Our children are disconnecting with nature. The average sub young person has little relationship to increasingly distant wild places. By the time they are seven years old, most youngsters have been exposed to more than 20,000 advertisements. They can identify 200 corporate logos (社团理念), but they cannot identify the trees growing in their front yards. They can navigate the Web with ease, but few of them have climbed a tree and even fewer have the love of nature needed to be good stewards (庄园的管理者). How can they be good stewards if they don’’t care about trees, wildlife or wild places Trees always inspired me as a child, so when my sh-grade science teacher asked each student to do a project, my choice was an easy one. I set out to make a leaf collection of every native tree in the Pittsburgh area. I spent countless hours hiking forests, identifying trees, pressing leaves. In the process, I developed a deeper appreciation of the richness of our forests. In many ways, that leaf collection helped launch my career in conservation (蓄林). Trees are amazing. They give meaning to the notion of "multitasking." Their shade cools us during summer. In winter, their tossing branches buffer harsh winds. They bear tasty fruits and nuts, often in extravagant abundance. They provide us with wood and paper products. All the while, trees produce oxygen, sequester (没收、吸收) carbon dioxide and help reduce global warming. They build soil and reduce water runoff and pollution. Trees even make us well when we are sick. Aspirin is derived from willows. The breast cancer-fighting compound Taxol is extracted from western yews (紫杉). Chemicals from pinko trees are widely used as memory enhancers. Though often overlooked, trees are an essential element of local beauty. They quietly define place. Imagine giant redwoods reaching skyward in a northern California coastal forest, mature ponderosary (笨重的) pines in the Rockies, stately live oaks dd with Spanish moss on a Southern plantation, massive white oaks with widely outspread branches on Midwestern farms, multicolored autumn landscapes of mixed forests in New England. What would these places be like without their unique trees In recent times, we have been taking down trees by the millions and replacing them with highways and shopping malls. Along with the loss of trees, we lose the understory (林下叶层) of native wild plants and the wildlife that they shelter. I wish every conservation-minded would take a moment to introduce just one child to just one tree. It’’s a small step but who knows what little actions like this can do to stimulate childhood curiosity How can we expect our children to care if you and I don’’t help them make the critical connections to nature while they are young enough to have their values shaped If you need help with tree identification, visit our resource library at enature.com. Trees give us so much and they desperately need our attention—and the attention of our children. If you want to do something for nature this season, plant a tree and while you are at it, plant a seed in the heart of a future steward. The author did many things except________ in his childhood.