Overcoming "Nature Deficit Disorder" with Finn Hill's Ellen Haas

KIRKLAND IS HOME to an abundance of nature lovers, from bird-watchers to gardeners and hikers, but few have done as much to “preserve, protect and restore the natural resources of the area” as Finn Hill resident Ellen Haas.

In 1994, she helped  found the Denny Creek Neighborhood Alliance (DCNA), which built a fish ladder on the creek (2001), saved and is restoring the Juanita Woodlands (2004) and has helped Kirkland become a certified Wildlife Sanctuary.

This mover and shaker always seems to have an idea cooking. Haas is currently petitioning the local government to create a "Saint Edward Center for Nature Connection" at the historic seminary site at .

It’s easy to assume that Haas, 64, is an “in your face” type of environmentalist. However, she is first and foremost an educator who shuns both the “gloom and doom” -- the sky is falling -- and the “drag and brag” -- stand by this tree and hear a lecture -- approaches to environmental education.

“(These methods) fail to connect people with the living, dynamic mystery of nature,” says Haas.

Growing up as a tenant farmer’s daughter on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Haas was allowed to roam free during the day. Her mother would pack her a lunch, telling her to be home for dinner. She’d hitch a ride on the tractor and play with the baby lambs, often taking an afternoon nap among the woolly babies.

“Through roaming free I learned that nature is safe, that I can talk to trees, that I can walk at night, that if I stumble or fall and get wet I can handle it,” says Haas who included a sidebar in her book Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature thanking her mother for giving her the opportunity to explore nature as a child.

She left home to attend Scripps College in California and then earned her master’s degree from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley in 1972. Haas promptly decided that she would rather be a high school English teacher than a minister, and took a position at Riverdale Country School in New York.

Never one for conventional methods, Haas made literature come alive by taking her 8th and 9th grade English students on “The Great Lord of the Flies Overnight,” where students experimented at survival and civilization while the adults kept a distance, doing their utmost to not supervise.

“These book-smart kids were standing around in the rain holding a tarp over their heads,” recalls Haas. “But when it came time for graduation, that trip was the most important learning event of their entire school history.”

Haas was greatly influenced by the Swiss program Outward Bound. It was created on the premise that the Swiss “old timers” survived extreme difficulties like World War II by keeping a level head and knowing how to use all the resources available to them, including nature.

But Haas’ relationship with nature isn’t about survival. Without ascribing to any one religion, Haas nevertheless has a very spiritual connection to nature.

“It is viscerally clear to me that God is manifest in creation and evolution,” says Haas who has no problem with the two ideologies side by side.

SHE STARTS her day with a cup of coffee on her porch, eyes open to the lush living sanctuary surrounding her home, and recites the “Thanksgiving Address.” Each element of nature, like earth, water, stars, even weather, receives attention. The exercise leaves her centered and grounded.

Haas recently retired from teaching at the Wilderness Awareness School, which embraces a Native American approach to both nature and learning to “hone students’ senses and connect their imagination to the natural world.” Her book, co-authored by Jon Young and Evan McGown, provides a blueprint for place-based education. The “No Child Left Inside” initiative seeks to get kids off the couch and out exploring.

While few of us were lucky enough to grow up roaming free, building forts or exploring the woods behind the house, nature is accessible to all. Even suburban and inner city kids can study the wonders of nature.

“There’s no need for a big wilderness,” says Haas, going on to suggest things like terrariums, flower pots, digging a hole in the backyard, even studying the cracks in a sidewalk. “When you’re bored at your big brother’s Little League game, check out the hillside or ditch behind the field. Kids need time to explore and get dirty.”

She encourages parents to reject the idea that good parenting keeps kids safe and clean at all costs and to examine their fears and put away wives’ tales.

The idea behind Haas’ proposal for the Saint Edward Center for Nature Connection is not just about saving a tree. She seeks to provide a place where people can reconnect their brains to reality.

Quoting from John Medina’s book Brain Rules Haas points out that, “If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like the classroom...Though we have been stuffing them into classrooms and cubicles for decades, our brains actually were built to survive in jungles and grasslands. We have not outgrown this.”

Moral of this story: get outside, find your own personal “sit spot” and allow your senses to reengage with nature.

When Ellen Haas isn’t holding the head of a lion in her lap in Namibia or trekking through mountains of Nepal, she can often be found roaming free with her big black bear of a dog Taz down one of the many trails on Finn Hill -- a trail she helped build and maintain.

If you’re interested in getting your hands dirty, check out one of the trail building parties throughout the year. Details can be found on the DCNA website.