Whether you’re a city dweller or country
resident, this factoid is for you: Trees
are good for your mental and physical
health.
Photos and
Slideshow by JoAnne Green
A body of research suggests that people
who are surrounded by trees and have
access to natural environments suffer
from less stress. Studies have also
shown that apartment buildings
surrounded by trees tend to have less
crime, girls with a green view from home
have an easier time concentrating in
school, and patients who see trees from
their hospital window recover faster.
Researchers at
the University of Illinois found that
housing developments in Chicago that have
trees were more likely to draw residents
outside to interact with their neighbors.
Those interactions built stronger
communities and led to an overall greater
sense of well being.
There is even
a new, growing field within the science of
psychology called ecotherapy. It teaches
that rather than focusing on a person’s
inner state, psychologists should prescribe
more time in nature for their stressed and
depressed patients.
Turns out
trees are good for business, too. Trees can
raise the value of properties; homes in
Philadelphia that sat within 30 meters of
trees sold for 10 percent more than homes
with no adjacent trees, one study showed.
American shopping centers that plant trees,
meanwhile, keep shoppers longer, raising
sales.
But trees
also give people sheer enjoyment for the
beauty they add to neighborhoods, gardens
and landscapes. Some communities now value
the aesthetics of trees so much that they
impose ordinances that prohibit or limit
tree cutting.
“In nature,
nothing is perfect and everything is
perfect,” noted the American writer and poet
Alice Walker. “Trees can be contorted, bent
in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.”
Share
