For many young people, interacting with the natural world is virtually a lost art. Children may experience nature on a hike, a camping excursion or a field trip to a local farm. But touching nature is not an activity that occurs regularly.

To touch, feel, smell and taste the natural world is getting harder and harder as cities grow denser and the natural outdoors becomes more difficult to reach. Increasingly, both we and our children are preoccupied with digital devices, social networking and virtual reality. We live in artificially lit environments, eat packaged foods and breathe perfectly-filtered air conditioned air in antiseptic buildings. All these impediments preclude us from taking off our shoes and walking in a truly natural environment.

There is a disconnect. Many kids are not even familiar with what common plants look like. And if the kids don’t recognize them, then how can they have a connection to them? How can they protect and care for them?

Luckily, there are many urban oases to explore with your kids in and around Los Angeles. Here is a sampling:

• Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge

• The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades

• The Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills

• The L.A. Arboretum

• The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino

• Abalone Cove Shoreline Park in Rancho Palos Verdes

• Malibu Creek State Park

• Tree People (temporarily closed)

• Topanga State Park

• Japanese Gardens in Van Nuys

• Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA

You can even take the kids to visit a local farm, where they can learn how to pick their own fruits and vegetables! The most popular is Underwood Family Farms. Underwood has two locations: Moorpark (the larger one) and Somis.

It is essential to talk to children about showing respect for natural resources and for the flora and fauna that inhabit our local environment.

Once our children become familiar with plants in their natural environment, they are more likely to become stewards of the land, to respect and protect it. They are also far more likely to want to seek it out at a farmer’s market, a local farm or in our own backyard garden.

For children in the 21st century, to become conscious of your natural surroundings is not automatic: it is a gift that must be consciously sought out.

Revised on March 31, 2021