City dwellers are becoming "terrified" of the countryside as urban pressures leave many disconnected from the great outdoors, the director general of the National Trust warns today.
Dame Fiona Reynolds believes city dwellers, especially the young and poor, are damaging their health by being increasingly confined to urban areas and the indoors.
The trust is launching a six-month campaign to investigate whether the nation is losing touch with the countryside and to see what can be done about it.
Reynolds argued that schools should make sure pupils spend time outdoors and sleep in the countryside. She is also recommending that health professionals should prescribe activities in rural areas to help improve public health. She said: "It's urgent we reconnect people. We're breeding a society that's less confident about exploring, less confident about going to places we haven't been to before.
"There is evidence that people who are brought up in big cities are scared and see the countryside as a place full of unfamiliar and unexpected things. It's becoming this great unknown, alien place."
One problem, she said, was unfamiliarity. "If you've grown up in the inner city, you're used to a place where there's lots going on, where there's lots of buildings, lots of light. The countryside is quiet and dark – not having that same geography can be frightening for people."
There are also practical problems, with city-dwellers with poor map-reading skills prone to getting lost. "A lot of people aren't confident in setting off for a walk. They can't follow a map, there might be a farmer who tells them off, they may get lost. People find it inhibiting."
Reynolds, a passionate walker, said: "Whether through pressures of time or physical access, as a nation we seem to be increasingly disconnected from the fabric of the country. Today's generation runs the risk of being terrified of the countryside."
The six-month consultation is part of a move by the trust to encourage more people to make more use of its gardens, parks, hills and coastlines, rather than thinking of the charity just as a custodian of great houses. The trust's Outdoor Nation initiative begins with a debate at the annual meeting today. The charity is keen for its findings to be fed into the government's natural environment white paper, due to be published next spring. People will be invited to join the debate and a "roving reporter" will travel the countryside to find out about attitudes.
Reynolds believes that moves to protect the countryside after the second world war also created barriers. A tendency among parents to over-protect children and youngsters' devotion to television and computer screens exacerbated the situation.
She thinks the problem is more acute among poorer, lower socio-economic groups who are less able to travel. "We don't have the same expectation that kids will play outside. It means children don't discover things, they don't have the same curiosity about nature. It doesn't do people any good to always be indoors, to be mollycoddled, protected."
She said children should be able to spend nights camping. "This allows them to experience something different from their daily lives – in a safe environment but one that stretches them, makes them able to explore, stretch the boundaries of their comfort zone."
Reynolds would also like to see doctors prescribing country walks. "When you are walking everything calms down, you can think clearly, you can breathe fresher air. It can be a form of preventative medicine. Walking is a brilliant way to find yourself, to give yourself space."
The project also aims to explore how "big society" partnerships between NGOs and community groups could help provide greater access to local green space.
"The message is that your quality of life can be enhanced by access to nature. There is beauty everywhere. You find a little stream or a little patch of trees that you can fall in love with. "Every place has something magical and heart-lifting."
England's bounty: Top activities for health
Walking Hike the six-mile Bath skyline route to see its Georgian architecture. This walk is the most downloaded from the National Trust's website
Cycling Devil's Dyke in West Sussex is a great spot for mountain biking through the rolling countryside of the South Downs
Camping Beneath England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, in the Lake District. Great Langdale campsite in Cumbria has wonderful rock-climbing and walking routes
Surfing Godrevy in Cornwall is a classic surf beach and in the right conditions boasts exciting waves.