AUGUSTA -- Kick your child outdoors.

Or better yet, join them.

That's what Larry Selzer, president of the National Forum on Children and Nature, told an audience of more than 200 people Thursday at the Governor's Conference on Youth and the Natural World at Augusta Civic Center.

The forum -- an alliance of 50 governors, mayors, CEOs and public leaders -- supports projects nationwide that "reintroduce children to the great outdoors."

Selzer said people need to step up and take a leadership role in this effort. He said it will take vision, political will and money, things he said the country and this state are in short supply of today.

He said a healthy nation wouldn't have 1 in 5 children clinically obese or 3 million children being treated for depression.

Pediatricians no longer spend their time setting broken bones of children hurt in outside play, Selzer told attendants. Instead, they're treating them today, largely, for repetitive motion disorders -- a condition that affects a part of the body that's performing the same motion over and over.

Selzer said common examples are carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, "trigger finger" and "Blackberry thumb" -- motions children, and others, perform when they're in front of computers, video games and handheld gadgets.

"There's a dullness with our children," Selzer said Thursday. "They've lost the spark of interacting with the world around them. It's time for each of us to step back from our day-to-day lives and think what is going on."

He said people in the front lines -- including government officials, teachers, conservationists, health-care providers, recreation enthusiasts and city planners -- need to do more to encourage grassroots efforts.

We all need to rethink the approach to wellness and health, he said, and nature is the first prescription.

"You who are here today are in a unique position to engage people of this great state and young people in new and exciting ways. You cannot afford to sit this one out."

Sheridan Steele, superintendent of Acadia National Park and panelist at the conference, said his office started Acacia Quest, a series of youth- and family-oriented experiences designed to get children outdoors.

In the Quest, families create a team and complete six activities in the park, a way to encourage exploration and learning about the protected national parks and other conserved lands.

"We recognize it's an important issue and have ramped up family and children's programs," Steele said.

Steele said visitation to Acadia has dropped 20 percent in the last five years.

He said 51 percent of American households are single-parent families. The other 49 percent have two parents working, trying to make ends meet with little time left for their children.

"So it's easy to say, 'Go watch TV' or 'Get on the computer'," he said.

Dora Mills, Maine's public-health director, said two-thirds of the adults living in Maine -- and one-third of children -- are obese and overweight.

She said 25 percent of high school age children and 33 percent of kindergartners are overweight.

And, in the mid-1990s, 33,000 people in Maine had diabetes. Today, that number has jumped to 80,000.

But even with those statistics, she said enticing children to go outdoors is a big challenge for parents.

"What we have to look at is why is it that our kids are so lured indoors?" Mills said. "How do we reduce those barriers to get them outside? There's a huge number of industries making a profit of luring the children indoors."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com