Don's Jersey Birding: Adult Nature Disconnect Disorder
Photo Credit: taylordphotography.com
By now I’m sure you have all read the great book by Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. The book talks about how our kids have become disengaged from nature and how they have lost touch with the natural world around them. Since that book was released in 2005, I have done much research and have come up with an astounding discovery about this ailment. I have a strong suspicion that it may be passed onto the children from their parents. I have named it Adult Nature Disconnect Disorder.
I believe that this is an inherited disease that can come from one or both parents. I am basing my hypothesis on some of the strangest phone calls that I have received from adults which tell me that they have to be passing their defective gene onto their unsuspecting children. As far as I know, there is no drug that has 43 side effects and that you can ask your doctor “if it is right for you” that would help.
The one thing I can tell you for sure is that this disorder has become widespread. I get calls with questions like, “There is a hawk in my yard eating my birds. Who can I call to take it away?” People act as if the hawk somehow got into their yard by accident, so like a kid’s football that gets tossed into a yard by mistake, someone needs to come and pick it up.
I haven’t determined yet whether this malady is confined to New Jersey or if it is much more widespread. When or where this condition first showed up among our citizens I’m really not sure, but I think it may have started with urban sprawl. As houses spread out all over New Jersey, we lost more and more of our natural places where we played as kids, and we slowly began to lose touch with nature. That is when this insidious disease began to strike. 
Photo Credit: goodnature.nathab.com
The conversation began with, “I have two hibiscus plants on my deck and the birds are in them!” The woman on the phone sounded like she was just one step away from hysteria.
“And the problem is?” I asked.
“Well I don’t want the birds to use them. What do I do?” she replied.
I believe this person must have been in the advanced stages of ANDD. Otherwise, they would have understood that birds do like to use shrubs now and again.
Many of my colleagues have noticed the rapid increase of this disorder also.
A friend that works at a local nature center received a call from a man who said, “I live just a few blocks down the street from your nature center and there is a turkey in my yard. Could you please come pick it up and put it back?”
Whatever part of the brain ANDD affects, it obviously makes people think that wildlife can’t live in one’s backyard, and therefore it must have come from somewhere else. I’m afraid that this person may be incurable.
In its advanced stages, ANDD can also cause the victim’s thought process to go awry. Proof of this came in the form of a phone call from a neighbor up the road who happens to be a lawyer.
“Hey, can you please move your bird feeders? The birds are landing in my tree and pooping on my car!”
“But my feeders are two blocks away,” I replied.
“Well they have to be your birds because I see the same ones at your feeder.”
I thought I would use him to gather information for my research so I tried some simple logic.
“Can you just move your car from under the tree?” I asked.
“Why should I do that?” he asked. “Just make your birds go home.”
My proof was there. ANDD can strike anyone, even people with law degrees.
So what is the answer? Do we need nature rehabs so that, like Dr. Drew, we can have interventions and send people off to learn what a tree looks like again? Not yet anyway. All we need to do is to walk outside, watch a robin feeding its babies, look for a migrating monarch on its long journey south, or look at a child’s face when he sees his first frog. If that doesn’t cure you, well, you can still try Dr. Drew.
Don Torino is the Education Chairperson for Bergen County Audubon Society.
Categories: Don's Jersey Birding
Tags: adult nature disconnect disorder nature deficit disorder last child in the woods nature birds
I work in a nursery. You should hear the comments from "gardeners" in the area. You would think they all grew up in Manhattan. My favorite so far this summer:"Do I have to water this pot of flowers? " Well ma'am, it is a living thing...
Reply to this
I think they need plastic flowers
Reply to this
Great article. I shared it with all of my family and friends.
Reply to this
glad you enjoyed it
Reply to this