Nature and Health Works Hosts Work Party UW Farm

UW Farm, Nature and Health, UW Botanic Gardens, and UW Sustainability formed  a campus collaboration called Campus Rx. We host volunteer work parties and lunches that builds community around spending time outdoors. 

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Nature and Health Hosts Two UW Tacoma Summer Interns

Nature and Health, an EarthLab member organization, is hosting two interns for the 2022 summer through the EarthLab Summer Internships program. Housed within EarthLab, the internship program is a robust, cohort-based experience for University of Washington undergraduate students to develop interdisciplinary and community-engagement skills. 

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Connecting UW Campus to Health and Wellbeing with a ‘Nature and Health Walk’

By Allie Long
Have you ever felt anxious, tired, or overwhelmed, and then noticed a release in tension once you’ve taken a break to spend some time outside? Research shows you’re not alone. 

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It’s ‘Kids to Parks Day’: Get Out, Get Active

Robert Preidt · HealthDay · May 21, 2022
Featuring Dr. Pooja S. Tandon, Nature and Health researcher
It’s a good idea to get children outside every day, but especially on Kids to Parks Day, a national day of outdoor play on May 21. 

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Wild Grief: Go Outside, Go Together, Go Through It Featuring Karen Kirsch

Karen Kirsch, MA is a registered Somatic Movement Therapist with a Masters in Somatic Psychology. Karen has been working in the field of childhood grief for 12 years as a facilitator of children’s groups and served as coordinator of the SoundCareKids grief program for 10 months. 

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Why Doctors Are Prescribing Nature Walks

Jillian Mock · TIME · APRIL 27, 2022
Featuring Gregory Bratman, Center co-director and researcher

When it comes to how nature exposure helps our stressed-out brains, researchers have two main theories, says Gregory Bratman, director of the environment and well-being lab at the University of Washington. 

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Stress recovery from virtual exposure to a brown (desert) environment versus a green environment

Although we have seen research on the beneficial relationship between nature contact and human health, little is known on how natural environments that are not green affect stress. Nature and Health researchers tested the effect of a virtual reality exposure to the desert among healthy adult male residents of El Paso, Texas. 

Journal of Psychology

As Human Beings We Destroy Nature, but We Never Fully Realize the Extent of the Damage and Loss

Audrey Garric · Le Monde · April 14, 2022
Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member
Mr. Kahn is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington and director of a laboratory that conducts research on human interactions with nature and technology. 

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Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica

Nature and Health researchers explore how nature-based tourism has the potential to sustain an area’s biodiversity and economic development in a recent article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

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Processing Ecological Grief Through Poetry Featuring Jessica Gigot

Jessica Gigot is a poet, farmer, and coach. She lives on a little sheep farm in the Skagit Valley. Her second book of poems, Feeding Hour, won a Nautilus Award and was a finalist for the 2021 Washington State Book Award. 

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