Big new study on Americans' connections to nature

Late last month a major study on how the American public connects to nature was released. Dr. Stephen Kellert and DJ Case and Associates conducted the study of nearly 12,000 adults, children, and parents across the United States in 2015-2016. The report is hosted on this very fine website: https://natureofamericans.org/
The study shares some disturbing conclusions about the disconnect between Americans and nature, but also provides some encouraging insights. The following summary was copied directly from the website:

Profound changes are occurring in the American public’s connections to nature, the outdoors, and wildlife. Participation in traditional nature-based recreation is stagnant or declining, Americans are spending more time indoors, and they are using electronic media more than ever before. At the same time, there is growing evidence that human health and well-being depend on beneficial contact with nature. To better understand and foster Americans’ relationship with nature, Dr. Stephen Kellert and DJ Case & Associates conducted an unprecedented study of nearly 12,000 adults, children and parents across the United States in 2015-16.

Three different research methods were used, each closely integrated with the others.

• 15 focus groups with a sample of 119 adults in major cities in Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, and New York
• Online survey of 10,156 adults across the country: 5,550 in the US as a whole + a separate sample of 2,227 adults in Florida + a separate sample of 2,379 adults in Texas
• Interviews with 771 children ages 8–12 and an online survey of one of each of their parents in Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, and New York

The study provides hundreds of insights into adults, children, parents, and key demographic groups on topics such as:

• American adults' and children’s interests in nature, values of nature, and various nature-related behaviors, memories, and influences 
• Barriers and facilitators to contact with nature
• Support for nature-based programming and attitudes toward conservation
• Variation across race and ethnicity, residential location, age, political views, and more

With these results, the conservation community will be better equipped to provide the programs and services needed to connect Americans and nature, for the benefit of both.

Yet another cool old map

An 1865 map of every waterway in Manhattan, and an environmental artist leading a group along the path of one of the tributaries, tracing the course in chalk in the sidewalk as they go, starting at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. Read the story here. The story has no direct link to the high resolution version, which can be found here.

Ecological effects of international border barriers

Landscape Architecture magazine recently published an op-ed against Trump's proposed border wall, focused on effects on wildlife. Their article cites an article from YaleEnvironment360 about how the razor wire barrier on the border between Slovenia and Croatia, meant to prevent refugees from Turkey entering Europe, has harmed migratory wild animals, including ecologically important large carnivores such as bears, wolves, and lynx. The YaleEnvironment 360 article includes a link to a 2011 study of the risk of barriers that may significantly impede animal migrations within the ecologically sensitive Mexico-U.S. border.

Practical beginner's guide to learning Python

This popped up in my LinkedIn feed and I just briefly skimmed it. It appears to be a good first step to learning Python, the scripting and programming language used by ArcGIS and other GIS software products. Something I have been meaning to do for a long time. Read more here.

Shinrin-yoku, or Forest Bathing

Checking my email today, I came across a couple of paragraphs from the Great Smokey Mountains Institute at Tremont introducing me to the concept of Shinrin-yoku, or Forest Bathing. Unlike a traditional hike or guided nature walk, Forest Bathing involves simply taking in the forest atmosphere, slowing down, or not moving at all, and receiving the therapeutic effects of the natural setting. Forest Bathing involves no programmatic goals, no extraction of information, no effort to identify species, say, or to reach a destination. An aimless perambulation through the forest reminded me of the dérive, a revolutionary strategy associated with Guy Debord and the mid-Twentieth-century Situanionist International avant-garde group. That strategy involved people, as individuals or small groups, moving across urban landscapes in an unplanned and unpredictable way, simply letting themselves be "drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there." The goals of the dérive include studying the terrain of the city (psychogeography), emotional disorientation, and, ultimately, a radical break with the predictable and monotonous experience of everyday life under capitalism and the human degradation engendered by the "Society of the Spectacle," mass media, and commodity fetishism.

Understanding patterns of sunlight and shadow in a landscape of tall buildings

The New York Times recently published this fascinating article about mapping and understanding the effect of sunlight and shadow through the seasons in New York City. Really nice use of maps.