Kate Bradshaw

_{Expansive views and picturesque trails along Skyline Ridge.
Photo by Frances Freyberg Blackburn.}

The “park prescription” program is a (literal) breath of fresh air in an era of excessive screen time.

By Kate Bradshaw

May 13, 2019

It’s no secret that getting outdoors is good for people.

In Japan, “shinrin yoku” (“forest bathing”) has grown in popularity since the 1980s. It “essentially involves hanging out in the woods,” according to Outside Magazine, and is now considered a standard practice in preventive health care.

In Norway, people practice the concept of “friluftsliv,” or “open-air living”, through the prioritization of time spent outdoors.

And over the past decade, the Bay Area has been at the heart of a growing national movement to get people in underserved communities outdoors to reap the inherent health benefits provided by sunshine, greenery and an open trail. The movement has united doctors, public health officials, community health workers and park rangers alike in its pursuit of getting more people — especially families that have traditionally underutilized public parks — to enjoy time in nature.

Full story here.