Frank Dukes, director of the University of Virginia’s Institute for Environmental Negotiation, served as lead facilitator for “National Dialogue on Children and Nature,” the largest-ever U.S. conference focusing on the decline of children’s connection to nature and the alarming effects on their health and educational and social development. Co-sponsored by the Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and best-selling author and futurist Richard Louv, the recent conference brought together 350 health professionals, educators, conservationists, business leaders and elected officials at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia to discuss increases in childhood obesity, diabetes and attention disorders as effects of what Louv has dubbed “nature deficit disorder.” - UVa News Services