If war occurs, that positive adult contact in every shape is needed more than ever. It will be a matter of emotional life and death. There's not a handy one-minute way of talking to your kid about war.

What if a tree fell in the forest and no one knew it's biological name? Did it exist?

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.

Time in nature is not leisure time; it's an essential investment in our chidlren's health (and also, by the way, in our own).

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.

Now, my tree-climbing days long behind me, I often think about the lasting value of those early, deliciously idle days. I have come to appreciate the long view afforded by those treetops. The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.

The future will belong to the nature-smart...Th e more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.