Wildwood Trust: Why being in nature is so important

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Why being in nature is so important

Tonight BBC Panorama is featuring the story of Callie, a young woman from Kent, who tragically took her own life, because her mental illness was not properly treated.

Callie was a regular at Wildwood Trust, where she would spend hours observing the animals, the wolves being her favorites. Her mother believes that she preferred the company of animals to humans and that being with the animals at Wildwood helped delay the tragic ending to her story.

Science keeps discovering new ways that nature can help humans, both mentally and physically. And with Callies story being told tonight, we at Wildwood want to take the opportunity to share with you some of this amazing knowledge.

Learn more about the programme

In Scotland doctors have, since October 2018, been authorised to prescribe nature to patients and in Japan so called 'Forest bathing' has been practiced for years.
And all with good cause:

Physically:
Being in nature and moving around in it benefits your heart, lungs, and the whole musculoskeletal system, with positive effects on many lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, cancer and obesity.
Science also shows both blood pressure and the immune system improving after regular exposure to nature. There's even science suggesting that exposure to nature increases the number of cells in our immune system.

Mentally:
There is a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting that close experiences with nature lowers feelings of anxiety and depression.
Exposure to greenspace actually significantly reduces people's levels of salivary cortisol -- a physiological marker of stress and it has been shown to improve symptoms of ADHD.
Finally being in nature has a way of making problems seem less troublesome.

Children also benefit hugely from nature. Not only will being outside bring more physical exercise, which many children today need, but science has also found that exposure to nature in childhood, can lead to better mental health and vitality in adulthood.
Acquiring new knowledge while outside also has a most positive effect on learning, with kids being more creative and confident while being outside.

''feeling connected to nature and knowing you're one piece in a magnificent puzzle, is vitalising''

Being around animals

Pet owners have known it for years: Owning a pet is good for you. Science can tell us why: Pets put no judgement or pressure on you and they lower levels of anxiety and loneliness. In terms of physical benefits, stroking an animal is amazing for lowering heart rates and reducing physical feelings of stress.

While you can't exactly come in and stroke the wild animals at Wildwood, just being near them can have some of that effect as well. Animals don't stress and everything they do, they do for a good reason. Seeing them just being animals, in natural environments, is truly calming.

Gazing at wild animals also provide us with the sense of being part of something greater than ourselves. A sense that many feel have been lost in a global world, where humans take up increasingly more space and nature is often pushed aside and where we spend up to 90% of our lives indoors.
But feeling connected to nature and knowing you're one piece in a magnificent puzzle, is vitalising.

What to do next?

While our number one advice will of course be to spend a day at Wildwood :) - there are other things you can do:

- take little moments in nature as often as you can. E.g. pop outside when you have a break at work

- do some research for interesting local nature areas and make plans to go for a walk there this coming weekend

- find out what you like to do in nature. You don't have to be a hiker or a bird watcher to enjoy it. Simply sitting on a bench in a natural setting and relax

- share your experiences with others, especially kids.

Scientific sources:
- https://theecologist.org/2019/nov/07/nature-connection-helps-children-learn
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180706102842.htm
- https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaax0903
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190521193735.htm
- https://www.psychreg.org/connection-with-nature/
- https://gulfnews.com/lifestyle/community/the-many-psychological-benefits-of-being-around-animals-1.1822456

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ABOUT WILDWOOD

Wildwood Trust opened in 1999 as a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife, and was established as a registered charity in 2002.
Wildwood is Kent's best British wildlife park. Home to over 200 native animals, past and present and set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland where visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers plus many more.

As one of the leading British animal conservation charities in the UK, Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain's most threatened wildlife. Wildwood Trust have taken part in many ground-breaking conservation programmes to date, which include, saving the water vole, using wild horses to help restore Kent's most precious nature reserves, bringing the extinct European beaver back to Britain and returning the hazel dormouse & red squirrel to areas where they have been made extinct.