Urban Nature Counts

When we think of outdoor education, pristine wilderness often comes to mind—national parks, forest trails, mountain lakes. But groundbreaking research from William & Mary is challenging that assumption. Cities can be just as vibrant and valuable for outdoor learning as any untouched landscape.

And that matters more than you might think.

The Access Gap

"There's a huge inequity in who gets to take field trips, who gets access to parks and other outdoor spaces," says Assistant Professor Kathryn Lanouette, who's leading collaborative research with Richmond Public Schools and the nonprofit Blue Sky Fund. Her project is reimagining cities as vibrant teaching and learning spaces.

Transportation costs, entrance fees, and time away from school create barriers that disproportionately affect students from lower-income families. When outdoor education requires a bus ride to a state park an hour away, many schools simply can't make it happen. But when that education takes place in a local park blocks from school? The barrier disappears.

What Urban Nature Offers

Urban green spaces offer unique learning opportunities. Students can observe how nature adapts to human environments, study urban ecology, track seasonal changes in familiar places, and collect real data about air quality and local wildlife—science that matters to their own communities.

More importantly, regular access to nearby nature builds habits. When outdoor learning happens weekly in the neighborhood park instead of once a year at a distant nature center, children develop ongoing relationships with the natural world. They notice when the oak tree leafs out, when the birds return, when the creek runs high after rain.

Starting Where You Are

You don't need wilderness expeditions to give your children meaningful outdoor experiences. That neighborhood park? It counts. The community garden? It counts. The creek running through your suburb? It absolutely counts.

Take regular walks to observe seasonal changes in the same trees. Let kids examine what lives in local water sources. Turn the schoolyard into a science lab. And when weather threatens to keep you inside, remember that proper rain gear transforms a drizzly day into a perfect opportunity to see where the water goes and how nature responds.

Wilderness has its place, but so does the park down the street. By expanding our definition of where nature education happens, we expand who gets to participate. And that changes everything.