Nature and Health to host online forum
Together with the University of Washington Nature and Health team, Let It Shine Retreat is excited to invite health and wellness practitioners and researchers to an online forum on August 5th to workshop the Let it Shine wellness retreat concept.
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GirlTrek
In 2019, GirlTrek, Washington Trails Association, and the USDA Forest Service’s PNW Research Station came together to learn about mutual interests in trails, health, and inclusive outdoor spaces, with an interest in getting more people outside enjoying the benefits of time in nature.
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Reclaiming Relationships with Nature
Institutional racism remains present in Black and Indigenous communities—especially with COVID-19 and the recent murders of our Black relatives. During this June 2020 talk, Nat, Jessica, and Jules came together to discuss how our intersectional identities weave experiences in relationships with nature.
Read moreBlack Lives Matter
The attack on Christian Cooper while birding in Central Park so painfully reminds us how inequitable our access to nature is. The recent killings by vigilantes of Ahmaud Arbery (1994-2020). The killings by police of Breonna Taylor (1993-2020), George Floyd (1976-2020), and Tony McDade (1982-2020) a Black transgender man, remind us yet again that this inequity is driven by deep-seated systemic racism.
Read moreGrowing Old Tales from an Urban Canopy: Reciprocity
Reciprocity · Growing Old: Tales from an Urban Canopy · May 20, 2020
Featuring Kathy Wolf, Nature and Health researcher
Episode Summary
Explore the role that trees play in human health and urban climate resilience, particularly amid a pandemic.
The Importance of Relative Wildness in an Urban Landscape: A Case Study of Discovery Park
While there is a growing body of evidence in support of the importance of nature for human health and well-being, the effects of interacting with relatively wild forms of nature – compared to more “urban” forms – are not as well understood.
Read moreOlder Adult Walking Programs in Urban Park and Indoor Environments – Implementation and Perceived Restorativeness
Green exercise, or exercise performed in a natural environment, has additional health benefits than exercise alone. However, older adults may experience barriers to getting outside including distance from natural spaces. Therefore, urban parks and forests provide older adults with an opportunity to engage in accessible green exercise.
Read moreTurning to Technology for Nature Could Help Us Feel More Connected, Experts Say
Sarah Grothjan · REI · April 29, 2020
Featuring Peter Kahn, member of the Center’s Research Collaborative and Steering Committee
Digital nature could also help with feelings of loneliness. A 2018 University of Washington (UW) study showed that university professors who worked in an office with a 50-inch plasma TV that depicted restorative nature scenes—serving, essentially, as a digital window—reported feeling connected to the outdoors and to the wider social community.
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Publication in Press
Focusing Attention on Reciprocity between Nature and Humans
Can be the Key to Reinvigorating Planetary Health
Usha Varanasi, Ph.D., College of the Environment, University of Washington
In Press, Ecopsychology Journal, http://home.liebertpub.com/publications/ecopsychology/300/overview
Mary Ann Liebert Inc., Publishers
This timely essay raises the importance of shifting individual and societal attention to preventive and precautionary measures to maintain human and ecological health.
Finding Respite in the Nature Nearby to Combat Stress
Kiyomi Taguchi · UW News · April 17, 2020
Featuring Kathleen Wolf, Nature and Health Researcher
Taking a walk can make you feel better, but is there scientific research? Yes, says Kathleen Wolf.