The threat of house arrest has created panic among the dwellers of the major cities in our nation and the focus is on getting outdoors — and what’s better than fresh air and strolling through a canopy of towering ponderosa, aspen and a variety of southwestern trees, wildflowers and grassy meadows. Most people in the United States live in overstimulating, stressful urban or suburban environments. So, it makes sense — considering our evolutionary history of living in nature — that there is a strong urge to escape to the woods. And, with the pandemic this year, it’s no wonder that getting back to nature is like a psychological and physiological homecoming. 

There are some of us, however, that don’t need a pandemic to get us outdoors. We are addicted to the primordial environment capable of injecting us with bountiful energy and the freedom from four walls — while freely subjecting ourselves to the beauty of nature. The added health benefits gained from the benevolence of trees and other plants is a gift of great magnitude and very much appreciated by us humble mountain wayfarers. For years, research has found that even a casual urban walk — for a mere 15 minutes! — can help drop blood pressure, reduce stress levels and improve concentration and mental clarity. Every study revealed a reduction in stress, anger, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. Getting out amongst the trees is even better.

The American Cancer Society study found that those walking/hiking seven or more hours per week had a 14% lower risk of breast cancer than those who walked three or less hours. Other research states these surprising benefits of walking (www.health.harvard.edu) -H that it can reduce arthritis-related pain (and they state that “walking five to six miles a week can even prevent arthritis from forming in the first place”). In the same article, they claim that walking/hiking can boost your immune system and help protect you from the flu season. 

According to an article written by Greg Seaman for eartheasy.com, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, Japan’s leading scholar on forest medicine, states that, “walking in the woods can boost the body’s immune system by increasing anti-cancer proteins and enhancing the activity of certain cancer-fighting cells.” The research suggests that “humans benefit from breathing in ‘phytoncides’, the volatile organic compounds plants emit to protect themselves from bacteria, fungi and insects.” This research on the healing properties of forests has led to the development of 44 accredited Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) forests in Japan and has spread throughout the world. (The Healing Power of a Walk in the Woods by Greg Seaman - earth easy.com)

We always knew that a tree is a superhuman hero. They have the ability to provide us humans — and every living creature on our planet — a life-giving essential — oxygen — and “the power to remove harmful gases like carbon dioxide making the air we breathe healthier.”

It’s a basic biology lesson that we learned in elementary school: Through a process called photosynthesis, leaves pull in carbon dioxide and water and use the energy of the sun to convert this into chemical compounds such as sugars that feed the tree. As a by-product of that chemical reaction, oxygen is produced and released by the tree. “It is proposed that one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people.”  

Trees also store carbon dioxide in their fibers helping to clean the air and reduce the negative effects that this CO2 could have had on our environment. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, “In one year, a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen in exchange.”

(The Power of One Tree — The Very Air We Breathe by Joanna Mounce Stancil, U.S. Forest Service).

Another fascinating article that I just read this week, based on the research of Suzanne Simard, professor of Forest Ecology, University of British Columbia, is titled “The Social Life of Forests: Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi. What are they sharing with one another?” By Ferris Jabr: The article states that “an old growth forest is neither an assemblage of stoic organisms tolerating one another’s presence nor a merciless battle royale. It’s a vast, ancient and intricate society.” Simard believes that “these trees are very perceptive.” She says, “Very perceptive of who’s growing around them.” And she is really interested in whether they perceive us. Simard explains that “trees sense nearby plants and animals and alter their behavior accordingly, such as plant roots growing toward the sound of running water and flowers increasing the sweetness of their nectar when they detect a bee’s wing beat.” 

Simard studies the way trees exchange carbon, water and nutrients through underground networks of fungi. “There is conflict in a forest but there is also negotiation, reciprocity and perhaps even selflessness. The trees, understory plants, fungi and microbes in a forest are so thoroughly connected, communicative and codependent that some scientists have described them as super organisms.” In the book “The Secret Lives of Trees,” author Peter Wohlleben writes that “trees optimally divide nutrients and water among themselves, that they probably enjoy the feeling of fungi merging with their roots and that they even possess ‘maternal instincts.’”

Simard is in search of “mother trees.” Large, older trees that help keep other small younger trees healthy. Her research on mycorrhizal networks (subterranean networks of fungi) is changing the way we think about forests and forestry. “Everything is connected. Absolutely everything,” she says. 

“Trees have always been a symbol of connection,” writes Jabr. However, there is now a material reality. “Wherever living things emerge, they find one another, mingle and meld,” he writes. And in one of the best lines I have heard in a great while, Jabr expresses at the end of his excellent article (New York Times): “There are no individuals. There aren’t even separate species. Everything in the forest is the forest.”

So, the next time you head to the woods for a psychological and physiological healing, stroll through the woods, make sure you are in a present mindset. Look around and take in all of the benefits that nature — and especially trees — have to offer. Hopefully, the year 2021 will be the year of healing and I can’t think of a better way to heal than to breathe in a breath of fresh air while absorbing all of the magnificence of our beautiful mountains and our resplendent trees.