Winter 2025 Newsletter

Updates From the Center for Nature and Health Team
Even in these tumultuous times, amid challenges for environmental and human health and uncertainty about the future of public lands, we are drawing strength from the solidarity of our Nature and Health community. 

WA Scientists Plan to Publish Report on Nature That Trump Canceled

Lynda V. Mapes · Seattle Times · February 17, 2025
Featuring multiple members of the Nature and Health Steering Committee and Research Collaborative

After President Donald Trump canceled a report on the state of nature in the United States, the scientists working on it — many from the Seattle area — say they’ll continue their work and build on it. 

Trump canceled the ‘National Nature Assessment.’ Scientists want to publish it anyway

Kim Malcolm and John O’Brien · KUOW · February 11, 2025
Featuring Dr. Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health co-founder and Steering Committee member

After months of work, a group of scientists were close to publishing a U.S. 

We’re Hiring a Summer Science Communications Intern

We’re hiring a summer science communications intern through the EarthLab Summer Internship Program. Applications are due February 6 by 5 pm.
The intern will distill scientific information into accurate, compelling, and accessible stories and case studies for multiple platforms (e.g., website, social media, StoryMaps, flyers, etc.), develop an editorial calendar related to nature-based days (e.g., Earth Day, Arbor Day, etc.) and free parks days, and draft social media posts. 

Intersecting Ecological and Human Health with Kathleen Wolf

Steven Peck · Green Roofs for Healthy Cities · Fall 2024
Featuring Kathleen Wolf, Research Collaborative member

In a new podcast episode, Sustainable Futures interviews Kathleen Wolf, researcher and social scientist specializing in the intersection of nature and human health and wellbeing. 

Community Dinner with Dr. Adithya Vegaraju

Our community dinners unite people from different backgrounds to explore new ideas, discuss policies and programs, and strengthen partnerships in the field of nature and health. Our November 2024 dinner featured a speed talk by Dr. 

National Nature Assessment Public Engagement Event

The US Global Change Research Program is leading the first-ever National Nature Assessment to evaluate U.S. lands, waters, wildlife, biodiversity, and their contributions to our economy, health, culture, climate, and equity. 

Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves with Dr. Howard Frumkin

Monica Olsen and Jennifer Walsh · Biophilic Solutions · November 12, 2024
Featuring Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health co-founder and Steering Committee member

In this podcast, Biophilic Solutions: Nature Has the Answers interviews Dr. 

OPINION: Cli-Fi—Helping us Manage a Crisis

BMJ · October 3, 2024
Authored by Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health co-founder and Steering Committee member

Reading fiction is one of the sublime ways to experience art. Stories engage us, absorb us, and stay with us.1 The reader may be transported cognitively and emotionally, and experience images more vivid than those in real life.2 This can be transformative; a compelling narrative may change a reader’s point of view.3 Fiction is “the mind’s flight simulator,” according to novelist and psychologist Keith Oatley,4 helping us understand both our own minds and the world’s complexity. 

Comment Period: National Nature Assessment

The U.S. Global Change Research Program is conducting the First National Nature Assessment to assess changes in nature as an aspect of global change. The scope of NNA1 is to assess the status, observed trends, and future projections of America’s lands, waters, wildlife, biodiversity, and ecosystems and the benefits they provide, including connections to the economy, public health, equity, climate mitigation and adaptation, and national security.