The social distance of the coronavirus pandemic is reminding Americans of the healing powers of the great outdoors.
Anita Sharma’s family didn’t used to spend much time outside. A typical day involved the hustle to get her young children to school, a full day in the office, and making dinner while the kids watched a show. The coronavirus pandemic has changed that routine.
It’s no secret that Americans have become increasingly removed from nature. Adults typically spend an hour or less outside per day — compared to 11 hours per day staring at screens — and that includes the time it takes to walk to the bus on the way to work. Things aren’t looking greener for the next generation: One study suggests that children today spend half as much time outside as their parents did when they were kids.
The sudden zeal for nature comes as no surprise to Keith Tidball, author of “Greening in the Red Zone” and an expert on nature’s role in building resilience in humans after large-scale traumas like deadly hurricanes, nuclear plant disasters and war. Going outside can be especially therapeutic for kids. Nooshin Razani, a pediatrician who runs the Center for Nature and Health at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California, has done research on how trips to the park can buffer the negative effects of childhood traumas such as abuse, poverty or living through a catastrophe. Time spent outdoors improves health outcomes and can boost resilience, including the ability to handle and regulate stress over a lifetime.
This reevaluation of what counts as nature is especially crucial as some national parks — from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to parts of the Appalachian Trail — limit or prohibit visitors to promote social distancing. In Los Angeles, orders to stay home from work sent residents outside in droves; the crowds were so large and so dense that the city had to close parks and hiking trails.
There are 857 million acres of public lands across the country, including national, state and city parks, monuments, wildlife refuges and more. Seven in 10 Americans live within 100 miles of a national forest. With the exception of some national parks, these spaces are free to visit ― a boon in this moment of economic downturn.
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