Year of Firsts: Nature Deficit Disorder

A reader left an online comment on my first column last week with a question about where I came from and why I moved here. I really didn’t think about it again until I sat down on my deck last night to read The New York Times on my Kindle.
I spotted a term in one of the Times stories I’d never seen before — “nature deficit disorder,” coined by Richard Louv, who wrote a book about it — and something clicked. That’s what I had! And that’s exactly why I moved here — besides this newspaper, of course.
For years, I’d read the Press-Banner Datebook, drooling from afar over all the outdoor activities every week on the public calendar. Except for the ocean, this part of California has always reminded me of northwestern Montana, where I grew up.
When I was a child, my playground was Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park, with nature, wildlife and fresh air in abundance. I was born and raised in Montana, went to college in Oregon, got my first newspaper job in Washington state, and then spent the next three decades in California’s stifling Central Valley — indoors mostly, experiencing blasts of icy air conditioning rather than Montana’s winter wonder.
Since I’ve moved here, I’ve moved outside again, whether it’s been to stroll through farmers markets or attend an event like the recent Scotts Valley Arts and Wine Festival.
I rode my bicycle last weekend on the Pipeline Trail in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and this weekend I’ll be back, running the 10K in the Race Thru the Redwoods.
When I’m done, I’ll head over to the trains, whose horns I keep hearing (another column, right?).
I have yet to explore the best beaches, so when company comes, I can take them someplace besides the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Boardwalk, but it is rather obvious.
I figure the best people to tell me where to go and what to do in this area are you, my readers. Will you share your favorite outdoor haunts with me? I can keep a secret, but I’d love to share the really good stuff.
It hasn’t taken me long, but already — without a single bit of medication or therapy — I’ve cured myself of nature deficit disorder. All I had to do was get back outdoors.
Yes, that’s exactly why I moved here.
• Year of Firsts is an occasional column by Cheri O’Neil Matthews, publisher of the Scotts Valley/San Lorenzo Valley Press-Banner. She recently moved to Scotts Valley.
Feel free to e-mail her at

ch***@pr*********.com











with your ideas of how to combat nature deficit disorder.