Chop to it! That’s the advice form experts who say modern conveniences only add to Mainers’ increasingly sedentary lifestyles

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From his office in the purchasing department at the University of Maine, Ron Logan has a view of a small stand of trees. But the view doesn’t distract the Orono resident from his work. Logan is outside enough, anyway. He often cross-country skis during his lunch break, kayaks on the weekend, or ice skates during the week.

And for the spring and fall months, Logan splits wood, by hand, in the 10 acres of land behind his house. With all that wood, he is able to heat his home for the entire year.

But that’s not the main reason Logan chooses to spend many of his weekends chopping wood.

“I do it because I want to make the woods better,” the tall, lean property control officer said recently. “The woods is much healthier and much nicer. If I didn’t have the wood stove I’d just throw it away, but it’s basically free heat. And I love nature and I’d always wanted to be a part of it.”

One of the benefits Logan gains from splitting wood and managing his land is exercise. That allows him to pursue other activities, such as skiing, skating, hiking, climbing, biking, windsurfing, kayaking and canoeing.

Ask others why they split wood and they might have a different answer. They need to heat their homes, and could care less about any physical benefits. And there are fewer and fewer people out there splitting their own wood – what once was a Maine tradition seems to be falling by the wayside.

Despite its rich tradition of outdoor activities – from daily activities such as splitting wood or raking leaves to leisure activities such as snowshoeing and hiking – Maine’s adult obesity rate of 21 percent was the highest in New England in 2002.

Fifty-six percent of Maine adults, according to Maine Bureau of Health statistics, live a sedentary lifestyle, which means they are not getting enough physical activity to enjoy health benefits. Twenty-seven percent of Mainers are physically inactive and 29 percent report irregular activity.

Instead of cross-country skiing, we’re choosing snowmobiles. Why hike into the woods when you can hop on your all-terrain vehicle? For more and more Mainers, snowblowers have made shoveling a thing of the past.

“Even though Maine has that rich tradition and history of being outdoors, that population has shrunk,” said Nellie Cyr, an associate professor of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Maine. “The die-hards are still out there but the rest of the population, just like the rest of society, is eating too much and exercising too little. There are so many devices now, snow throwers, leaf blowers, garage door openers, even dishwashers, microwaves. So we move less.”

Those modern-day conveniences have put to rest many of the old ways that may have been more time-consuming, but certainly provided more of a workout. As a longtime outdoorsman, BDN columnist and Hampden resident Tom Hennessey has seen a lot of changes.

Hennessey recalled a time when men cut ice from the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers, extracted granite from quarries in Stonington, and logged the Maine woods by hand. Potatoes were harvested by schoolchildren in Aroostook County – they still are, in some places, but most farms are mechanized now. Blueberries are still raked by workers in the Down East region, but even that process is becoming mechanized, Hennessey said.

ATVs make doing any activity in the woods easier.

Ice fishing, Hennessey added, has been transformed by modern inventions. It used to be that few people ice-fished because of the difficulty of hand-cutting holes in a few feet of ice, or trekking a few miles into the woods.

Now, power augers cut holes in two feet of ice in a matter of minutes. Snowmobiles transport sportsmen to remote lakes and ponds.

“Take away the augers and you’d lose 90 percent of them,” he said of ice fishing enthusiasts who have recently taken up the sport.

Logan, who moved to Maine from New Jersey in 1973 and built his own house in 1977, said reliance on labor-saving devices is just human nature.

“I have to laugh at myself,” he said. “I’m out in the woods, I cut down trees, I drag them 500 yards, until I get to a place where I can cut them up and wheelbarrow them. And yet at times, I carry more than I should because I’m trying to make less trips. But the only reason I’m out there is to enjoy being in the woods.”

Maine’s low income rates have also contributed to its obesity rate and sedentary lifestyle, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of Maine’s Bureau of Health. Although a walk is most likely a free activity for most people, Mills said low income rates are connected with nonwalkable neighborhoods. In some places, there are simply no sidewalks. In other places, traffic moves by at 55 miles per hour, making for dangerous conditions for pedestrians.

“If you look at where a lot of people live in Maine, very few live in walkable communities,” Mills said. “So even though we have a rich tradition around climbing Mount Katahdin or biking Acadia, most people in their daily lives are not going to be able to do those things. Instead, they go for a simple walk or jog in the neighborhood but many people can’t do that. … It’s no wonder that we see a lot of children’s bicycles leaning up against the side of a house.”

And, Cyr added, public spaces such as parks and playgrounds are disappearing because of budget cuts and liability issues. That cuts down even more places for walkers.

Maine children are clearly living a sedentary lifestyle, too. According to 2001 statistics, 24 percent of Maine high school students watched three or more hours of TV per day. The Bicycle Coalition of Maine also claims that in the 1960s, 60 percent of kids biked and walked to school. That number is now down to six percent. Other statistics show that 34 percent of Maine high school students do not participate in vigorous physical activity three or more days a week.

Cyr, who is working on a study comparing the body mass index of schoolchildren in Orono to those in SAD 22 (Hampden, Winterport, Newburgh), said children are overall less active than they used to be. A native of Erie, Pa., Cyr recalls being sent outside to play as soon as she got home from school.

“You weren’t allowed to hang around inside the house,” she said. “We only had three TV stations and PBS, you didn’t have a computer, you didn’t have a cell phone or video games or any of that stuff at all. So you went outside and played with the neighbor kids. And there were more kids per family, too. It was perceived to be safer, too.”

Then there are elements of the outdoor tradition we just can’t control in Maine. Both Cyr and Mills also said the late afternoon sunsets in winter mean fewer opportunities to be outside. For children, that often means more time in front of the TV.

Although both Cyr and Mills believe Mainers need more exercise, the big key to lightening up is to eat smaller portions of more nutritious foods. But that’s where things get complicated as they relate to Maine, which Mills said has the lowest income per capita in New England. Obesity rates are tied to income level, she added.

“With a lower income, you’re more likely to buy high-calorie foods,” Mills said. “For the first time in history, high-fat, high-calorie foods that are not as nutritious cost less than low-fat, highly nutritious foods.”

It’s unlikely that a family scraping by on hamburgers would set aside money for a snowmobile, which can cost around $5,000 – or, for that matter, a pair of snowshoes, which can be had for around $100.

Logan agrees that cheap, available food is the crux of the issue. For him, taking advantage of Maine’s outdoor offerings has been the key to staying in shape.

“I’m lucky because everything I do is fun,” he said. “I live in a place where I can do all these things. It’s right out the front door. It’s like the availability of fast food – there’s an availability of fun stuff for me to do.”

Jessica Bloch can be reached at jbloch@bangordailynews.net.