Framing the Issue
In an article advocating the integration of nature-based counseling into professional practice, Greenleaf et al. note that "our increasingly urban lifestyle over the last 100 years...has dramatically reduced opportunities for contact with the natural world....modern living, by way of rural flight and suburbanized infrastructures, has insulated people from the natural environment, from the plants and animals inherent in a natural setting" (p. 163). We are only just beginning to appreciate the degree of harm this disconnect has caused.
Few people have explored our present-day deficit of access to nature and its pernicious effects as thoroughly as Richard Louv in his master work, Last Child in the Woods. Louv argues that there is a structurally reinforced tendency to disregard nature and to minimize its influence on our lives. Louv claims this "lesson is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors, and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities" (p. 2). As we have packed into cities over the last two centuries, this disconnect has grown ever more profound.
According to a 2018 study by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 82% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, earning its rank as the most urbanized country in the world. In their book Public Gardens and Livable Cities, Rakow, Gough, and Lee conclude that "our future world will be a largely urban one, as people gradually relocate from rural to urban areas and total population growth increases" (Kindle location 110). This deficit is universally harmful, but it most profoundly impacts young people whose bodies and minds are still developing.
Those advocating for restored access to nature for our nation's youth frequently cite health and well-being as an imperative for change. Louv mentions that "a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature—in positive ways" (p. 3). In their article, "Nature-Based Counseling: Integrating the Healing Benefits of Nature Into Practice," Greenleaf et al. incorporate much of this research into their case. Referencing a 2011 study by Carrera-Bastos et al., they conclude that "spending a preponderance of time indoors is linked with reduced exercise, higher rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer." Further, they put forth that present research supports a strong link between time indoors and "mental depletion and fatigue, increased aggression and violence, a loss of emotional control, attention deficit disorder, and increased incidences of depression and other psychological disorders" (p. 163).
With the American education system's emphasis on testing increasing over time, often at the expense of time outside, it is more important than ever for public gardens and adjacent green institutions to step in and use their resources to get students out and into nature.