My Take: A walk in the woods can reduce stress, boost mental health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to take inventory of your mental well-being. It’s been a stressful couple of years for people across the state. Many of us likely put self-care on hold while we tried to keep businesses afloat, care for loved ones or help kids with online learning.
Thankfully, something as simple as a walk in the woods can do wonders for your mental health. Spending up to two hours a week in nature can boost mental health and well-being and reduce stress. That amounts to a few trips to a local park each week or a weekend day hike.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is proud to maintain about 55,000 acres of nature preserves across the state — from mountainous highlands to wetlands and prairie fens. Our preserves draw people from around the corner and across the state who want to reconnect with nature, destress or just take a walk through the woods. One of our favorites this time of year is the Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve, just 40 minutes south of Holland in Covert Township.
Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve offers a diverse landscape of forested back-dunes, wetlands, ponds, and rare coastal plain marshes.
And spring is one of the best times of the year to visit Ross Preserve.
For starters, May is a busy month for migrating birds who are trekking north, and this preserve — and many others across Michigan — provide a great stop for these birds to rest and refuel before continuing their journey.
More than 100 species of birds call this preserve home, but the spring migration brings many more songbirds, warblers and waterfowl to Ross Preserve. The preserve serves as an important stopover habitat for migrating birds as they travel through the Great Lakes flyway.
It’s also peak wildflower season at the preserve.
Ross Preserve features more than five miles of hiking trails. For those who want to learn as they hike, an audio tour is also available. This tour serves as a guide to help you identify the different trees, wildflowers, birds, and other wildlife you’ll see along the way. Similar tours are available at several other TNC preserves.
There’s no better time than the present to grab your hiking boots or even just a pair of tennis shoes and head out into nature. While I’m partial to Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve this time of year, there are great places across our state to get out and enjoy the sights and sounds of the great outdoors.
Learn more about enhancing your experience at our preserves at nature.org/miexplore.
— Shaun Howard is protected lands project manager at The Nature Conservancy in Michigan.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: A walk in the woods can reduce stress, boost mental health
