The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
A group of men stand birdwatching. (Ryan Hagerty/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikimedia)
Sparked by
Richard Louv’s book on
Nature-Deficit Disorder, many
organizations,
agencies,
teachers and the
White House
have made the push to get people outside for the benefit of their
mental and physical health. Now there is another reason: to benefit
environmental health. In a new study my colleagues and I show that
outdoor recreationists—in this case, birdwatchers and hunters—are more
likely than non-recreationists to carry out conservation activities.
We chose to publish the
paper in the
Journal of Wildlife Management because state wildlife agencies have a long history of designing programs for their hunting
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