A widening circle of researchers believes that the loss of natural habitat, or the disconnection from nature even when it is available, has enormous implications for human health and child development. They say the quality of exposure to nature affects our health at an almost cellular level.

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

The pleasure of being alive is brought into sharper focus when you need to pay attention to staying alive.

Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making.

We are telling our kids that nature is in the past and it probably doesn't count anymore, the future is in electronics, the boogeyman is in the woods, and playing outdoors is probably illicit and possibly illegal.

No other youth group like the Scouts has trained so many future leaders while at the same time being a nature organization with its outdoor focus.