Stories from Texas Stations

Kids really do need to touch grass. Time spent in nature can help them process life

KERA | By Miranda Suarez

Published August 4, 2026 at 4:11 PM CDT

Children look at an alligator through glass on July 14, 2022. A new summer zoo camp starts each week.

When Michael Smith was a kid in Colorado, he remembers a neighbor girl coming across the street and inviting him to go snake hunting.

While puzzled at first, Smith tagged along and helped catch a garter snake. From then on, "I was hooked," he said.

Smith's deep appreciation for nature started in childhood. Now a freelance writer based in North Texas, he wants local kids to enjoy the natural world like he does. In a three-part series for Green Source Texas, Smith explored some of the local programs working to get children outdoors.

Smith joined NTX Now hosts Ron Corning and Miranda Suarez to talk about how becoming a "nature kid" can help young people deal with challenges in their everyday lives.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear the full conversation, click the 'listen' button above.

What is a nature kid?

The interest may lean toward the scientific end — what's the names of various birds and trees and all. It also may be the delight in being out there somewhere. But these are kids that love to be out in the woods and the fields, and that is an something that sticks with them. It's sort of a sense of, "I feel safe, and I feel like I'm at home when I'm out in a place like that."

Lake Worth is seen south of the Marty Leonard Lotus Marsh Boardwalk on April 22, 2024, at the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge.

Programs in North Texas that develop nature kids

Twelve Hills Nature Center, Dallas

One of the things they do is that they work with a group of fifth graders and go on walks, mentor them — lots of firsthand, hands-on experience. Then later on, they bring in younger kids that the fifth graders then teach about the place. There's a real advantage to the one who does the teaching. You learn it really well.

Acton Nature Center First Fridays, Granbury

I was delighted to find several of those kids talked about how they like being quiet in nature, they like to soak it in, and then they like write about it — or write stories that are inspired by what they experience there.

We have a tendency to think kids are just sort of frantically hopping around doing stuff and not able to stop and be quiet and take things in. It was just wonderful to see some kids that do that.

How kids deal with the idea of environmental destruction

There is an international organization of therapists who are banding together to learn how to address those concerns, about climate and loss of nature. There's a North American chapter, and there are people all over who do work with people who have environmental grief.

Little blue stem is a native grass and part of a healthy prairie at Oak Cliff Nature Preserve.

There's a lot of that kind of thing going on in the world. Some kids are very much attuned to it, and some kids may be somewhat less, but I think it's just a difficult time to be a kid for a lot of reasons — which kind of pulls in the whole thing about how nature, time spent in nature, is increasingly being understood as something that has lots of both physical and psychological benefits.

Miranda Suarez is a co-host of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org.

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