New Jersey Audubon Society is urging residents to step outside this spring and Try Nature. 

Through an outreach campaign conducted at each of our ten nature centers during the month of April, we’re inviting residents to utilize our centers as launch pads for enlightened nature-based discovery. 

Each center is hosting a variety of springtime activities that will appeal to all ages.  Among the programs you might find are birding, botany and butterfly field trips for adults, as well as Skunk Cabbage Safaris, Salamander Searches and Nature Detective programs for children and their families.  As an added incentive to Try Nature we’re offering a Ticket to Discovery, which entitles you to one free nature program (up to a $20 value).  Note: the offer is limited to one ticket per family.  CLICK HERE to print this coupon and bring it to any New Jersey Audubon nature center during the month of April to receive your ticket.

While this Try Nature campaign showcases New Jersey Audubon centers and programs, our message, just in time for Earth Day (April 22nd), is about the importance of reconnecting with the natural world.  As Vice President, Dale Rosselet, states in her Opinion column in the current issue of New Jersey Audubon magazine, “The continued preservation of habitats, and conservation of their resources, will only happen if the next generation understands how ecological systems work and how people impact the environment with their personal, community and business decisions.”

Yet there is growing awareness and concern that the public is becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural world, with children at particular risk.  In 2005, Richard Louv, a newspaper columnist from California, coined the phrase “nature deficit disorder” to describe how a child’s detachment from nature may play a role in increasing the myriad of physical and psychological health ailments found in young people - childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder, allergies, social isolation and even increased aggression.  His book, entitled Last Child in the Woods, galvanized environmental education and conservation organizations across the country to the point where there is an actual movement to get kids outdoors. 

New Jersey Audubon has always known the value of environmental education.  It’s our continued belief that making hands-on environmental education accessible and relevant to residents in all communities, whether urban, suburban or rural, is essential to nurturing a generation that understands environmental processes and can use this knowledge to make important decisions throughout their daily lives. Click Here to read Dale Rosselet's article: Do Children Really Need Nature Education?

Membership Challenge

In addition to encouraging outdoor exploration, New Jersey Audubon centers are also working to increase membership through a springtime member drive.  New members who join through the drive are offered discounted Individual and Family membership rates and a special gift: New Jersey Audubon’s Wild Journeys: Migration in New Jersey.  This 120-page book offers beautiful colorful photographs, descriptions of spectacular natural events taking place throughout the Garden State, information about the science behind these events, and instructions to help people participate and experience nature’s spectacles first-hand.  This gift is available for a limited time only when you join at one of our nature centers.  Current members can help with this challenge by bringing a friend to any of our centers and encouraging them to join NJAS.  Member-getters will also receive a special gift for helping to increase New Jersey Audubon’s membership.

So take advantage of the exciting and enriching programs that New Jersey Audubon is offering this spring at a NJAS center near you.  And, while you’re there, make an Earth Day commitment to our conservation, research and education mission by joining – or getting a friend to join – New Jersey Audubon Society today!

If you would like to become a member of New Jersey Audubon but cannot visit one of our Centers, click here to join online.  Please note that our Wild Journeys and Ticket to Discovery offers do not apply to online memberships.

Thanks for your support!