Recreating Parks as Places for Restoration, Reconnection, and Reconciliation ...

• Main Author: Carruthers Den Hoed, Donald Gordon
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental Design 2018
• Subjects: parks; protected areas; transdisciplinary; Indigenous; Health; connection to nature; Anthropocene; interdisciplinary; Native American Studies; Recreation; Social Work; FOS Sociology; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Chemistry; Nakoda
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/31887; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/106601

This integrative research study builds on the emerging theme of valuing parks for providing health benefits through experiences in nature, and explores how transdisciplinary inquiry can inform the role parks play connecting people to nature in the face of current global environmental challenges. The iterative research process drew upon several academic disciplines including environmental studies, health, social work, and education, and co-created knowledge with park managers and through conversations with Indigenous (Stoney Nakoda) elders. The study centered on a quasi-experimental field experience where 34 members of the public spent one hour in urban and remote natural sites—the latter presented as either sacred, undesignated nature, or as a park. Participants completed surveys on place preference and perceived health effects, attention restorativeness, and completed the Connection to Nature Scale instrument. Salivary cortisol samples were collected to assess physiological impacts of nature experiences. ...