ThinkingAfield.org

By Laura Carlson

There’s a point in every parent’s week where you glance at your kid—shoulders slumped over a tablet, face bathed in blue light—and wonder when they last got dirt under their fingernails. The answer’s often embarrassing. And it’s not your fault alone. Somewhere along the modern parenting roadmap, the natural world became optional. Richard Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the creeping absence of green space in children’s lives, and it’s a term that hits home like a thud of boots on a trailhead. But this isn’t about guilt; it’s about getting your family out of the glow and into the grit of the real world, one tree climb, one bug hunt, one muddy-knee moment at a time.

Following Curiosity Instead of Calendars

One of the easiest mistakes you can make as a parent is treating nature like a field trip: scheduled, brief, and a little too clean. But the natural world doesn’t run on Google Calendar. It rewards spontaneity and invites detours. When you step outside without a detailed plan and just follow where your kids’ questions go. Read more

The Cabela Family Foundation recently announced a major milestone for their 24 Lions initiative. Back in 2018, the family took on the largest wild African lion translocation in history, moving 24 Lions from South Africa into Coutada 11 of Mozambique. The significance of the move lies in the fact that there was not a viable population of lions in this area due to years of ongoing civil war, poaching, and due to the area being difficult for lions to access to recolonize. In fact, lions were considered “functionally extirpated” as of 2017.

Just seven years later, the initiative has reached a milestone of significant importance, with the family announcing the population has surpassed 100 lions. Worth noting is the fact that all of the funding for the project was raised by the Cabela Family Foundation and a sustainable hunting and conservation model, led by Zambezi Delta Safaris. Read more

More than 900 bald eagle nests documented in Ohio statewide survey

Ohio can celebrate a milestone this Independence Day with 964 confirmed active bald eagle nests, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. More than 1,800 reports from citizen scientists statewide helped complete the 2025 bald eagle nest census. Division of Wildlife staff followed up on these reports and confirmed nest locations in 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Active nests were counted as those with an incubating eagle, eggs, or eaglets present. Given the high volume of nests, this nest census represents the most complete picture possible of Ohio’s breeding bald eagle population.

“The bald eagle is one of Ohio’s great conservation success stories,” said ODNR Director Mary Mertz. “The eagle’s remarkable comeback over the last few decades, both in Ohio and nationwide, proves how much we can accomplish when we conserve and protect habitat.”

Bald eagles prosper in areas with wetland habitat. Lake Erie and other large waterbodies host the highest number of eagles because of easy access to food, such as fish. The 13 counties with the highest number of bald eagle nests include: Ottawa (112), Sandusky (61), Erie (40), Seneca (36), Wyandot (31), Trumbull (29), Lucas (27), Huron (21), Wood (20), Coshocton (19), Knox (19), Licking (19), and Mercer (19).

Check it out: Map of eagle nests per county

Each spring, the Division of Wildlife uses aerial surveys of a portion of the state to estimate Ohio’s population of nesting bald eagles. A complete nest census, in which every bald eagle nest in the state is counted, is performed less frequently. The last statewide census, conducted in 2020, documented 707 active bald eagle nests. The number of active nests increased 36% from 2020 to 2025. Read more