How many times in your life would you say you have enjoyed an outdoor activity like walking on the beach or through the woods behind campus with Mrs. Lehnes? How about going on duck hunts or fishing with friends? If you want to continue spending time outside hunting, fishing, or even gardening, something needs to change. 

According to the Global Forest Watch, in 2022 the United States lost 4.6 million acres of natural forest due to logging and infrastructure development. Furthermore, the Foundation for Economic Education reported that the US in 2022 lost 15 million acres of public hunting land and national forest due to private domiciles and public developments blocking off all entranceways into these public lands. These scary statistics lead to an inevitable question: How do we fix this? Well, without getting into a long discussion of ecology and environmental science, the simple answer is to get out and get involved in outdoor activities. You may wonder how this can solve such a detrimental situation, but it is rather simple! The more people that actively partake in outdoor activities, the more we support the environment through economic and regulatory means, and the more we benefit in turn.

Hunting and fishing, though controversial to some, play a major role in the world’s environmental health and also the psychological state of its human populations. When exercised properly, hunting and fishing prove incredibly reconstructive to the ecosystem because, when more money is spent on hunting- and fishing-related items such as licenses, gear, and tags, more money is returned by the government to environment based departments to better natural resources in the US.  Apart from the environmental benefits, people who participate in these activities benefit mentally and physically. For example, hunting and fishing teach participants life lessons such as patience, persistence, and self-control. Many people also forget to take into consideration the health benefits. It is far healthier to eat wild game meat over other farmed and processed meats due to the lack of preservatives, steroids, and hormones used to increase growth rates and shelf life. Being able to acquire your meat from hunting and fishing is rather challenging and requires good physical health, therefore promoting efforts to increase physical health in participants.

Organic gardening is another popular and beneficial activity people can partake in for a healthier lifestyle and ecosystem. In addition to being a great hobby, growing your own fruits and vegetables guarantees that you won’t be consuming harmful fertilizers and pesticides. Even though fertilizers are great for short-term growing seasons to increase yield, the negative effects last quite a while and happen on a larger scale. On the other hand, organically grown produce (especially when grown in a home garden) is far healthier than synthetically improved produce. 

When we humans starve ourselves of the natural world, we often suffer mentally from depression and anxiety and even serious health problems like a lack of bone density or weakened immune systems, but all this is easily fixed. Just a simple fifteen-minute walk, for instance, has been shown to drastically decrease levels of stress as we escape from business meetings, school, or any other source of anxiety. Nature also provides a simple solution to a problem only witnessed in recent years: tablet kids. Excessive screen time has been shown to impede sensory development and damage retinas. Nature gives children and adults a healthy escape from the screens so many are glued to. In all the hard facts we must face in this modern world, nature should still lie at the center.

In conclusion, whether it be in relation to funding, food, health, or psychological experience, the natural world provides a plethora of benefits and knowledge just waiting to be discovered and used. A few people have already realized this. For them, going to the woods is like going to church; they see the natural world’s phenomena as astounding on almost a spiritual level and recognize its important interconnection with the human race. Sadly, humanity has created quite the environmental mess, and only we can clean it up with help from Mother Nature herself. 

Check out the Carolina Conservationist in each edition of the Eagle Examiner as I share  more information and ways to get out into the natural world and live in conjunction with nature in a mutually beneficial relationship. Who knows? You may even be inspired with a sense of biophilia, or deep love for the natural world.