Childhood memories of lazy strolls through the woods and weekend camping trips may be formative experiences relegated to the past, worries U.S. Sen. Jack Reed.

Not only will today’s children not recognize what the natural world has to offer, but they might not care enough to protect it.

Reed will be at the Roger Williams Park Zoo on Friday to promote a new piece of legislation called the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007.

The bill, introduced in the Senate in August, would provide $100 million a year for five years to train educators about the environment and get their students out in it.

With the law, Reed hopes to offset some of the effects of the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, and the emphasis on annual testing, both of which have meant less time for field trips and subjects outside the core areas of reading and math.

“Many schools are being forced to scale back and eliminate environmental programs,” Reed said in the Aug. 2 address on the Senate floor. “Fewer and fewer students are able to take part in related classroom instruction and field investigations, however effective or popular.”

In conjunction with a similar House bill sponsored by Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, the legislation will also require states to create environmental literacy plans to get children engaged in environment and appreciate its role in their lives. Proponents of the act would like it made law when No Child Left Behind is reauthorized.

Save the Bay, a nonprofit advocacy and educational organization, often partners with local schools by providing educational field trips for students on the water.

John Martin, spokesman for the group, said he has seen a direct cause-and-effect between NCLB and a decrease in field trips.

Fostering respect and affection for the outdoors will naturally increase physical well-being and curb the rates of childhood and adult obesity, one of the nation’s largest and more expensive health problems.

In Rhode Island, 42 percent of preschoolers are overweight or at risk of being overweight, and 47 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds fall into the same category, according to 2003 statistics from the state Department of Health.

Betty Harvey, the team lead for the health promotion and wellness for the Department of Health, said her agency was trying to add aesthetically pleasing natural elements in more urban areas to get adults and children outside.

“One of our goals is to look at parks and trails and land management, making an attractive environment for people to move in, because people have become so sedentary,” Harvey said. “Helping people have fun in the environment is the way to go.”

ngarcia@projo.com