Statement of the Issue(s) and Justification: 

Need as indicated by stakeholders.

Over the past 10 years, the NE1962 Multistate Research Project has investigated the nexus of nature, health, wellness, and community well-being, generating knowledge and products designed to inform research and practice across multiple disciplines. However, many research and education gaps remain, and there is much work left to accomplish. This need is especially evident in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the critical value of  parks’ and greenspaces’ relationship to wellness and public health (Carr, 2021; Kleinschroth & Kowarik, 2020; Labib et al., 2022; Larson et al., 2022; Li et al., 2022), while also underscoring exclusion and segregation from green space and other environmental amenities due to demographic factors such as race, income, or immigration status (Larson et al., 2021; Nay et al., 2022; Pipitone & Jovic, 2021). For this reason, now is the perfect time to sustain and ideally expand this important area of inquiry and collaboration, helping to build a happier and healthier future through parks, greenspace, and nature-based recreation opportunities. Our project seeks to do this through a renewed focus on four key areas: health and well-being, environmental literacy and stewardship, and community resilience and vitality, and equity and inclusion. This comes as a pivotal time, where interest in parks, nature-based recreation has grown during the post-pandemic era amidst a rise of “urgent biophilia” (MacKinnon et al., 2022; Slater et al., 2020), yet governmental funding to support parks and greenspace remains stagnant (Barrett et al., 2017). The purpose of this multistate project is to facilitate collaboration that can stimulate new research, ultimately augmenting our understanding of the extent and means by which outdoor recreation, parks, and greenspaces connect humans and nature. This evidence should inform policy development and practices that lead to healthier people, communities, and natural environments.

Importance of work and consequences if work is not accomplished.

Themes explored in this research can influence the future health and well-being of humans and the environment in multiple ways. For example, promoting active and healthy lifestyles and environmental literacy among youth and adults will improve quality of life across multiple generations and support a more sustainable future. The project will also promote quality of life by supporting vibrant and resilient communities, in which outdoor recreation opportunities and green infrastructure serve to protect and sustain ecosystems and provide ecosystem services upon which human health depends (Bratman et al., 2019). Additionally, the project is progressing at a time when concerns about systemic inequities and social justice are omnipresent and rapidly rising on the policy agenda (Nesbitt et al., 2019; Jennings et al., 2016). This project will provide a chance to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion in the outdoors, highlighting barriers and opportunities to develop and improve impactful, innovative, and compelling DEI programs and policies that advance health, environmental literacy, and community vitality for all populations.

In addition to these broader benefits, this project also advances multiple U.S. government initiatives. For instance, Executive Order 13266 (2002) mandated that land management agencies promote the use of outdoor recreation areas for improved health. Since then, federal land management agencies have moved forward to address health issues. For example, the National Park Service (NPS) has established a “Health and Wellness Steering Committee” (US Department of Interior, National Park Service, 2010) and developed multiple national initiatives that link parks to public health, such as “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” (HPHP), “Parks Prescriptions” (ParkRx), and “Every Kid in a Park” (O’Dell, 2016; Razani et al., 2019). In addition, the USDA Forest Service has estimated the caloric expenditures of recreation activities on Forest Service lands (Kline, Rosenberger & White, 2011). The role of outdoor recreation for a healthier US is also recognized as an important study area in the Outdoor Recreation Research and Education strategic plan (USDA CSREES, 2007). However, as noted earlier, these benefits and opportunities are often inequitably distributed. Executive Order 13985 (2021) sought to address these disparities by encouraging planning and policy to remove barriers to equal opportunity and deliver resources and benefits equitably to all Americans, a movement that includes expanding underserved communities’ access to public parks and greenspace. Ongoing debates regarding legislation such as the No Child Left Inside Act (2022), which would support the development of environmental literacy via environmental education and outdoor learning in public schools, could be informed by this project. The project also aligns with the goals of the USDA’s McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grant (2022), which prioritizes land management for outdoor recreation and aims to advance understanding of human behavior and attitudes related to natural resources. Without this multi-state project, many of these goals would be more difficult to achieve.

Technical feasibility of the research.

This multi-state project vision is guided by a cadre of experienced and productive researchers at land-grant institutions, other public and private institutions, federal agencies, state agencies, and non-governmental organizations, all working across diverse disciplines to accomplish project aims and goals. There are few technical limitations in social science research of this nature. The broad scope and approach of this project allows and promotes the recruitment of researchers with a diverse set of skills to practice advanced study designs utilizing such tools and approaches such as GIS, psychometric scaling, multi-level modeling, behavioral and physiological monitoring devices, cognitive concentration tests, experimental designs, photo elicitation, and qualitative and mixed methods techniques. Given this diversity of disciplinary contexts and approaches, coordination can be challenging. This project is specifically designed to facilitate collaboration and information exchange, effectively sharing projects, methods and results to achieve the intended outcomes and impacts. Specifically, evolution and standardization of methods and instruments, assessments of reliability and validity across populations, and strong coordinated leadership will enhance successful project outcomes and advance a shared research agenda, enabling replication and expanding inferential capacity to create synergies not yet realized.

Advantages of a multi-state effort.

A Multi-State effort will allow for exploration of key outcomes across many more diverse geographic settings, scales, and demographic populations, including replication across different contexts with larger samples. This would enhance researchers’ ability to evaluate community-level outcomes, assess the robustness of results, and examine the transferability of observed relationships, hypothesized mechanisms, and experiences. Identification of causal mechanisms driving observed relationships between things such as nature and health, or outdoor recreation and environmental literacy, have been elusive, often because research on these topics tends to be sporadic and opportunistic. A multi-state approach would allow for more strategic and intentional investigation of pathways and mechanisms, potentially identifying optimal dosages of nature required to achieve positive outcomes (Shanahan et al., 2016). A collaborative approach will also facilitate collection of baseline data that improves longitudinal tracking of health, literacy, resilience, and equity outcomes. Another key benefit is the integration of researchers from multiple disciplines (e.g., public health, natural resources, geography, sociology, education, and many more) who are already addressing these issues from multiple angles. A multi-state approach will help to build this community of practice, creating a new space for innovative interdisciplinary solutions to contemporary challenges related to greenspace, health, and sustainability.

To ensure that results of this work reaches practitioners across multiple disciplines, the  research will be coupled with extension efforts in each state to disseminate results to recreation, health, education, natural resource, and community professionals through workshops, presentations, and publications. Results will be widely disseminated throughout the multi-state network via synthesis articles, centers and institutes, land grant outlets at colleges and universities, professional organizations (i.e., NRPA, SAF, IASNR), and Cooperative Extension. This will facilitate the practical application of research findings associated with the Multi-State effort.

Expected impacts.

Research that stems from this project will lead to an improved understanding of links between parks and green spaces, outdoor recreation, health, environmental literacy, community vitality, and equitable outcomes across diverse communities. Knowledge from this research will provide the basis for evidence-based practices and policies at the national, state and local levels. For example, with respect to public health, such policies may result in lower healthcare costs by emphasizing upstream health promotion via preventative methods (e.g., physically active lifestyles) and green infrastructure (Becker et al., 2019; Larson & Hipp, 2022). Research results could also enhance quality of life by enabling professionals to design greenspaces and outdoor recreation opportunities where green infrastructure not only retains and sustains ecosystems but also provides ecosystem services that promote human health across generations (Bratman et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2013). Our project will also help to identify attributes of green infrastructure that fuel vibrant and resilient communities by attracting families, tourism, and  businesses (DuPuis & Greenberg, 2019), inspiring sustainable development. Our work will advance understanding of environmental literacy, and the factors that promote it, in multiple ways, helping to meet the long-term goal of public participation in pro-environmental behaviors that help combat emerging environmental challenges such as climate change. For all of these reasons, this project will answer calls to increase citizens' and policy makers' ability to make responsible, informed decisions about human-environment interactions (Kellert et al., 2017), creating a healthier and more sustainable future for people and the planet. Finally, by integrating the work of researchers, extension specialists, and graduate and undergraduate students, the project will influence the nature-based focus of the next generation of public health, urban planning, and park and recreation practitioners via targeted courses, trainings, workshops, outreach, and other professional development opportunities.