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Lisa Bauman-Cook has spent thousands of hours crawling, shimmying, scrambling, and rappelling into caves across the western United States. But do not call her a spelunker. 

That term, she says, was coined by mid-20th-century tourism boosters to entice customers into caves. As a result, in...

There’s something about time spent in nature that makes us feel better. Whether it’s a quick stroll around the block to think through a problem or a weekend in the wilderness to clear your head, you’ve probably experienced a boost just from getting outdoors. But why?

It’s a question that...

Tim Kovar is afraid of heights.

It wouldn’t be remarkable—most of us get a little nervous off the ground—except that Kovar makes a living teaching people how to climb trees. From the towering redwoods of the California coast to the steamy Amazon Basin, Kovar has introduced more than 10,...

A decade ago, Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods sounded the alarm: our culture's increasing alienation from the natural world is taking a toll on our kids. In the wake of the book's success, Louv co-founded the Children & Nature Network—and this month, Louv released his...