[Ymers] Fwd: FYI: Communing Without Nature

[Jennifer Eaton]

Consider touring our National Parks as there continues to be a decline in
interest......keep your eyes on the events page as our annual Acadia trip is
coming for Memorial Day weekend!

Jen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jack Downing <gratefulwarrior at yahoo.com>
Date: Feb 8, 2008 11:26 AM
Subject: FYI:  Communing Without Nature
To: "execworc at amcworcester.org" <execworc at amcworcester.org>



FYI - Study by Nature Conservancy find attendance dropping at National Parks
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Communing Without Nature
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WASHINGTON (AP) *-- As people spend more time communing with their
televisions and computers, the impact is not just on their health,
researchers say. Less time spent outdoors means less contact with nature
and, eventually, less interest in conservation and parks.
 [image: art.blueridge.jpg]

Visits to national parks peaked in 1987 and dropped 23 percent by 2006.
Camping, fishing and per capita visits to parks are all declining in a shift
away from nature-based recreation, researchers report in Monday's online
edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Declining nature participation has crucial implications for current
conservation efforts," wrote co-authors Oliver R. W. Pergams and Patricia A.
Zaradic. "We think it probable that any major decline in the value placed on
natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on
biodiversity conservation."

"The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor
videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health,
especially in children," Pergams said in a statement. "Videophilia has been
shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders
and poor academic performance."

By studying visits to national and state parks and the issuance of hunting
and fishing licenses the researchers documented declines of between 18
percent and 25 percent in various types of outdoor recreation.

The decline, found in both the United States and Japan, appears to have
begun in the 1980s and 1990s, the period of rapid growth of video games,
they said.

For example, fishing peaked in 1981 and had declined 25 percent by 2005, the
researchers found. Visits to national parks peaked in 1987 and dropped 23
percent by 2006, while hiking on the Appalachian Trial peaked in 2000 and
was down 18 percent by 2005.

Japan suffered similar declines, the researchers found, as visits to
national parks there dropped by 18 percent between 1991 and 2005.

There was a small growth in backpacking, but that may reflect day trips by
some people who previously were campers, wrote Pergams and Zaradic. Pergams
is a visiting research assistant professor of biological sciences at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, while Zaradic is a fellow with the
Environmental Leadership Program, Delaware Valley, in Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania.

While fishing declined, hunting held onto most of its market, they found.

"This may be related to various overfishing and pollution issues decreasing
access to fish populations, contrasted with exploding deer populations,"
they said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press <http://interactive_legal.html/#AP>. All
rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
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