I will never forget the drought in Canberra. It felt like it would never rain again. Everything was sad, lonely even, and somewhat eerie.

I can tell you that in our house not a drop of water was wasted. Though we were allowed to water at given times, our garden was left to survive.

Amazingly we lost not one plant, nor a tree in the actual garden, and pot plants survived on the water we caught in our 3-minute mandated showers.

As for caring for forests, we are in grave danger given that the average child has no idea about the forest itself.

There is a book that every parent should read. It's called "Last Child in the Wood, by Richard Louv.

In it he talks about interviewing some children about where they best liked to play. One child said inside, because that's where the power points are.

When I was a child, the forest was our school, our playground, and where we spent lots of our free time.

Despite the cold, often bitter cold, we never played inside.

How to turn this around I have no idea, unless we make all schools forest schools.