WA Scientists Plan to Publish Report on Nature That Trump Canceled

Written by

Lynda V. Mapes · Seattle Times · February 17, 2025

Featuring multiple members of the Nature and Health Steering Committee and Research Collaborative

From left, Tessa Francis, Howard Frumkin, Josh Lawler, Anne Guerry, and Phil Levin, part of a group of scientists that worked on the country’s first National Nature Assessment, pose together for a portrait in Seattle on Friday. Scientists across the country are going forward with the publication after it was cancelled by the Trump administration. (Ivy Ceballo / The Seattle Times)

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.

The report, announced by President Joe Biden during a visit to Seattle’s Seward Park on Earth Day in 2022, was intended to be the country’s first nationwide assessment of the state of nature.

In all, more than 150 scientists were at work on the assessment across the country — and they had nearly completed the first draft of their work. Then Phil Levin, professor of practice in the University of Washington College of the Environment, and the national director for the report, was informed shortly after Trump took office that the assessment was being terminated.

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

Written by

Kim Malcolm and John O’Brien · KUOW · February 11, 2025

Featuring 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. government study called the National Nature Assessment. Experts in various fields had measured the relative health of lands, water and wildlife. One of the goals was to gauge what changes in the natural world might mean for humans. Then, President Trump took office for a second time. Within days, the first draft of the study was shelved.

Howard Frumkin is a professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about his work on the study.

Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves with Dr. Howard Frumkin

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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. Howard Frumkin on the the interconnectedness of human health and planetary health. We know that nature provides us with a myriad of health benefits, both as individuals and socially. The episode also discusses human habitats that are better for people and the planet, rectifying the gap between human progress and planetary degradation, and the inspiring, important work that Dr. Frumkin is doing at the Land and People Lab.

OPINION: Cli-Fi—Helping us Manage a Crisis

Written by

BMJ · October 3, 2024

Authored by Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health co-founder and Steering Committee member

A Fire So Wild by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman is one of several cli-fi books mentioned in Frumkin’s opinion piece.

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.

Indeed, stories are an integral part of all cultural traditions. “The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor,” writes moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt.5 “Everyone loves a good story; every culture bathes its children in stories.” Stories shape collective memories, define social identity, and—importantly in the context of contemporary crises such as climate change—frame the possibilities people perceive for the future.

In recent years, the genre known as climate fiction—or “cli-fi”—has blossomed. “We decide what to do based on the stories we tell ourselves,” says Robinson, “so we very much need to be telling stories about our responses to climate change and the associated massive problems bearing down on us and our descendants.”6 Dozens of authors have answered the call.

Revitalize Parks to Strengthen Democracy

Written by

Stanford Social Innovation Review · Summer 2024

Co-authored by Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health co-founder and Steering Committee member

The newly renovated Methow Park in Central Washington is a physical manifestation of the community’s vision and power, largely stewarded by the Parque Padrinos. Credit: Stuart Isett

Tucked away in the Cascade Mountains of Central Washington, amid miles of hiking trails and fruit orchards, sits Methow Park on the south side of the small town of Wenatchee. In stark contrast with the verdant ecoregion, Methow Park once embodied the community’s inequitable living conditions: a patchy soccer field, two netless basketball hoops, and deteriorating playground equipment. More than 4,200 people lived within a 10-minute walk of the one-acre park, the vast majority of whom are Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers in an otherwise white and middle-class town.

In 2014, Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation organization that creates parks and protects land for people, was invited by the City of Wenatchee to engage residents in renovating Methow Park. For more than a year, conventional attempts at involving the community, such as meetings in school gyms and online surveys, saw poor results. Besides, renovating a park seemed trivial compared with the community’s broader civic and health concerns. South Wenatchee residents had experienced decades of city disinvestment, underrepresentation in local government, and an absence of Latino advocacy groups.

Parks Have Social Superpowers. Let’s Make More of Them.

Written by

Howard Frumkin · Seattle Times · May 17, 2024

Howard is a Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

Across our nation, the bonds of familiarity, trust and solidarity that sustain a strong society are badly frayed. One of the best tools we have to strengthen these bonds is parks and green space.

The social superpowers of parks play out in several ways:

  • Social isolation
  • Segregation and polarization
  • Trust in institutions
  • Civic engagement

Of course, parks and green space aren’t a panacea. Alone, they can’t mend our social fabric. But evidence shows that they can make substantial contributions — in ways that are affordable, practical and acceptable across the political spectrum.

Unfortunately, parkland is too scarce, and unequally distributed. According to research by Trust for Public Land, roughly 100 million Americans, including 28 million children, lack access to a park within a 10-minute walk of home — with communities of color and low-income communities being the least well-served.

Making Green Space Available to All

Written by

Trust for Public Land · Seattle Times · October 18, 2023

Featuring Howard Frumkin, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

Trust for Public Land staff collects park design input from Jennie Reed Elementary students. Credit: Adair Freeman Rutledge, courtesy Trust for Public Land

Nature invites you to discover the many benefits it offers. Spending time in nature can perk up your mental health, improve your cognition and calm your busy brain. Mounting evidence suggests nature promotes both physical and psychological well-being.

Green spaces — forests, parks, shrubs and tree-studded neighborhoods — play a large part in nature’s design.

“If we had a medicine that delivered as many health benefits as parks, we would all be taking it,” says Dr. Howard Frumkin, senior vice president and director of the Land and People Lab for Trust for Public Land.

Parks are a mental health resource, with studies showing that people who spend regular time in green spaces enjoy lower levels of stress and are less likely to experience anxiety disorders and depression. For young people, parks provide a space to decompress, exercise and hang out.

The Journal of Climate Change and Health: Hope, Health, and the Climate Crisis

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How do health professionals acknowledge the climate crisis and its connections with human health? Howard Frumkin published an article in The Journal of Climate Change and Health that offers ways for health professionals to consider hope as a path forward for themselves, their patients, and future generations.

The Sun Peeking Between the Leaves
Los Muertos Crew
The Sun Peeking Between the Leaves, photo by Los Muertos Crew

Washington Trails: When War Leads to Trauma, Trails May Lead the Way Out

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Two hikers with rocks and mountains in the background
Credit: Toomas Tartes

Up until recently, there have been very few studies on how being outside and hiking might positively improve the functioning and quality of life for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers from Nature and Health and UW’s Department of Epidemiology are looking to change that.

This feature article from Washington Trails magazine highlights how UW and the Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center at the VA are partnering with Iraq veteran and grad student Joshua Brandon to study the benefits of hiking and re-establishing community in outdoor spaces.

Learn more about Nature and Health’s VetHike project.

Miles of Medicine: When War Leads to Trauma, Trails May Lead the Way Out

Written by

Charlie Wakenshaw · Washington Trails Magazine · Spring 2021

Featuring Howard Frumkin and Gregory Bratman
Nature and Health researchers and Steering Committee members

In 2008, Joshua Brandon was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the military base near Tacoma, between his second and third tours of duty in Iraq. He could see Mount Rainier every day and he started hatching plans to climb to the summit.

“Getting out here was my first real touch of being exposed to wilderness,” he said. “You’re surrounded by mountains. Rainier is staring at you every day and I’m like, it’s there, we gotta go climb it.”

Joshua commanded the 32nd Stryker Brigade at the time and got his platoon leaders involved with his plan. They formed a climbing team and got to work.