by Alicia MacLeay
Trailspace is a backcountry site first and foremost. Many of our members tend to be quite serious outdoorspeople (well, let's call them “accomplished” or “dedicated,” because they're not always that serious). Some have decades of impressive outdoors accomplishments and wilderness skills.
Given that, you might wonder, why would a backcountry site care about something so elementary as say, camping in the backyard?
Puh-lease, you might be thinking. How does sleeping 20 feet from one's backdoor compare with carrying a week's worth of food and gear through a wilderness area? Besides, I want to talk about the inner workings of my extensive stove collection and debate important issues like the proper way to navigate on a cloudy, moonless night, without a map, compass, or GPS. Does such a basic pseudo-camping event as the Great American Backyard Campout even belong on Trailspace? Does it really matter?
I believe it does, not only to the kid who sleeps out in his or her backyard for the first time, but also to you and me.
Consider these facts (courtesy of the National Wildlife Federation):
- Children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago.
- Today's kids spend 6.5 hours plugged into electronic media and just four to seven minutes in unstructured outdoor play each day.
- In a typical week, only 6 percent of children ages 9-13 play outside on their own.
- Children who play outside are more physically active, more creative in their play, less aggressive, and show better concentration.
- The most direct route to caring for the environment as an adult is participating in “wild nature activities” before the age of 11.
So what, some of you may still think. My kids are fine and outdoorsy, or what if I don't even have kids? Anyway, I like having less people outdoors with me.
While most of us appreciate and long for the solitude of the trail, the woods, the waters, we also have to consider that if an entire generation loses its connection to the outdoors — including the very accessible nature in backyards, neighborhoods, and local green spaces — who will value and care enough to help protect the backcountry you and I love? People value what they know. And if they don't know the outdoors, we all lose.
I don't want to sound all lofty here. This is about getting people outside in tents for goodness sakes. However, I think we have a responsibility to encourage and provide opportunities for all youth and families to get outside, even if the first step is simply into a tent at home.
I think of camping in the backyard as the equivalent of a (healthy) gateway drug to the really cool, backcountry stuff out there. It's good for them, but it's also good for us. Oh, and it's fun.
(A hat tip to Dave R., one of our fans on Facebook, who got me thinking about why this matters to me and Trailspace.)
