There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)

by Linda Åkeson McGurk

he found that although there is some initial damage from the children’s activities—mostly loss of soil and ground cover, and some harm to trees—it plateaus after the first couple of years. As he had suspected, the areas very much remain functioning ecosystems. He also noticed that in Sweden adults didn’t seem to be all that concerned about children’s rampages through the woods. “There is not this ‘leave no trace’ mentality here,” he says, and adds that the US code of ethics is misunderstood. “Leave No Trace is really about promoting land ethics. It’s not saying that you should never, ever have an impact when you’re going out and recreating. It’s more about reducing that impact and knowing what it does.”