“Get out and walk. It is the glory of life.”

– Maira Kalman

Returning to Campus, Returning to Nature:  A Case for the Campus Nature Walk

By Katherine Collin

Our educational institutions provide an overlooked yet significant opportunity for championing greenspace. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that nature, particularly within an urban environment, is a balm and solace.  Numerous studies corroborate this notion, specifically with college-aged students.  Students who have regular access to campus green spaces report higher levels of satisfaction with their quality of life (McFarland et al, 2008) and experience less stress (Holt et al, 2019).  Studies have equally shown that students consider greenspace to be not only important for the image of their institution but also an essential component of the campus environment (Speake et al, 2013).  In terms of mental health, even before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, students were shown to be experiencing a sweeping rise in anxiety, with 41% of 18- to 19-year-old students experiencing a sense of feeling overwhelmed by their work (Eagan et al, 2015).  The scientific body of literature is robust and convincing on the benefits that can broadly accrue to individuals, particularly young people, who immerse themselves in nature on a regular basis (Hartig et al, 2003; Li, 2010; White et al, 2019). These benefits include increased attentiveness (Berto, 2005; Berman, 2008; Faber Taylor, 2009), lowered levels of stress and anxiety (Berman, 2012), and increased acuity of critical and creative reasoning (Atchley et al, 2019).  

Studies have additionally shown that exposure to nature increases individuals’ sense of community cohesion: “The perceived quality, views, and amount of time spent in nature were linked to more community cohesion, and in turn, the perception of cohesive communities enhanced individual well-being outcomes and contributions back to society through higher workplace productivity and environmentally responsible behaviors” (Weinstein et al, 2015).  This benefit of community cohesion is especially relevant given rising eco-anxiety across our student (and general institutional) population.  It is particularly relevant that the American Psychological Association, in its guidelines for managing eco-anxiety, has indicated that two crucial steps can be taken to alleviate anxiety related to the climate crisis:  community engagement and performance of small, regular mitigating actions, both of which campus nature walks could provide (Whitmore-Williams, 2017). Read our full article.

For a full list of references as well as links to additional resources for promoting nature walks on campus, please click here.

Detailed information, including how to get started with campus nature walks and how to register your institution for the Campus Biodiversity Network on iNaturalist, can be found below.