Speaking to a packed house at Peterborough’s Market Hall, Trent University’s Dr. Lisa Nisbet said she sometimes has to pinch herself to remind her that she’s not dreaming… that she is lucky enough to work and live in an area so abundantly full of nature.
It makes her happy, she said. But she was there to tell people that it makes them happy too.
Professor Nisbet, of Trent’s Psychology Department, was the first keynote speaker invited to participate in a new nature-themed speaking series spearheaded by the Kawartha Land Trust (KLT) in partnership with Trent University. For close to an hour on March 31, she shared her research into the way nature improves human health, happiness, and environmental sustainability. Watch the lecture here.
“There’s a large body of research looking at how even proximity to greenspace benefits people’s health,” she said. “Living with greenspace seems to reduce some of the health hazards associated with income inequalities.” When people have less money, they are more subject to poorer health, she said. However, living near greenspace reduces the gap for some of those people.
And that’s just the start. “Send people through a walk on an urban core versus a park area. For those with major depressive disorders, those walks through nature seem to improve short term memory; it reduces negative emotions and problems that people with depression have in terms of ruminating on negative thoughts. So there is some real good evidence that nature is good for us.”
A Sense of Place launches
The KLT-Trent speaker series, entitled ‘A Sense of Place: Perspectives on Relationship to Land and Water in the Kawarthas’ aims to celebrate the human connection to the land and waters of the Kawartha region, bringing together various lenses of biology, wildlife ecology, psychology, traditional ecological knowledge, history, and personal experience.
It’s anticipated the series will consist of four individual talks throughout 2015 year, each with a unique speaker, topic and perspective. Speakers will include Trent University professors and renowned experts in their respective fields, discussing the importance of maintaining undeveloped natural spaces, for ecosystem and human health and well-being.
“Part of the whole brand of Trent is ‘natural spaces’ and we’re about protecting that,” said Mike Hendren, KLT’s executive director, prior to the series opener. “In many ways our values are aligned.”
Mr. Hendren is a graduate of Trent, and virtually the entire staff of KLT has ties to Trent or is an alumni member. Lands manager Ian Attridge teaches several courses for Trent University’s Environmental and Resource Studies Department, and is a lawyer with ecological and agricultural training and expertise in stewardship, trails and conservation techniques. Other Trent faculty and staff have been past and present board and committee members.
“There is a long tradition of working together,” Mr. Hendren says.
The second speaker in the series – scheduled for May 14 at Market Hall – will be Rick Beaver, research and restoration coordinator at Alderville Black Oak Savanna, member of Alderville First Nation and recipient of a Trent University Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 2011.
Mr. Beaver will draw from a rich experience as a restoration ecologist and artist, bringing a depth of understanding about ecosystem health, drawn from his background in biology and as a holder of traditional ecological knowledge. The series is scheduled to continue in the fall at Trent.
Posted on Tuesday, April 7, 2015.