What is a Wild Zone? / Why are Wild Zones needed? / New form of Social Space / The Concept Paper Toolkit / What's New? / About the Co-founders / Contact us / Links What is a Wild Zone? Wild Zones are places where adults, children and adolescents can co-create a new form of public space that is dedicated to unstructured free play in nature. Wild Zones differ from parks and nature reserves because they offer opportunities to alter the environment rather than leaving it untouched:
A Wild Zone is a place that allows for all types of play to be discovered by children, teenagers and adults. Each Wild Zone is an outdoor laboratory of creativity with open-ended possibilities for self-designed play, learning, and socializing. Over time, evidence of the activities that have occurred in these zones becomes a changing portrait of the community's play and creativity: art trails, dams, gullies, tree houses, mazes, sculptures, forts, earthworks, benches, meeting places, performance spaces - a hand-built commons and collective work of art. Why are Wild Zones needed? >>>New Form of Social Space
Wild Zones offer a proactive and holistic response to 'nature-deficit disorder' - the term coined by Richard Louv to describe the aggregate of childhood ills linked to a lack of free play in nature. When thinking about social problems, most people and institutions, including schools, are using a 'deficit' model. They are focused on what people don't know and what their problems are. Wild Zones use an 'asset-based' approach that starts from people's abilities, interests and potentials, rather than their problems or needs. They offer many pathways to increase social and emotional intelligence. New Land Use Concept
Toolkit
This Toolkit is a work-in-progress. We would appreciate any feedback and suggestions on how it can be improved. We’d also like to hear about your own experiences with Wild Zones and Family Play Days. Please send your feedback, stories or photos to Karen Payne.
What's New?
Family Play Day at Ulistac Natural Area Next Family Play Day: June 27, 1-4 pm 4901 Lick Mill Blvd (just South of Tasman Drive)Santa Clara, CA 95054 DIRECTIONS TO FAMILY PLAY DAY(In the link above, the Wild Zone is marked in red and the nearest entrance is in blue. There is a green footpath showing the shortest route to get there.) There are no drinking fountains at Ulistac, so bring drinks - and snacks if you want them. Also, bring extra clothes and towels if you plan to play in the mud! Print or view this month's Poster full size: here
SEE PHOTOS OF PREVIOUS WILD ZONE EVENTS
Wild Zones and Escuela Popular
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Wild Zones help create a web of relationships across boundaries of age, gender, class and ethnicity. They are a new form of social space - and, in particular a different kind of relationship between young people and adults which is not based on an educational model of giving information or eliciting correct answers. Not based on rewards or competition. A 'zone' that provides a context for adults and young people to relate to each other by playing around without pre-established goals or agendas. In the Wild Zone people can engage in spontaneous work and play which may result in wonderful friendships or remarkable things that intrigue and delight other people. But it is also a place just to wonder and to wander in nature - to muck about or reflect or find solace - without having to achieve anything. 
This new land-use concept gives priority to the crucial need of current generations to enjoy hands-on engagement with nature that is playful and creative, while continuing to respect the interests of other species and future generations by protecting some natural areas in a pristine state. By offering the pleasures of creativity and community, Wild Zones encourage a sense of affection for the natural world which can help counterbalance the onslaught of frightening news about ecological degradation. We believe that a high level of commitment to ecological responsibility and protection can best be ignited and sustained through love and enjoyment rather than fear. 
