Air Date: Week of October 6, 1995

Transcript

CURWOOD: Researchers say children need contact with wild places and other creatures to grow up healthy, even if the wild place is a bit of weed-filled back yard and the creatures are common squirrels and frogs. Why children need nature in this half-hour of NPR's Living on Earth. But first, let's turn the pages of our weekly almanac.

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CURWOOD: This month marks the 375th anniversary of the birth of English conservationist John Evelyn. His 1664 book Sylva, about protecting trees and forests, was a runaway bestseller for its time, selling more than 1,000 copies.

The Federal Government says nearly 250 million trees were chopped down for construction and paper products in 1993. The National Wildlife Federation says those trees were from many different species, up to 200 feet tall, and as much as 500 years old. The seedlings that replaced them were usually just one species: Douglas fir.

Americans built 1,119,000 single-family homes last year, with each house averaging 8,000 board feet of wood. That's equal to about 6 western old growth trees, or 32 younger Southern pines, per house.