A father shares his love of public lands with his young daughter
TJ Brown is the western regional field director for the National Wildlife Federation. He lives in Colorado with his family and enjoys exploring public lands every chance he gets.
“Look at the birds! Dad, it’s good that they can build their houses on the rock walls! Daaaad, I’m getting tiiiireed…” Suddenly the chatty child goes silent. I paddle to a shady spot on the side of the Colorado River and hop off the board. Oh my goodness, she’s snoring. My four-year-old, clad in PFD and oversized sun hat is in child’s pose on the back of my paddle board sawing some impressive wood — she’s out cold.
We’ve already had a few days exploring some areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management on the border between Utah and Colorado. That same morning we spent hours scrambling on some select rocks where she learned some new words and techniques “I used my butt and my feet to stem down the ROCK!” (Stem, of course, is the climbing technique where you use opposing forces to climb up or down a narrow passage in a rock). “Stem” and “stability” were used in seemingly every other sentence over the next few days.
She dropped her nap at age two and there was no way I was going to wake this snoring child to continue down the river. So I secured the board, sat on the bank and went for a dunk in the cool water as she slept.
Many of the memories and experiences I hold dear have taken place on public lands, starting at a young age. Quiet days on the water taking in the sounds and smells as we drifted by, peppering my Grandfather with questions about the plants and birds and listening to stories of the history of the place and peoples that came before us. I couldn’t get enough.
The seeds of my conservation ethic and present world view were planted in those early years canoeing and fishing on flat water creeks and rivers in Western New York and exploring the trails around Letchworth State Park. I cherish those memories and those experiences. They are burned into my hippocampus, filed along countless others over 40 years and the constant thread among the majority of those souvenirs is the setting, our public lands and waters.
She wakes up, grumpy, disoriented and with a strong stubborn desire to be somewhere else. Yummy snack at the ready and a Great Blue Heron on the opposite bank quells the grumps and restarts the adventure.
If I can contribute even a fraction of what I have experienced to my own daughter’s memories I shall be content. I’m not sure what she’s retaining at this age but I have a story about snoring on a paddle board down the Colorado River that she will surely tire of me telling in her teenage years. It’s a gem.
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So many of our country’s parks and public lands written about in these love notes would not exist but for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), including the Manistee National Forest. This important conservation program was permanently funded when Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act last year. You can learn more about the Land and Water Conservation Fund here.
Would you like to write about public lands that you cherish? Please email Mary Jo Brooks at brooksm@nwf.org for guidelines. You’ll get this cool sticker as a thank you.t
