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PRESERVE THE FOREST FOR OUR CHILDREN...
There is a growing and real concern that our children are suffering from Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD). While NDD may seem tongue in cheek, Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, has been a catalyst for organizations nationwide to seek new ways to connect children with hands-on outdoor experiences. Research is showing that getting kids out into nature increases their physical activity level, reduces loneliness, depression and attention problems and is essential to their cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being. Conversely, children suffer health problems, including obesity, from too much sedentary time indoors with TV and computers.
Burlington has many malls, numerous office parks and sites in need of re-development. What it lacks is green space that can foster a connection with the outdoors and natural environment.
The Landlocked Forest offers great potential to rebuild not only our children’s connection nature and outdoor recreation, but also our history. The old forest roads may have been used by the minutemen during the fight for freedom and there are a number of old stone foundations and numerous stone walls harking to our agricultural past. Some of the stone piles on the property may even have been Native American Indian ritual sites. There is much to learn in the forest, a history that will be obliterated if the forest is destroyed.
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