Building a Better Case for Being Present in Nature

After my blog post last night, my sister Linda sent me an email with a number of links and a few notes about the contents.  With her permission, I'm sharing some of the content here.  Her notes:

I looked at a bunch of sites. One mentioned that the combination of green 
and blue is especially therapeutic. Another mentioned the benefit of 
sunshine. But mostly it was green--even green plants in the house...

     [Seeing] both green and blue is especially helpful.

     Even five minutes a day outside is very beneficial.

     Being outdoors is therapeutic for those with ADHD, addictions, 
depression, insomnia...

     Nature improves classroom behavior and speeds healing in hospitals.

     As increasing research shows benefits of spending time in nature, 
especially in sunlight, people are spending generally less and less time 
outside.

     Some side benefits [of being outdoors] are fresh air, exercise...

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I've included the links below, along with minimal comments.

Learn about phytoncides here, and about the beneficial effects of a view of living things and natural beauty, even when confined indoors.  Lots of other good information and tips here.

I especially like Frank Lloyd Wright's quote at the end of this article (except that I would like to add a caveat to the last phrase).  Although he is known for his Prairie Style of architecture, I don't think he's thinking of prairie-style drought, blizzards, floods, high winds and tornadoes when he says "nature never fails you."

Reading this article makes me wonder (again!) why we are prioritizing play space (especially for competitive games) over green space on our school grounds.

This article lists specific medical diagnoses that are often helped by spending time in natural environments.,

Ohhhh, this last paragraph is gold.  I also love this "prescription" for being in nature:  "Go outside, go often, go with friends, or not."  It borrows from the format of Micheal Pollan's sage words on eating well:  "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

This article appears on a site that suggests it's written by a mother concerned about wellness.  You'll find the term ecotherapy introduced here.   This also has the simplest explanation that I've read about how negative ions are beneficial.  It's because our bodies have a tendency to build up a positive charge, and negative ions restore "electrical" balance.

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Before I spoke yesterday, I read an abstract of a journal article that spoke to a question already present in my mind.  What is the benefit of being outdoors in an environment like the one I usually walk in these days--on a paved road, alongside ditches that have been freshly dug out and are thus devoid of vegetation (let alone, plant diversity), in winter, when "green" is hard to find, and the wind can be hard and cold?  In brief, though exercise and fresh air are beneficial, the answer to this question is still elusive, and more research is needed.  I'll copy parts of the abstract below:

"There is mounting empirical evidence that interacting with nature delivers measurable benefits to people. Reviews of this topic have generally focused on a specific type of benefit, been limited to a single discipline, or covered the benefits delivered from a particular type of interaction. . . . We discover that evidence for the benefits of interacting with nature is geographically biased towards high latitudes and Western societies, potentially contributing to a focus on certain types of settings and benefits. . . .  The evidence for most benefits is correlational, and although there are several experimental studies, little as yet is known about the mechanisms that are important for delivering these benefits. For example, we do not know which characteristics of natural settings (e.g., biodiversity, level of disturbance, proximity, accessibility) are most important for triggering a beneficial interaction, . . . These are key directions for future research if we are to design landscapes that promote high quality interactions between people and nature in a rapidly urbanising world."

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While I am as eager as ever to incorporate natural prairie plants into our landscapes, I see more clearly than before that trees should also be incorporated, even though not many grew here prior to settlement by people of European ancestry.  I even find some limited justification for watered and mowed lawns, because that's the most reliable way to ensure that access to green is possible during the growing season, even if severe drought descends.  

I have a growing vision for developing walking or running paths that are lined with a diverse plant community that includes trees.  Since we can't all do this at our homes, we should consider doing this in places that all have easy access to.  On school and church grounds, and in small-town parks would seem like good places to begin.  Maybe some people who have space and the vision to develop their own properties could be generous enough to open it for use by other members of the community.  Or perhaps landowners with adjacent properties could stretch walking paths across boundary lines.  I'm guessing that some people are wondering why we can't just all use our country roads for walking.  There's some validity to that.  Safety, however, is more assured if pedestrian traffic does not mix with motor vehicle traffic, as happens when walking happens on public roadways.  Also, women walking alone would feel less vulnerable--to human predators at least, away from public roads.