What Would Grizzly Adams Do?

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  02.13.08 | 3:03 PM ET

grizzlyadams

As a little kid I used to watch Grizzly Adams and Ben tear through the forest, chewing my braids as I strained to sense the scents and sights. So when my parents finally took us to the Black Hills one summer, I ran through the real forest, breathing in the pine and earth and windy scents of wildflowers. It was so much better than watching it on TV. Alas, since my favorite television show in my little girl days went off the air in 1982, our connection to nature has been steadily weakening, NPR reports. Participation in outdoorsy activities such as hiking, fishing and camping has dropped 18 percent since the 1980s, according to a University of Illinois study.

We once used to view the wild as a romantic playground where you could connect to something primal and divine, says environmental historian Mark Barrow. But in a new “era of mediated nature” the Great Outdoors may be increasingly confined to zoos and plasma-screen TVs.

Grizzly and Ben would be so sad.

There is hope for us, though. For instance, a high school program in northern Vermont holds classes outdoors all year long and focuses on the teachings of Henry David Thoreau. And twentysomethings are finding their place in the natural world and writing enthusiastic essays about their experiences.

Tags: Outdoors, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


2 Comments for What Would Grizzly Adams Do?

John M. Edwards 02.14.08 | 1:09 PM ET

Hi Joanna:

We humans and demigods act like zoo animals when we stomp through the forest, leaving behind the detritus of our vanishing civilization. I would say your average bear is at least a little bummed out when all we have in our packs is crumbs and Cokes.

I don’t dig the sage old advice that we play dead during a bear attack, feigning sleeping beauty as we’re pawed and mangled with impunity—and left a half-eaten carcass limping like the grim reaper through the windswept nature reserves, trailing tripe and howling for revenge.

Of course, we’re supposed to snap our fingers under the bear’s nose and say “fiddlesticks!” Then, like a merry trickster, clamber up a tree, as the bear throatily growls in the wilderness at the unfairness of their imperfect morph into the image of the Maker.

Grizzly Smith 06.06.08 | 10:00 PM ET

Hi there!

Came across your blog while searching for mentions of my “Grizzly’s Growls” podcast.  Closest I’ve got for related content is my stories feed, where I’m currently reading my way through “Biography of a Grizzly” by Ernest Thompson Seton.”  Didn’t realize what an impact that would have—now I’m kind of intimidated.  I’m going to try subscribing, but I’m not sure which of my tools to use to subscribe—I have three now.  But I will be paying attention, as best I can.

Where I live, nature is more part of day-to-day life than some places.  I’m glad to see someone devoting the effort to talk about it while one can still find some nature left somewhere.

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