Tucson’s first Little Free Library was installed in the Coronado Heights KidsCorridor on February 26th. This is only the second Little Free Library in Arizona! The purpose of the Little Free Library is to foster a sense of community, increase access to books and promote reading for Coronado Heights Neighborhood children and adults. Ironwood Tree Experience plans to include a Little Free Library in all future KidsCorridor and GreenLot projects.

Every Little Free Library has its own theme. The theme of this library is sustainable communities & nature. Books available to Coronado Heights neighbors follow the theme of the library, providing material in both English and Spanish.

Book donations for the library are desired. Please donate new and used book, for children or adults that are about sustainability, community and nature. Drop books at Prescott College Tucson Center – located at 2233 E Speedway Blvd. These books will be added to the library as needed. The library will be maintained on a weekly basis. If you have any questions or would like more information regarding Little Free Libraries call Eric at 520-271-5748.

Coronado Heights Little Free Library partners include: Bicas, Coronado Heights Neighborhood Association and Ironwood Tree Experience.

The State of America’s National Parks: Listen to Nation Public Radio’s recent segment on the Diane Rehm Show regarding children in nature and the history of the creation of the National Park System and the National Wildlife Refuge.

Guest host, Susan Page, speaks with historian, Douglas Brinkley, and Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, about President Theodore Roosevelt’s vision for preserving America’s wilderness and the future of our national parks and monuments.

Guests

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, former Democratic U.S. Senator from Colorado.

Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine.

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Louv’s latest book bears the self-explanatory title Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. After tens of thousands of years of children playing and working primarily outdoors, the last few generations have seen such interaction with nature vanish almost entirely. The implications — for children’s physical and mental health, and for the future of environmentalism — are immense, Louv argues.

But he stresses that there is hope — indeed, that response to the book has him more hopeful than he was when he began writing it. After all, in a world of intractable problems and social malaise, his encouragement to parents is simple and easily achieved: Take your kids outside. (Read part two of this interview in Gristmill By David Roberts www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/03/louv/)

Michael Pollan has built a reputation as a sleuthing agro-journalist. In his latest book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he brings his investigative skills to bear on four meals. One is the typical American overprocessed fare; one is composed of what Pollan calls “industrial organic” — organic food grown on huge mega-farms alongside standard crops; one comes from a small organic farm that refuses to sell outside its neighboring community; and one is hunted and gathered entirely by Pollan himself. (His account of tracking and shooting a wild boar is bizarrely gripping.) Read the interview by David Roberts at www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/05/31/roberts/