Backyard Wilderness

You’ve heard the concerns. Kids are losing touch with nature. They don’t get enough outdoor time these days. And it’s not good for their development. But what if they could get the benefits of being out in nature and still bring their smartphones along? It sounds too good to be true. It’s actually an app called Seek, from an organization called iNaturalist.

The Coffee County Lannom Memorial Public Library in Tullahoma is the first library in Tennessee to host the Explore Your Backyard Wilderness exhibit, a display designed to motivate children to take their curiosity outside.

OHNSON CITY — It’s not uncommon to see a white-tailed deer herd or a doe with her fawns crossing from one side of the road to the other. For some kids, that’s as close as they get to Mother Nature, which is a travesty to Maggie Goodman, librarian at the Johnson City Library.“All they do is sit with whatever kind of game they play,” she said. “It’s sensory deprivation. I think this is an important mission, to make sure kids learn how inspiring nature is.”

In March, I had the opportunity to attend an early screening of a new IMAX documentary, Backyard Wilderness, that is screening in science centers and other specialty IMAX theaters nationally. The film's central message encourages kids and adults to explore the natural world all around them just outside their door—and disconnect from electronic devices that keep them inside. When I had the opportunity to speak with her after a screening, Susan Todd, the writer, director, and a producer of the film, affirmed her goal for the film was to support outdoor exploration by every child.

This Earth Day, movies are going green and Backyard Wilderness aims to inspire kids to become better global citizens.

Many nature films feature exotic creatures in faraway lands -- bat caves in the Yucatan, penguins in Antarctica, lions in the Serengeti. But what about the nature that surrounds us on a daily basis? It is just as wondrous and fascinating, if only we'd take the time to notice what's going on.

A field mouse scurries across the kitchen floor. Birds perch on tree branches just outside the house. Raccoons amble by the driveway, and frogs creep across the windows. The film Backyard Wilderness reminds us that wild animals are often close by—feeding, mating, hunting, taking care of their young—and sometimes in plain view, if we humans just take the time to notice.

There are so many once-in-a-lifetime moments in the new IMAX film, “Backyard Wilderness,” it’s impossible to say which is most powerful. (Like which of your kids do you love the most?!) It might be the scene where a wood duck hatches in its nest, 70 feet up in the cavity of a tree. Or when it leaps down (to the sound of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”), landing on the leafy forest floor before following its mother to a pond.

A new IMAX movie launching at the Tennessee Aquarium on Friday will highlight wildlife commonly found in the eastern United States.

Parents need to know that Backyard Wilderness is a nature documentary that dramatizes how meaningful it can be to step away from screens and into the wilderness right outside -- or near -- our homes, particularly for children and teens.