities both play central

roles in hindering children’s opportunities for nature experiences, especially for children living

in urban areas where the increase in human population has caused a decrease in quality nature

experiences and an increase in automobile traffic and child abduction fears (Carver et al., 2008;

Moore, 1997; Clements, 2004; Gaster, 1991; Wyver et al., 2010; Altheide, 1997; Kitzinger,

2002). This decrease in nature experience opportunities has brought about negative

developmental impacts on children that has been brought to attention through such labeling

terms as nature-deficit disorder (Louv, 2008).

Childhood play in nature can help to reverse symptoms caused by lack of earlier nature

experiences, while also aiding in healthy cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development

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(Bergen, 2002; Hansen Sandseter, 2009; Staempfli, 2009). Play in nature is a multi-sensory

experience and it provides a variety of play opportunities that support the full spectrum of child

developmental needs. Through increased physical challenges, risk play, increased socialization,

and increased imaginary play children begin to practice using mental abilities needed for future

academic achievement (Acredola, 1982; Bixler et al., 2002; Kaplan, 1976; Passini, 1980;

Webley, 1981).

Gender plays a role in providing opportunities to experience nature, and also impacts

the way nature is experienced through play. Boys tend to have a utilitarian approach to play in

nature using materials around them, while girls become a part of nature through their pretend

play (Nabhan and Trimnle, 1994). The way boys and girls play in nature is carried into

adulthood, and forms adult environmental views. There is a correlation to boy utilitarian

play to man utilitarian attitude towards nature, as well as girl pretend play building perspective

ability that enables them as women to have strong empathetic abilities; thus, forming positive

environmental morals and attitudes (Schultz, 2000).

Outside influences, such as parental fear and gender bias, urban versus rural living, and

parental/peer influence, impact the type and opportunity of nature experience. In general boys

are allowed to explore far from home and girls are told to stay close, female opportunities for

nature exploration are limited (Aziz and Said, 2012; Nabhan and Trimnle, 1994). Rural children

have wild nature close to home, and have frequent access that helps in the formation of positive

environmental attitudes and human-nature connectiveness, while urban children have little

access to wild nature, and their nature opportunities are very limited to domestic areas, such as

backyards and parks (Bergenguer et al., 2005; Hinds and Sparks, 2008). Parental values impact

environmental views and nature opportunities for children but can be redirected by peer

influence (Bunting and Cousins, 1985; Chawla, 1992). Quality experience in nature is full of a

variety of opportunities, which is why it is understandable for there to be a variety of outside

influences on how childhood nature experiences are obtained.

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Quality nature experiences can be found in areas other than wild nature, such as

backyards, nature-based playgrounds, or neighborhood parks that were built with landscape

ecology in mind. Quality nature areas must have a variety of tactile experiences available,

involve multiple senses, provide opportunities for exploration and freedom, and have a diverse

floras topography (Borge et al., 2003; Fjortoft and Sageie, 2000) . Play in backyards, nature-

based playgrounds, or a quality neighborhood parks should be seen as gap filling opportunities

for children to experience nature when they don’t have the opportunity to experience wild nature

settings, due to that fact that experiences within wild areas have a larger impact on the formation

of human-nature experiences than more domesticated nature settings (Wells and Lekies, 2006).

Domesticated nature experiences are complimentary to wild nature experiences by providing a

chance to connect with nature to keep consistency in the formation of human-nature

connectiveness.

Although there has been research on the positive benefits nature has on childhood

development and nature relationships through a child’s experience and interaction in these

settings there still needs to be more research; specifically research that investigates the children

of the U.S., since many studies involving the benefits of childhood nature experiences take place

in European nations (Chawla, 1998; Cheng and Monroe, 2012; Hinda and Sparks, 2008; Kahn

and Kellert, 2002; Moore, 1997; Wells and Lekies, 2006; Yoesting and Burkhead, 1972). Also,

continued research on the benefits of nature-based playgrounds and how they can help fill in the

gap in nature experience opportunities should be examined as nature-based playgrounds are a

relatively new concept and there are few data on the topic.

Continued stewardship in the form of protection, preservation, and restoration of wild

areas is crucial for future generations to form quality human-nature relationships. For these

measures to be carried out throughout the generations children need to obtain substantial

opportunities involving outdoor play and exploration experiences, while also providing chances

to engage and interact within wild nature settings to ensure human-nature relationship formation.

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Early childhood is the starting point for the formation of human-nature connectiveness and

efforts should be made to enlighten educators and parents to the benefits nature play and

experiences have on child development and the human-nature relationship that are pathways to

adult environmental stewardship.

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