A reflection on reading chapter 2, “The Third Frontier,” of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.
American history, culture, and attitudes toward nature can be described as following a succession of frontiers.
The first frontier was that most easily ascribed to the term. It was the time when this country was slowly being discovered and settled– a time of expeditions, explorers, and pioneers. Nature, in the eyes of man, was something to be feared and respected– but ultimately dominated. Development was the forefront of the nation’s land use policies.
The second frontier began near the turn of the century, when the pioneer and the explorer were less of a reality than celebrated figures in the American psyche, and the ideal and the reality of westward expansion began to clash. The truly wild lands were disappearing, quickly being converted to farmland and, increasingly, urban development. This second frontier saw the beginning of land use policies geared towards preservation– and the birth of the world’s first national park.
We find ourselves today forming the third frontier: an increasingly urban landscape host to an increasingly urban culture. Richard Louv characterizes it as a removal from nature physically and spiritually– there is a common disconnection from one’s food source, or from the ecoregion one inhabits. The children growing up in this era are seldom found intimately experiencing this country’s landscape as did generations before. But while development and preservation still continue, this new frontier has seen the birth of a new kind of land use: restoration.
These frontiers are not clearly defined eras, but rather loose trends in culture, ideas, and attitudes across time and space. They are not separate: the effects of each carry on through the next frontier, and regionally different stages are more apparent than others– particularly in regard to land use. But these frontiers can help the designer understand the cultural condition of the landscape in the human psyche, and help to inform the trajectory that may be chosen for the future of that landscape.