Is it a good idea to take a walk in the park right now?
Erin Garnaas-Holmes is the Ambassador to the Anacostia Watershed Urban Waters Partnership. He writes a monthly article on the Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative blog.
When I started drafting this article a couple weeks ago, it seemed like everyone was suddenly realizing how valuable their local parks are. With non-essential services shutting down and people staying at home, parks became an obvious destination to get out of the house, get some fresh air, shake off that cabin fever, and relax a little in the face of a crisis while still maintaining “physical distancing” recommendations.
Outdoor enthusiasts around the country celebrated this new spotlight on parks, with articles like Nature Rx: Outdoors Can Be an Antidote to Quarantine Anxiety (Sierra Club), Physical Distancing Still has Space for the Outdoors (also Sierra Club), How Nature Has Become America’s Saving Grace As We Shelter In Place (Huffington Post), and In Times of Trouble, I Turn to Parks - Everyone Should Be So Lucky (Trust for Public Land).
As the coronavirus cases grew and projections darkened, however, local leaders began passing more strict measures ordering residents to stay at home except for the most essential trips. National experts recommended that healthy people wear protective masks and that 6’ distance between two people might not even be enough.
Yet at the same time that leaving the house became less encouraged, it suddenly seemed like everyone was going to the park. As the Times reported, “Too many people were socially distancing in the same places, and therefore not at all.” Stories about the outdoors started to shift to headlines like No Longer Just a Walk in the Park: The New Terror, and Intensifying Debate, Over Going Outside (New York Times) and To Close or Not to Close: That is the Question (Bay Nature).
While I initially wanted to write that now is a great time to visit the Anacostia River, many of the outdoor public spaces in the Anacostia River corridor have responsibly closed. The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are closed. The bathrooms, playground and other facilities in Anacostia Park are closed. Recreational (motorized) boating vessels are prohibited in Maryland.
All of this doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t leave your house to enjoy whatever outdoor spaces nearby, especially if you are going crazy indoors. In the District, the Mayor’s Stay-at-home order permits “Allowable Recreation Activities” including walking, hiking, running, biking, dog-walking, gardening and more. Kayaking and canoeing are still allowed on the water, because they are a form of exercise. Many local parks and trails are still open and feature enough space that visitors can stay safely far apart.
And there are good reasons to get out of the house right now. CityLab writes:
Volumes of scientific research have proven that woods and wildlife offer myriad mental and physical health benefits to human beings. Vitamin D from the sunshine boosts immune systems and bone health. Immersion in greenery — also know as “forest bathing” — has been linked to reduced stress, healthier heart rates and blood pressure, and lower risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Interacting with the natural world, whether on a walk through some trees or gardening in the backyard, is shown to ease anxiety and depression and foster a sense of well-being. Watching birds and listening to bird song can help filter away stress. An after-dinner stroll can even help digestion.
Maintaining mental health is certainly not the least of the good reasons to get outdoors, especially as our self-imposed isolation may continue for weeks and weeks. “Our mental health is going to be so important,” said a doctor who was once isolated during an ebola outbreak. “This is only going to get worse.Telling people to stay inside works right now, but in two or three weeks, it’s going to be a tough message to hold up.”
But in the end, the question of whether to go outside and seek those benefits will fall on you yourself, and whether you think you can stay safe while getting outside. Tips for staying safe include remaining physically distant from other people, wearing a mask and washing your hands before and after you leave home.
If you still don’t feel comfortable leaving the house, there are a lot of ways you can still experience the outdoors while staying on your couch (data does tell us that that just looking at pictures of nature can have some of the same positive effects as the real thing!):
The Anacostia Watershed Society has created a page on their website dedicated to watershed learning, where they post student-friendly information and activities inspired from the activities they would normally be doing with kids for their Mussel Power, Rice Rangers, Schools in Schools and Saturday Environmental Academy programs.
DC’s Department of Parks and Recreation has created a “Social Distancing With DPR” website full of stay-at-home activities.
Explore.org has a constant stream of live cams of nature scenes from around the world.
Regardless of whether or not we leave the house, I hope that this situation is helping us all build a little empathy and recognize our personal connections to vast systems around us. As this pandemic has demonstrated, living beings across the globe are connected through ecological, social and economic systems, and when one part breaks down, the whole thing can collapse.