People and forests: Vitamin N for nature connection in Hungary

Editor’s note: This guest column tells the story of one Hungarian family’s experience embarking on the Vitamin N Challenge, our annual campaign to help you and your family spend quality time outdoors. This year’s #VitaminNChallenge runs July 1 through August 31 — check out our Vitamin N web page for more details.

Accepting the Vitamin N Challenge, my family undertook a special task: once a month for a year, we organized our own Vitamin N program, which we named “People and forest — the practice of correct connection.” Practicing nature connection in a thoughtful way is an extremely important element of being in nature; unfortunately, fewer and fewer people know how to behave themselves in the outdoors, respecting and protecting all other living creatures of the wildlife.

During the first program, our family set off to explore one of the most beautiful mountain peaks in Baranya County, Zengő. Our hike lasted almost five hours, between oak trees and old pines, in the thick of rosehip bushes. 

Although we are experienced hikers, we started everything from the basics: who is the person in the forest? What is a tourist route? What does it mean to cross the forest and how to do it? How can we eat and drink in the forest, what we can take with us and what we can leave there — or, more precisely, what can we not leave there? What is hidden in the forest floor, how much life is under our feet, and why is it our duty to take care of it? Who are the trees? What is their life like and what can we thank them for? What is the life of the root underground and why is the bark important and why can’t we just carve our monogram into the bark? What does it mean to respect nature?

In the search for footprints, we discussed who lives in the forest. What kind of life do the wild animals have there, and what can it mean for them when humans suddenly appear in this peaceful environment? Thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Merlin” app, we analyzed bird songs, observed the birds of the forest, and talked about why it is important to leave tree bark burrows for other forest birds. We also discussed why it is not necessary to clear the forest of dead trees and why it is good to let it live in its own order, according to its own laws.

In an unplanned way, we also fell right in the middle of a logging job, so we had the opportunity to talk about the painful fact of how big a problem it is to cut down trees, how we make the lungs of the Earth sick with all this, and how these wonderful creatures can get oxygen from polluted air, to conjure life-giving air.

We walked with our children, ages 9, 7 and 4 years old, who gave themselves over to the joys of nature with sparkling eyes. Their faces were reddened from the healthy air, their spirits were radiant, and although they were quite tired after the tenth kilometer, they rested at the end of our journey with a multitude of experiences. During this fantastic Vitamin N program, they learned a lot about the relationship between humans and nature, humans and the forest. I am sure that from now on they will respect the wonderful wildlife even more.

Our one-year program “People and forest – the practice of correct connection” could not have been more successful, and we hope that next time not only our family, but also interested and open-minded travel companions will join us. In our January program, winter and wild animals feeding will be the focus, so we will choose a hiking route as a destination where the children can see with their own eyes the possibilities of helping.

Thank you for being part of the Children & Nature Network and thank you for participating in the Vitamin N Challenge!

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