This story first appeared in the summer 2014 edition of Our Big Backyard magazine.
Antonio (wearing orange) and Camilo (in yellow) enjoy Hawthorne Park. A Metro Nature in Neighborhoods grant helped created the nature playground at this Clackamas County park
Remember waking up on a Saturday and running outside to a nearby vacant lot, field, woods – even your own backyard – to climb rocks, make mud pies and dig in the sand with old milk jugs? The musical sounds of laughing children playing hide-and-seek outside until the setting sun prompted calls for dinner?
The outdoors used to be a child’s paradise just waiting to be explored, but the rise of families living in urban environments and safety concerns about leaving children unattended has changed the way kids play. More and more children are staying indoors or participating in planned activities.
That’s why there is a growing movement to bring the outdoors back to childhood – to connect kids to the natural world through play. Where once there were metal slides and plastic swings, now logs, stones, water and sand wait for children to move and manipulate using their imagination and creativity.
Nature-based playgrounds, frequently called playscapes, are popping up throughout Oregon, including the greater Portland region. Metro is exploring ways to include nature play in its parks and natural areas and get involved in the larger movement to bring the wild back to the outdoors.
Annie West, Jim Caudell, Howard Rasmussen, Mike Carpinella and Resa Allen (not pictured) researched models and safety guidelines to build the nature playground at Metro’s Blue Lake Regional Park.
When an old playground at Metro’s Blue Lake Regional Park needed to be replaced, rangers saw an opportunity to bring good, old-fashioned play to the park. Letting their inner child guide them, they pulled together for the first time on a group project and let organic materials, found throughout Metro’s parks and natural areas, guide the process. “The right time and the right people came together to build a natural playground for kids to stomp and romp,” said Jim Caudell, lead ranger at the park. “The project was a labor of love.”
Now, on a sunny afternoon kids run around the playground moving sticks to build forts, climbing along wooden hanging steps, making music on a wood marimba and enjoying snacks in the mud and stone pavilion – all under the watchful eye of a momma goose that has made a nest for her goslings on top of the playground’s iconic tree.
By approving a parks and natural areas levy last year, voters made it possible to design a playscape adventure at Metro’s Oxbow Regional Park. Soon a labyrinth of interconnected base camps and adventure trails will allow children to traverse a series of plant- and animal-themed activities like an insect hotel.
“The value of playscapes is we are connecting the next generation of young people to nature, so we have nature stewards,” said Michelle Mathis of Learning Landscapes, who is helping design the Oxbow adventure. “We are offering children more imaginative places to play and encouraging teamwork. It’s more like whole-child play.”
The right time and the right people came together to build a natural playground for kids to stomp and romp. The project was a labor of love.
- Jim Caudell, lead ranger at Blue Lake Regional Park
Nature playgrounds come in many shapes and sizes, with a range of materials. They can be as broad as a designated piece of land for children to play using materials they find around them, or as specific as traditional structures designed to look like nature.
“It’s the creative aspect that gets me jazzed,” said Metro parks and trails planner Rod Wojtanik, who is managing the project. “All the loose parts that kids can interact with, move and explore.”
On a sunny afternoon Heidi Bueno watched her children play at the nature-themed Hawthorne Park in Clackamas County. With the help of a Metro Nature in Neighborhoods grant, the county set aside an acre of land within a housing development along Southeast King Road. “At a traditional playground you feel where the space begins and ends; a nature playground just goes on and on,” she says as her 9-year old son Niko runs and jumps in the sand.
“I like the sand the best,” Niko said excitedly, before happily running back through to show how it’s done.