Radnorshire Wildlife Trust recently published a post about our disconnection from nature, asking, ‘How can we re-wild this connection?’ As an educator, as well as an author and activist, I see this disconnect reflected in the lives of both young and old. That’s not to say the great outdoors isn’t embraced when the opportunity arises. Far from it, within a school setting, it’s always a joy for students and staff alike to step beyond the confines of the classroom and into nature. For parents, it has also taken on added significance, offering children valuable time away from their various screens.

This is evident in one of the chapters in my book, ‘New Roots, Ancient Lands’, a walking history of Herefordshire. It includes a day walk taken directly from school up the Golden Valley to the stunning Snodhill Castle. The students as ever reveal a mixture of engagement with the slightly wilder aspects of our modern lives. Some are truly perplexed by a stile, as they are by gates and some are shocked by the necessity of climbing a hill. Still, when we rest at the top of the same hill and watch as swallows glide around us and later, when a collective wow is aired when we turn the corner and spy the Castle, it is evident that this is the place we should all spend more time in. 

The reason why is, as always, one that cannot be laid at the feet of children, for they exist in a world made by us, the ‘adults’. How this has come about and the worry is obvious, for this disconnection is decades in the making, if not longer. For the children of the past became adults in a world where progress meant everything urban and digital, and food and experiences were packaged and sold. This process has only intensified since. It is as ever not universal, my setting has students who are as desperate to return to their farms and animals, as others are to their bedrooms and screens. Equally it is not one or the other, though what is clear is that this severance from the need to feel connected to the natural environment is one we must all care about. 

There are incredible efforts made by all Wildlife Trust’s, environmental groups, Forest Schools, walking groups and farms to reconnect young and old alike to the nature around them and the food we produce. Still, there’s an ‘otherness’ to this natural space that ultimately sustains us all. Why this is, is born from the expectation of how we are now meant to behave, head bowed or eyes aimed at a screen. Whilst our ‘free time’ being active is tied to exercise routines or the necessity of the dog walk, both - the former aided by park-runs - are often outside. Though to fully immerse ourselves more substantially in nature we will need a much wider shift than these occasional interactions. 

What is needed is more educational changes and opportunities for outside and active learning. Community support and funding must be put in place to offer again young and old the spaces and places to gather and connect, beginning that reconnection not only to the natural world but also to each other. For if the natural environment is feeling ‘othered’ by how we currently exist, it’s also isolated from our thoughts, as are too many of us within our communities. Loneliness and isolation affect our mental and physical health and add to the cost of our NHS. It is a self-fulfilling experience we can no longer help to fuel, something has to change. We need to find new roots when young, in fields and forests, in wilder city parks, accessible and healthier rivers and expanded interconnected wildlife corridors, but it is we adults who must lead this, for indeed this land is ancient, it holds not only history and stories but the real richness we must learn to embrace. 

Joseph Emmett; ‘New Roots, Ancient Lands’ is available from Orphans Publishers https://www.orphanspublishing.co.uk/book/new-roots-ancient-lands/