Crissy Field Center

1199 East Beach

This year Earth Stroll will provide multiple, fun-filled activities, for families with kids of all ages. From tortilla making, to nature sculpture, to live animal demonstrations from WildCare, to musicians on bicycles (featuring Sunday Streets featured, bike-powered El Arbol, a musical tree bicycle!), there is something for everyone in your family to enjoy. As with each Earth Stroll, the goal is to spark curiosity, creativity and fun movement in the outdoors. Pacific Leadership Institute will create a new obstacle course adventure, named Park Pursuit: a challenge for minds and bodies depending on which route participants choose. Bring your team spirit!  www.crissyfieldcenter.org

Berkeley & San Francisco, California

The green schoolyard movement is growing rapidly and flourishing around the world. Schools near and far are reimagining their grounds, replacing their extensive paved surfaces with a vibrant mosaic of outdoor learning and play opportunities. Schools in many different countries are leaders in this field, finding innovative ways to weave curricula into their landscapes, diversify their recreational offerings, enhance their local ecology, and reflect their unique location and cultural context. The first International Green Schoolyard Conference held in the United States will be happening this weekend! Invited visionary leaders of the school ground movement from Europe, North America, and Japan will share their experiences, case studies, and best practices. For more info visit http://greenschoolyards.org/home

If it’s true that people are self-interested creatures at heart, journalist Richard Louv has a message for humankind: Think not only what we can do for nature, but what nature can do for us.

Louv’s seminal book, Last Child in the Woods, launched a national dialogue about the disconnection between children and nature, a state he calls nature-deficit disorder. Now, in The Nature Principle, Louv vividly portrays how a nature-infused lifestyle can enhance the quality of our health and relationships, benefiting every facet of experience. He asserts that the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need, and offers a roadmap to a future that incorporates nature into every aspect of our lives, from our homes to our workplaces.

The recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal, Louv is the author of eight books, and the founder of the Children & Nature Network.

You cite many instances of nature’s power to heal and restore us mentally, emotionally, physically and even intellectually. How does science account for this?

Healers have known about the importance of nature to our health and well-being for thousands of years, but scientists have only in recent years begun to study the benefits of what I call, “vitamin N.” Still, the preliminary research indicates overwhelmingly positive correlations between human health and intelligence and nature.

For example, a University of Illinois study of urban children with attention deficit disorder found that even a little exposure to nature can have a positive effect on ADD. Several other studies indicate that walking in natural areas improves our mental and physical health. Researchers from Sweden and England have compared exercising in indoor and outdoor settings learned that expending the same amount of energy in these different environments provides different results, with green exercise offering added value. Science can’t yet tell us the causes and mechanisms behind these correlations, yet we know enough to act.

Technology permeates every aspect of our lives today. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that American youth spend an average of 53 hours a week using entertainment media. So we have to consciously bring more nature into our lives—not just to escape technology’s documented negative effects, but also to access the positive benefits that nature provides.
It’s not a case of nature versus technology, however; it’s a matter of balance. The “hybrid mind” can access the benefits of both, facilitating skills in big-picture thinking.

You assert that reconnecting with nature also strengthens community and family bonds, but where can busy urbanites start?

Often, families want to connect with nature but don’t know how. We offer free tools at ChildrenAndNature.org to help you start a family nature club organized around prearranged nature play dates. One club has 600 families. This helps create meaningful social bonding within and between families. It’s something any family can do, regardless of location or income, and it’s good fun.

What roles do governments play in preserving a nature-balanced world?

All have a role to play. Urban planners a hundred years ago planned cities around nature. It’s not a new idea; we’ve just forgotten.

Nature can offer cost-effective solutions to some of the problems cash-strapped governments face. For example, it costs a lot to tear up a canyon and put in a new stormwater system, but a lot less to develop a system that takes advantage of the natural watershed.

People often think about nature as somewhere else, like a state park or wilderness area, yet you point out the need to re-imagine our own yards and neighborhoods. What can we do to enhance the local habitats that ultimately sustain us?

We often overlook the nature where we live, work and play. In 2008, for the first time in history, more people on Earth were living in urban, rather than rural areas. That means if we are going to have meaningful experiences with nature, we are going to have to rethink nature within cities.

Looking forward, conservation measures alone won’t be enough to get us where we need to be. We need to start recreating nature in order to protect the biodiversity that all creatures need, humans included. We can start in our backyards by replacing lawns with flowers and native plants that will bring back sustainable migration routes for birds and butterflies.

Acting on The Nature Principle is an optimistic way of looking at the future. It’s not just about survival; it’s creating a way of life that is profoundly all-around better for all of us.

A free family event
Saturday December 11th
drop-in 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Celebrate winter with a Create With Nature outdoor sculpture making event for families. From fairy-sized huts to large palm tree frond teepees, kids and grown-ups alike will get creative with natural materials at the newly renovated Rob Hill Campground in the Presidio. The ingredients for the day include wood, leaves, stone, pine cones, bark, branches, water, and imagination.

Bring a picnic lunch or snack!

Americans’ best memories often come from time spent outdoors with family and friends on hiking trails, in neighborhood parks, at historic sites, at the beach and along the coast, or on the banks of a favorite stream.  The outdoors is where we connect with one another, explore our past, and discover our heritage.   It is part of our national identity.

Today, however, many families are losing touch with America’s great outdoors. Kids are spending less time outside running and playing, fishing and hunting, and learning about our outdoor customs.  Especially in urban areas, too few children have the opportunity to play in parks, visit farms and ranches, or camp or fish beneath the open sky.

From coast to coast, America’s public lands and waters offer fun and healthy opportunities to get outdoors. From hiking, fishing, and hunting to exploring history at our national parks, we pass on family traditions – and create new ones – as we honor America’s outdoor legacy.

Communities and private landowners across the country are working to protect and restore their outdoor spaces, and to help people connect to them. Farmers and ranchers, land trusts and conservation groups, are coming together with governments, industry, and residents to develop innovative strategies to promote the outdoors.

There are now three unique URBIA adventures to be had! In April and May there will be festive special opportunities to pick up an adventure packet at the locations of each adventure. The URBIA team will be tabling on these Saturdays in spring:

Saturday April 10th 10-noon Islands in the Sky (at the colorfully tiled Moraga Steps: 16th Avenue and Moraga Street) It’s green hairstreak butterfly season!!

Saturday April 10th 1-3 Seeking California in a World of Plants (at the San Francisco Botanical Garden/Strybing Arboretum) The garden is a kaleidoscope of spring flowers! This event is sponsored by the SF Botanical Garden Society.

Saturday April 17th 10-2 Wayfinding on Rocky Mountain (at the Randall Museum’s annual celebrated Bug Day!)

Saturday May 8th 10-noon Seeking California in a World of Plants (at the San Francisco Botanical Garden/Strybing Arboretum) More blossoms, just in time for Mother’s Day! This event is sponsored by the SF Botanical Garden Society.

We’ll have all three adventure booklets at each of these scheduled tabling events. Donations will be gratefully accepted (for materials costs). Happy trails

Please e-mail us with any questions at team@urbikids.com

Where and when?

Look for the URBIA Team and pick up an adventure booklet & sleuthing pencil at the URBIA table between 10 a.m. & 2 p.m. near the Garden Bookstore located near the Main Gate of the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park (close to 9th Avenue and Lincoln.)

Hope to see you there!

San Francisco trivia question: Who was the Randall Museum named after?

Answer: Josephine Randall, the first Supervisor of Recreation in San Francisco.

The Randall Museum’s first curator Bert Walker wrote that the Corona Heights location was selected for its natural features valuable “for outdoor nature studies” in the “very heart of the city where young people could spend a happy day in the country.”

In 1928, Josephine Randall proposed that the City buy the 16 acres of Rock Hill for recreation, and in 1941, it was purchased for  $27,333 and officially named Corona Heights. Designated as a natural area, the Park hosts a range of native and non-local life and plants– lizards, garter snakes, raccoons, opossum, grasses, wildflowers, birds and butterflies. It also hosts the Randall Museum, named for the woman who relentlessly and successfully fought to establish it.

The Museum opened in 1951 at 199 Museum Way and in succeeding years has developed into a community institution for all ages. Focusing on the culture and environment of the San Francisco Bay Area, it offers arts and sciences classes, a California native animals room, and workshops for children, teens and families. The Randall Theater’s program presents performances by the Young People’s Teen Musical Theater and Musical Theater Works, a student theater. Community groups use the facilities for meetings and lectures. At the Outdoor Learning Environment are Learning Gardens, the Native Plant Garden, and from the observation deck, a panoramic view of San Francisco, the Bay, East Bay hills, and, when the air is clear, the snowcapped Sierra.