After Richard Louv, chairman of the Children & Nature Network, published Last Child in the Woods in 2005, several organizations requested that he speak and write articles on the compelling topic of “Nature-Deficit Disorder,” which led to national media attention. I first heard Louv speak to a packed conference hall at the 2006 Bay Area Open Space Council conference in San Francisco. Since then, a movement to reconnect children to nature has been gaining momentum from environmentalists and youth development organizations to mental health care advocates.

In a recent article on the subject published in Orion magazine called Leave No Child Inside, Louv writes about the campaigns to reconnect children to nature, sometimes called “Leave No Child Inside,” forming across the country. “The activity has attracted a diverse assortment of people who might otherwise never work together,” writes Louv.

Before Louv’s book, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an evaluation in 2004 to measure the impacts of week-long residential outdoor education programs for at-risk sixth graders in California as called for by California Assembly Bill (AB) 1330, Chapter 663.

They found that children who attended outdoor school significantly raised their science scores by 27 percent, retained new science knowledge for six to ten weeks, showed gains in cooperation and conflict resolution and other positive social gains. More than half of the students in the study were English learners and first-timers to a nature setting.

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The Environmental Grantmakers Association just published a free online toolkit for greening foundation operations called “Green Beyond Grants.” It contains tips, specific steps, resources, and checklists for going green and practicing environmental sustainability. Topics in the guide include conserving energy, purchasing green materials and supplies, serving sustainable food and beverages, reducing waste, and conscious traveling.

Any organization that travels, runs an office, or hosts an event will find this guide useful. Events are a particularly good place to reduce waste and teach sustainability practices to others. Just last night the Women’s Environmental Network hosted a “zero waste” event in San Francisco. All plant-based utensils, cups, and plates were collected for composting, including the vegetarian tamale husks.

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Top row (left to right): Hammerskjoeld Simwinga of Zambia, Willie Corduff of Ireland, Orri Vigfússon of Iceland. Bottom row (left to right): Julio Cusurichi Palacios of Peru, Sophia Rabliauskas of Canada, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar of Mongolia

Yesterday evening in the San Francisco Opera House, the 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony celebrated the achievements of six grassroots environmental leaders from around the world. Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman, founded the annual award in 1990 to recognize environmental heroes from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions and to amplify the voices of these grassroots leaders. The award winners receive worldwide visibility for the issues they champion and financial support of $125,000 to pursue their vision.

The six prize winners will also be honored at a smaller ceremony tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25 at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC.

This year’s winners are:

North America: Sophia Rabliauskas, 47, Canada: Working on behalf of the Poplar River First Nation, Rabliauskas succeeded in securing interim protection for a portion of the boreal forest of Manitoba, effectively preventing destructive logging and hydro-power development while calling on government and international agencies to permanently protect the region.

Africa: Hammerskjoeld Simwinga, 45, Zambia: In Zambia’s North Luangwa Valley, where rampant illegal wildlife poaching decimated the wild elephant population and left villagers living in extreme poverty, Simwinga created an innovative sustainable community development program that successfully restored wildlife and transformed this poverty-stricken area.

Asia: Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, 40, Mongolia: Munkhbayar successfully worked with government and grassroots organizations to shut down destructive mining operations along Mongolia’s scarce waterways. Through public education and political lobbying, Munkhbayar has effectively protected Mongolia’s precious water resources from additional unregulated mining.

South & Central America: Julio Cusurichi Palacios, 36, Peru: In the remote Peruvian Amazon, Cusurichi secured a national reserve to protect both sensitive rain forest ecosystems and the rights of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation from the devastating effects of logging and mining.

Europe: Willie Corduff, 53, Ireland: In the small farming community of Rossport, Corduff and a group of fellow local residents and landowners successfully forced Shell Oil to halt construction on an illegally-approved pipeline through their land.

Islands & Island Nations: Orri Vigfússon, 64, Iceland: With business savvy and an unwavering commitment to reverse the near-extinction of wild North Atlantic salmon, Vigfússon brokered huge international fishing rights buyouts with governments and commercial interests, helping bring to an end destructive commercial salmon fishing in the region.

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Today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Nature in the City, a project of the Earth Island Institute that promotes the stewardship and awareness of San Francisco’s natural heritage, is hosting an Earth Day event in San Francisco’s McLaren Park. The celebration is free. Events and activities include birding hikes, interactive artworks, habitat restoration projects, planting, puppetry, and storytelling.

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