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20 publications published in 2026

A Global Research and Evaluation Agenda for Centering Health and Equity in City Climate Action Plans

2026 / Climate, Equity and Access, Health and well-being

City climate policy is one of the most powerful levers that can address environmental, health and equity challenges simultaneously. Yet large gaps exist in research and evaluation of city Climate Action Plans (CAPs) to guide and improve their impact, especially regarding public health and equity. We propose a conceptual framework and a global, interdisciplinary research agenda to ensure CAPs deliver on their full potential for climate, health, and justice.

A Systematic Scoping Review for Decolonial Public and Global Health: Indigenous Frameworks and Models of Wellbeing From Turtle Island and MoananuiāKea

2026 / Health and well-being, Indigenous knowledge, Land-based healing, Reciprocal healing

Background Equitable approaches to public and global health require grounding in diverse ontologies of wellbeing and decolonial theory. Indigenous wellbeing models and frameworks embed holistic values that support ecological thriving. In contrast, Western approaches often individualize and compartmentalize wellbeing, narrowing public and global health practice and contributing to persistent disparities. Despite the proliferation of Indigenous-developed frameworks, no scoping review has synthesized contributions in this area. This review aimed to identify models, frameworks, and theories of wellbeing developed by Indigenous communities and scholars from Turtle Island (North America) and Moananuiākea (the Pacific) to inform more culturally safe and decolonial approaches to public and global health. Methods Guided by the PRISMA-ScR framework, both peer-reviewed publications and grey literature were sourced from five databases (PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, and ProQuest). Additional articles were hand-sourced. Included articles posed an original model, framework, or theory of wellbeing, developed for Indigenous people, families, or communities, by Indigenous authors from those respective lands in Turtle Island or Moananuiākea. Results A total of 1,473 database references and 89 additional references were identified for screening. After 61 full-text reviews, 33 manuscripts were included for analysis. Twenty-one publications originated from Moananuiākea (64%) and 12 originated from Turtle Island (36%). The most common method used to develop the models and frameworks was qualitative (52%). Synthesis of the data yielded seven themes: (1) holistic integration of all life domains; (2) spirituality and the ongoing presence of ancestors; (3) culture and preservation of tradition; (4) collective wellbeing and relationality; (5) reciprocal relationship with land as a source of identity, health, and responsibility; (6) use of place-specific Indigenous metaphors and language; and (7) empowerment and self-determination. Conclusion Indigenous communities globally are calling for a shift from conceptual discussion of wellbeing toward tangible application in public and global health systems. These findings hold several implications for decolonial theory-development and more equitable health systems. Future research should build on work which moves Indigenous wellbeing frameworks from theory to action.

Associations of Forest vs. Urban Environmental Exposure With Well-Being and Nasal Microbiome Composition: An Exploratory Pilot Study

2026 / Forest, Health and well-being, Olfaction, Urban

Highlights An 8-week forest vs. urban exposure was associated with affective improvements. Greater post-exposure richness in forest vs. urban group’s nasal microbiomes. Forest group’s nasal microbiome enriched with well-being-associated bacteria. Increased nasal bacterial richness correlated with affective improvements. Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia abundance correlated with affective improvements. The benefits of nature exposure for human well-being are well-recognized, yet much remains to be understood about the underlying causal mechanisms. This exploratory, hypothesis-generating pilot study used a natural experimental design with University of Washington students (Seattle, WA, USA; 2024) to investigate links between the nasal microbiome and well-being over an 8-week forest vs. urban environment exposure. After an academic year (September-May) during which all participants (N = 13) were full-time students in Seattle, one group relocated to remote forest sites in western Washington (n = 5; forest condition), while another group remained in urban Seattle (n = 8; urban condition). Self-reported affect, rumination, and mental well-being were assessed pre- and post-exposure using validated surveys, and nasal swabs were collected pre- and post-exposure for nasal microbiome profiling via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Compared to the urban group, the forest group exhibited significantly greater increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect and rumination. While no between-group differences in overall nasal bacterial community composition were detected pre-exposure, significant differences emerged post-exposure. Moreover, the forest group exhibited greater post-exposure taxonomic richness at a marginally statistically significant level and significant enrichment of taxa previously associated with well-being (e.g., Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia), changes not observed in the urban group. Increases in taxonomic richness and the relative abundance of these key taxa were significantly associated with affective improvements. These preliminary results suggest that nasal microbiome-mediated pathways linking nature exposure with well-being merit further investigation.

At the Leading Edge: Advancing and Bridging the Science and Management of Range-Shifting Species

2026 / Climate, Conservation, Ecosystem services, Wildfires

Climate-mediated shifts in species distributions are reshaping ecosystems worldwide, creating major challenges for conservation and resource management. These range shifts have far-reaching ecological and socio-economic consequences, requiring managers to address complex ecological dynamics while navigating diverse regulatory and value systems. Despite growing attention, key gaps remain in supporting management, from improved understanding of the mechanisms of range shifts, to evaluating the effectiveness of climate adaptation strategies, and tailoring science to the institutional and social contexts of decision-making. Central challenges include scaling processes across space, time, and organizational levels, and reconciling mismatches between biogeographical and management scales. Progress will depend on more comprehensive datasets to assess outcomes across taxa and regions, stronger cross-jurisdictional cooperation, and decision frameworks that integrate uncertainty alongside multiple value systems. Addressing these gaps is essential to make research more actionable and to enable successful management of species redistribution.

Cultivating Reciprocity—The Nature and Health Challenge

2026 / Reciprocal healing

Across recent decades the disciplines devoted to nature and health have amassed impressive evidence that nature benefits people’s physical, psychological, and social well-being (Frumkin et al., 2017; Wolf, Lam, McKeen, Richardson, van den Bosch & Bardekjian, 2020). Many of the research articles call out two alarming and interacting trends: (1) increased global urbanization that threatens biodiversity and thus reduces opportunity for urban residents to interact with nature; and (2) equally compelling evidence of inequities of nature access to underserved populations, which denies them of extensive health benefits of nature experiences (Rigolon et al., 2024). While increasing both access and awareness of nature’s beneficial effects for all people is essential, it is also imperative to learn to care for our ever-dwindling natural spaces and ecosystems. Our concern for prevailing nature and health research is the focus on benefits quantification, rarely addressing the relational opportunities of values and behaviors that can arise from deep connection to nature. The limitation of ecosystem services and other nature-based solutions constructs is that they seek to demonstrate nature value as a commodity that is monetized and treated as an economic product. They conceptually optimize nature functionality to serve humanity, only recently recognizing broader cultural ecosystem services (Comberti, Thornton, Wyllie de Echeverria, & Patterson, 2015; Lele, Springate-Baginski, Lakerveld, Deb, & Dash, 2013). As decision-makers and the public translate health benefits research to programs and prescriptions, increased use of local greenspace can lead to overuse and degradation, a version of the tragedy of the commons. Continued focus on human-centric benefits of nature fails to recognize that mutual care or reciprocal relationship with nature is essential for both local natural systems and the health and survival of the planet (Varanasi, 2020).

Early Life Stress Enhances the Association Between Residential Nature Exposure and Fasting Blood Glucose

2026 / Green spaces, Health and well-being, Stress

Background Emerging epidemiological evidence indicates that groups in low socioeconomic positions exhibit more pronounced health benefits from nature exposure compared to more privileged groups. We have previously posited one possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon through our framework: (susceptibility to stress) groups in low socioeconomic positions are often exposed to more early-life stressors, which can induce a lifelong susceptibility to stress through various neurobiological pathways; (environmental sensitivity) susceptibility to stress, traditionally understood as heightened reactivity to stressors, could also encompass enhanced responsivity to health-protective exposures, inducing greater risks in adverse environments, but also greater benefits in protective environments. Objective Examine the moderation effect of early life stress on the association between residential nature exposure and fasting glucose. Methods We assessed the impact of residential nature exposure (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) on glucose dysregulation (elevated levels of fasting blood glucose) with a specific focus on the moderation effect of early life stress (Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults) using baseline data from a cohort of 340 nursing students. Results An initial analysis did not support our linear dose-response hypothesis. However, a theory-guided exploration revealed a significant curvilinear trend wherein participants with higher but also lower exposure to early-life stressors both exhibited lower levels of fasting glucose when living in greener neighborhoods. By contrast, for participants with relatively moderate early-life stressor exposure, there was no association between neighborhood greenness and fasting glucose. Discussion Our findings contribute to growing evidence and further support the idea that increasing access to nature within disadvantaged neighborhoods could be an effective strategy to mitigate metabolic risks and attenuate health disparities among vulnerable populations. As the evidence for this framework expands, it could inform more targeted interventions that leverage individual differences in environmental sensitivity to promote health equity, ultimately providing more nuanced and socioeconomically attuned approaches to public health.

Evaluating Mobility Data for Recreation Monitoring

2026 / Public land

Mobile device location data (or mobility data, MD) are a novel and exciting source of information for recreational monitoring. In this paper we analyze datasets from four commercial vendors across three case studies to illustrate some important challenges. Our results show inconsistent spatial-temporal patterns and correlations with on-site counts. Given this evidence, we describe a conceptual model of the potential sources of error and structural variability in visitation estimates derived from MD. We discuss approaches for evaluation of data quality and suggest a range of supplemental data products that vendors could provide to support recreation analysis.

Large Recreation Declines Persist for Years After Severe Wildfire but Not After Low-Severity or Prescribed Fire

2026 / Recreation, Wildfires

Wildfire and recreational use of public lands have surged, particularly across the US West. In response to intensifying wildfire, land managers are also expanding prescribed fire for fuel-reduction. Yet how either fire type reshapes visitation, remains poorly quantified, limiting managers’ ability to account for important hidden values provided by public lands. We analyze wildfire and prescribed fire sites (N = 185 and 54, respectively) across California and Colorado public lands, advancing a casual inference approach that leverages 11 million digital-mobility observations, from cell phones, social media, and citizen science apps, in a visitation model. This is the first landscape-scale causally-identified estimate of how fire type, severity, and social-ecological context shape public land visitation over time. Wildfires reduced visitation (-8% to -18% one year post-fire), with impacts scaling with severity. High-severity fires in California produced persistent losses (-33% year one; -44% year five), whereas low-severity effects remained near-neutral across both states. Forested sites drove losses while grassland fires produced minimal impacts. Prescribed fire effects were state-dependent (positive in Colorado, negative in California) but transient, with no effect after three years. High-recreation counties experienced disproportionate wildfire impacts in Colorado (-11% vs. -2%) and in California for high-severity fires (-28% vs -8%). Fire characteristics and social-ecological systems jointly determine recreational outcomes and provide empirical foundations for fire management that accounts for recreational use and its value. We provide a novel addition to quantify the value of non-material contributions of nature at the state level, expanding our ability to measure cultural ecosystem services at scale.

Modeling Recreational Visitation at Bureau of Land Management Sites

2026 / Public land, Recreation

Estimates of recreational visitation are essential for public land management. Visitation is typically estimated using devices such as automated counters that require logistics and effort, particularly at remote locations or those with several access points. In this study, we investigate the utility of alternative data sources and statistical models for estimating visitation to public lands in the United States, through an analysis of data from 70 Bureau of Land Management sites. We compile 1328 site-months of visitor count data collected on-site, which are used to train and evaluate three random forest models incorporating combinations of 15 site-level characteristics and three sources of digital mobility data—mobile device locations, geolocated social media, and community science observations. Models including site characteristics perform better than models relying on mobility data alone. Cross-validation using held-out sites reveal varying prediction accuracy, suggesting that model generalizability depends on the inclusion of characteristically similar sites in the training data. These results underscore the limitations of relying solely on mobility data for visitation estimation and highlight the benefits of combining diverse data sources. Our approach provides a scalable, data-driven framework for estimating visitation where traditional monitoring is challenging or infeasible, supporting broader applications in recreation management.

Multiple Sources of Volunteered Geographic Information Strengthen Holistic Estimates of Lake Visitation

2026 / Public land

Lakes provide human societies with a wide range of cultural ecosystem services (CES), yet these benefits are rarely quantified. Site visitation is frequently used to assign CES values to recreational destinations, but traditional approaches for estimating lake visitation have limited spatiotemporal extent. Visitation estimates increasingly leverage volunteered geographic information (VGI) to address this challenge. We compared the utility of five different sources of VGI from Flickr, eBird, iNaturalist, Twitter, and Gaia GPS, which broadly encompass lake users with different motivations for interacting with nature. We evaluated the potential for predicting on-site visitation from in-person counts by testing models informed by unique combinations of VGI sources at urban and suburban lakes in western Washington. Additionally, we investigated the amenities driving differences in relative lake visitation by modeling visitation as a function of lake attributes (e.g., tree cover, water quality, built infrastructure). All VGI sources were included in the top-performing visitation models, suggesting they provide significant and unique contributions to estimates of overall lake use (combined R2 = 0.85, in-sample testing). Given that these VGI sources reflect different types of lake users seeking unique CES, we conclude that holistic VGI visitation estimates should incorporate a diversity of VGI sources. Our results also reveal that built lakeside infrastructure is the predominant driver of visitation at lakes in western Washington, suggesting that spatially equitable updates to amenities will encourage public lake use. We urge greater consideration of the accessibility of different lake-based CES across the landscape and among diverse communities in future lake recreation planning, and suggest that VGI-based estimates of lake visitation offer a robust way to inform this process.

Noise-Induced Annoyance and Sleep Disturbance From Military Aircraft Training

2026 / Noise pollution, Sleep

While much is known about the public health impacts of civil aviation noise, only limited research has investigated the consequences of military aviation noise, despite it first being recognized over half a century ago. The present study conducted a social-acoustic survey to quantify levels of annoyance and sleep disturbance associated with military aviation noise among communities surrounding Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington State, USA, which serves as a training facility for EA-18G Growler aircraft. We conducted a social-acoustic survey of 663 respondents residing in households across a representative range of military aviation noise exposure levels. We report evidence that perceived exposure to military aviation noise is consistent with modeled annual sound levels across the study region and that noise exposure is positively associated with annoyance and sleep disturbance. We also found that reported annoyance is strongly influenced by active or past service in the U.S. Armed Forces and by expressed attitudes toward military operations. Aviation noise disrupted several routine household activities and triggered different coping strategies in affected communities. By highlighting the implications for human well-being of military aviation noise, this research raises questions about the appropriateness of conventional community noise metrics and mitigation approaches for military aircraft noise. Related Media Jet noise study examines regional complaints (April 2026)

Parks and Recreation in Cancer Prevention: Bringing Cancer Center Outreach and Engagement Initiatives to Public Spaces Through Partnership With Local Governments

2026 / Built environment + Urban design, Green spaces, Health and well-being, Healthcare providers

Introduction Public parks are an integral part of the built environment, with a considerable role to promote public health by advancing physical health, mental wellness and overall quality of life. The potential exists for parks and greenspace to contribute to cancer control and prevention, and local park and recreation departments (PARDs) are natural partners for Comprehensive Cancer Centers as they pursue Community Outreach and Engagement activities. However there is a lack of research on best practices for structuring these relationships to ensure success. Methods A collaboration framework for Comprehensive Cancer Centers and PARDs was informed by the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) model of implementation science. The model was applied by a large cancer center to 3 implementation sites in the greater Houston area. A set of shared measures were developed and tracked across all sites. Results Three PARDs implemented 5 unique active living and sun safety evidence-based interventions (EBIs) of 2 main types, educational focused interventions (to increase knowledge and change behavior) and infrastructure interventions (to modify the physical environment). Three-quarters (75%, 9/12) of all educational EBIs across communities were sustained by the PARDs one or more years after the funding ended; all (13/13) infrastructure projects were completed during the active implementation period and sustained by the PARDs. A range of 10-39 partners supported the work of the PARDs. Conclusion The 3 collaboration sites each offer a case study on the impact and effectiveness of health promotion across sectors to impact modifiable risk factors for cancer, leveraging the replicable EPIS model. Partnership is critical to both sectors to advance community health and impact.

Presence Scale Technical Report: Iterative Conceptualization, Psychometrics, and Validity Evidence

2026 / Health and well-being

This technical report details the four-year process through which we developed and completed an initial validation of the Presence Scale (see Appendix K or Table 20 for the finalized scale). The Presence Scale is a 14-item self-report measure of Presence, a hierarchical construct composed of three factors: Stillness of Mind, Present Moment Awareness, and Consciousness Beyond Self. Our goal in creating the Presence Scale was to have a self-report measure from which we can draw inferences about the degree to which a person experienced Presence during a recalled experience or, eventually, following an experimental condition or immediately after an experience in everyday life. Our formal definition of Presence and its three factors are provided below: Presence is the state of being in which conditioned thinking ceases, and the mind is open, aware, non-reactive, and still; and often a witness of itself. In this state, one can experience one’s consciousness as expanding, and one’s self as becoming part of something larger than the self. Presence is the mind attuned. Subject, not object. Life affirming. Stillness of Mind occurs when discursive thinking subsides and the mind is clear, calm, and settled. Present Moment Awareness occurs when one is open to and aware of the now, of the present moment, of being, even if one is involved in activity. Consciousness Beyond Self occurs when one’s consciousness seems to expand beyond the confines of the body and mind, and potentially the self merges—one experiences becoming One—with another entity or realm. The formal presentation of Presence and the core empirical evidence supporting the validity of the Presence Scale are reported in Kahn et al. (in press). This technical report provides the comprehensive methodological and empirical foundation underlying those findings as well as supplemental validity evidence. Here, we document the entire scale development process, including conceptual iterations, pilot studies, factor analyses, and item-level psychometric evaluation that extend beyond the scope of the journal article (see Figure 1 for an overview). Through providing transparent information about our scale development process, this report serves as a resource for researchers who wish to evaluate the Presence Scale and implement it with fidelity in their own work.

Reflections on: The Importance of Children Interacting with Big Nature

2026 / Children

In “The Importance of Children Interacting with Big Nature” (Kahn & Weiss, 2017), Thea Weiss and I wrote that the problem of environmental generational amnesia (EGA) was one of the most pressing psychological problems of our lifetime. EGA happens in this way: With each new generation, children are born into an increasingly diminished, fractured, and partly destroyed natural world. Do we know that? No, because as children we take the nature we encounter as the baseline, the norm for what counts as healthy nature. It is difficult enough to address large-scale environmental problems when we clearly recognize them; it becomes ever more difficult when we barely recognize them, or do not notice them at all. In recent work (Kahn, in press), I review the empirical evidence for EGA. The body of research is still modest, but the findings in support are consistent across diverse ecological and cultural contexts. I also extend EGA’s theory, showing that it represents a tragic success of Piagetian constructivism. Children build cognitive structures around available external input, as Piaget established, but when that input is an increasingly impoverished natural world, the result is internally coherent yet ecologically misaligned and maladaptive knowledge. I also differentiate EGA from related constructs, including Diamond’s (2005) Landscape Amnesia and Pauly’s (1995) Shifting Baseline Syndrome. Neither construct reckons with the force of childhood baseline construction. Thus, both hold that the historical record and current knowledge can reasonably correct course. EGA is less optimistic: its roots in early childhood phenomenological experience make the amnesia more deeply entrenched. Here, looking forward, I would like to note two solutions to the problem of EGA, which were in their more nascent form in the 2017 article, and which I’ve been extending in my scholarly work.

Relative Vulnerability of US National Parks to Cumulative and Transformational Climate Impacts

2026 / Public land

National Parks are under threat from multiple interacting climatic changes, which have already triggered transformations in these protected landscapes. We conducted a multidimensional analysis of climate‐change vulnerability for National Parks to identify which parks are most at risk of climate‐change impacts and therefore in the greatest need of targeted climate‐change vulnerability assessment and planning. We identified 174 (67%) parks as most exposed to one or more potentially transformative climate impacts including fire, drought, sea‐level rise, and forest pests and diseases. Cumulative vulnerability across multiple dimensions was the highest for parks in the Midwest and eastern United States due to high physical exposures, the exacerbation of existing stressors, and high surrounding land‐use intensity. Western parks exhibited lower cumulative vulnerability due to less intense land use and topography that may provide climatic refugia. However, western parks tended to be most exposed to multiple transformative impacts. These widespread, diverse threats highlight not only the need for coordinated evaluation of vulnerabilities from multiple perspectives, but also the need for park managers to evaluate and plan for potentially irreversible ecological changes to the landscapes and resources that parks are intended to preserve.

The Restorative Power of Blue Spaces: A 19-Country Study

2026 / Blue spaces, Health and well-being

Living in urbanised areas can deplete cognitive and emotional resources. To help restore them, many people seek out natural locations. Blue spaces (e.g. rivers, lakes, coasts) are among people’s favourite restorative settings, but we know little about the importance of type or quality for psychological restoration, or the role of nature connectedness. Using survey data from 19 countries (n = 17,131), we explored the extent to which participants perceived a recent blue space visit had helped them “rest and recover [their] abilities to focus” and feel “part of nature”. Seventeen blue space types were investigated, spanning marine, lentic (‘standing’) inland, and lotic (‘flowing’) inland waters in both more natural and more built settings, respectively. Accounting for country differences, linear mixed models found all blue space settings were recalled as restorative, with sandy beaches and rural rivers/canals the most, and marshlands the least. Recalled nature connectedness was also high overall, although more natural blue spaces consistently scored higher than built ones. Perceived safety was the quality indicator most associated with both outcomes. Actively engaging with the water (e.g. swimming, paddling) was associated with greater restoration than remaining on-land, and both outcomes showed diminishing marginal returns over time, peaking around 3 h. Path analysis focusing on walking (the most common visit activity) suggested a reciprocal relationship between perceived restoration and nature connectedness. Results provide multi-country evidence that spending recreational time at safe blue spaces can benefit diverse populations by helping them to restore depleted cognitive/emotional resources and connect with the natural world.

The Social Environment and Cognitive Aging Over the Life Course: Laying Out Critical Concepts and Research Gaps

2026 / Loneliness, Older adults, Social capital

The social environment refers to our interpersonal relations, workplaces, and neighborhoods, towns, or cities in which we live. A growing literature indicates that social environments are related to cognitive aging and risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). Still, relatively little is known about how social‐environmental exposures affect cognitive function over the life course and into older ages. Addressing this limitation, our paper outlines key features of the social environment and recommends priority areas of research on the social environment and cognitive aging. We divide our discussion into three subdomains: social connections, residential context, and work context. We then identify important gaps in the conceptual and empirical literature before outlining avenues for future research to strengthen our understanding of how social‐environmental exposures over the life course link with cognitive function and AD/ADRD risk in late life. Highlights The social environment is linked to AD/ADRD risk, but key concepts and measures require clarity. Key features of the social environment linked to life course cognitive aging are discussed. Focal gaps in the conceptual and measurement literature are discussed.

Using Nature to Regulate Emotions: Introducing the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ)

2026 / Health and well-being

Emotion regulation (ER) takes many forms. One of the most intriguing is situation selection, which refers to selecting the situations we’re exposed to with a view to influencing our emotions. Despite its importance, surprisingly little is known about situation selection. In the present work, we examine an important form of situation selection, namely location selection – emphasizing the deliberate choice of environmental settings, with a particular focus in selecting nature experiences, to influence emotional states. To measure and explore this process, we validated a new self-report scale – the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ) – across three studies. In the first study (NS1 = 292), we developed the English version of the scale starting with an initial set of 20 items. The items were generated based on Russell’s Circumplex Model of Affect (1980), reflecting the four primary dimensions of affect defined by valence and arousal. Exploratory factor analysis led to a refined 12-item scale, organized into a two-factor structure: restoration and revitalization. The second study (NS2 – T1 = 302) tested the 12-item scale’s reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as test-retest reliability and predictive validity through a follow-up survey (NS2 – T2 = 125). The third study (NS3 = 308) adapted the scale for Italian speakers, confirming the two-factor structure as well as its reliability and validity. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated measurement invariance across English and Italian versions, confirming its cross-linguistic equivalence. Overall, these findings establish the NS-ERQ as a robust instrument for assessing how individuals choose to visit natural environments for emotion regulation, providing a new framework for understanding the role of selecting environmental context in emotion regulation.

Visitor Perception of Lake Water Quality in Two Highly Managed Urban Lakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota

2026 / Blue spaces

Urban lakes provide important recreational and aesthetic benefits but often require intensive management to restore and maintain water quality. However, if there are mismatches between measured and perceived water quality, improvements may go unnoticed. While conventional water quality indicators such as chlorophyll a and Secchi depth are routinely monitored, it remains unclear how well these biophysical metrics align with public perceptions. We conducted a survey to measure visitors’ perceptions of water quality at two highly visited urban lakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota—Como Lake, a shallow eutrophic lake undergoing intensive in-lake management, and Lake Phalen, a deeper mesotrophic lake with fewer recent interventions. Across three years (2022–2024), we recruited over 800 survey respondents via signage that encouraged volunteers to participate by exchanging text-messages with a custom chatbot. Comparing long-term open water measurements with visitors’ water quality scores showed mixed relationships with chlorophyll a levels. Visitor perception scores were lower for eutrophic Como Lake, but this difference was small relative to the four-fold difference in chlorophyll a concentrations between the lakes. Open-ended responses suggest that visitors base their evaluations on a combination of visual cues such as water clarity, trash, and aquatic vegetation. These findings underscore the complexity of human–lake interactions and suggest that perception of ecological conditions may be informed by additional factors including expectations, communication, and lake-specific context. Incorporating visitor perception into lake monitoring and management may help align restoration goals with visitor experiences in urban settings.

Assessing the Value of the U.S. Roadless Rule for People and Nature

2026 / Blue spaces, Public land, Recreation

For more than a century, forest policy in the United States has recognized the importance of protecting forested watersheds to safeguard water resources. The 2001 U.S. Forest Service Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Roadless Rule) established Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) across approximately 60 million acres of National Forest System lands to sustain high-quality soil, water, biodiversity, and recreational values by restricting road building and commercial timber harvest. Because IRAs are administratively designated rather than legislatively protected, they remain vulnerable to policy reversals. Recent efforts to rescind the Roadless Rule have renewed concerns about potential ecological and economic consequences. Here, we assess vulnerabilities to weakened protections under the Roadless Rule by quantifying the benefits IRAs provide for river protection, clean water provisioning, recreational opportunities, and aquatic biodiversity across the conterminous United States. We find that IRAs protect over 130,000 kms of streams and rivers, representing 2.5% of total river length, and serve as the primary protection mechanism for more than 100,000 kms of rivers (1.9%) when accounting for other regulatory and conservation frameworks. These protections are geographically widespread and particularly important in regions with limited alternative safeguards. IRA-influenced watersheds supply drinking water to at least 25 million Americans, with several states sourcing water for over one-third of their populations from these areas. Proximity of National Forests to urban centers amplifies these benefits, even in states with relatively small IRA extents. In addition, IRA-protected watersheds overlap substantially with high-demand hunting and fishing areas and support diverse aquatic biodiversity. Our results demonstrate that rescinding the Roadless Rule would diminish protections for rivers, and may compromise drinking water quality and affordability, reduce recreational opportunities, and threaten freshwater biodiversity. Safeguarding Roadless Rule protections is therefore essential for sustaining ecosystem services, supporting human well-being, and advancing broader conservation and resilience goals under increasing climatic and land-use pressures.