Get Outdoors tomorrow, officially

By Larry Claflin Jr.
Staff writer

June 13, 2008 12:32 am

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Here's an incentive to take to the woods this weekend: Tomorrow marks the first-ever Get Outdoors Day, a nationwide effort to inspire and motivate Americans — especially children — to get outside. Led by the U.S. Forest Service and the American Recreation Coalition, Get Outdoors Day is expected to take place in subsequent years on the second Saturday in June.

The two organizations assert that connecting nature and kids combats Nature Deficit Disorder, a term introduced by author Richard Louv in his 2005 book, "Last Child in the Woods" (Algonquin, $17), in which he connects children's behavioral problems to lack of exposure to the outdoors. The groups also state an active outdoor lifestyle staves off serious health threats and alarming trends that result from physical inactivity.

According to organizers, sites around the country will participate in National Outdoors Day, offering interpretative programs and new technologies to appeal to youth and nontraditional users in an effort to get "first-timers" to return to the woods. They are bringing together federal, state and local agencies — in cooperation with recreational businesses — with the goal of "making the outdoors fun."

This year, Massachusetts has no official Get Outdoors Day site, but groups like The Trustees of Reservations are promoting the day as a reason to visit one of its 99 properties across the state.

Within the Northeast Massachusetts segment of The Trustees' property map — which extends from North Andover to Marblehead — there are 19 reservations. Locally, Ipswich has the most, with seven: Appleton Farms (658 acres); Appleton Farms Grass Rides (259 acres); Castle Hill (165 acres); Crane Beach (1,234 acres); Crane Wildlife Refuge (697 acres); Greenwood Farm (216 acres); and Hamlin Reservation (135 acres).

There is also Crowninshield Island off Marblehead, a 5-acre property also known as Brown's Island; 114-acre Long Hill in Beverly, The Trustees' headquarters; Misery Islands in Salem Sound, at 87 acres; and Pine and Hemlock Knoll, in Wenham, the smallest North Shore property at 14 acres.

Visit one or more of these wonderful reservations on Get Outdoors Day. For more information, go to www.nationalgetoutdoorsday.org.

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Features editor Larry Claflin Jr. writes his "Get Outside" column regularly. He can be reached at lclaflin@salemnews.com.