Projects

Natural resource managers need tools to rapidly assess natural community condition that go beyond professional experience and instincts. Increasingly state and federal natural resource agencies are asking for effectiveness monitoring rather than implementation monitoring only.

We are being asked to not just report on the sum of acres treated with a management prescription but the more difficult question of “Is the trend in the particular resource treated heading in the direction we want?”

The studies of human and environment interactions usually consider the extremes of environment on individuals or how humans affect the environment. This review considers the declining levels of physical activity, particularly in the Western world, and how the environment may help motivate and facilitate physical activity.

A poster of The Missouri Ecological Site Project: Correlating Soil Map Units to Pre-Settlement Vegetative Communities for Conservation Planning and Soil Health Monitoring presented at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference in 2017.

This paper reviews previous research on the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing), and presents new results from field experiments conducted in 24 forests across Japan. The term Shinrin-yoku was coined by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 1982, and can be defined as making contact with and taking in the atmosphere of the forest. In order to clarify the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku, we conducted field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. In each experiment, 12 subjects (280 total; ages 21.7 ± 1.5 year) walked in and viewed a forest or city area. On the first day, six subjects were sent to a forest area, and the others to a city area. On the second day, each group was sent to the other area as a cross-check. Salivary cortisol, blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability were used as indices. These indices were measured in the morning at the accommodation facility before breakfast and also both before and after the walking (for 16 ± 5 min) and viewing (for 14 ± 2 min). The R–R interval was also measured during the walking and viewing periods. The results show that forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments. These results will contribute to the development of a research field dedicated to forest medicine, which may be used as a strategy for preventive medicine.

• The results show that forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments.

Numerous emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) have arisen from or been identified in wildlife, with health implications for both humans and wildlife. Here, we focus on a little-studied and seldom discussed concern: how real and perceived risks of wildlife-associated diseases for human and companion animal health might erode public support for wildlife conservation.

Monitoring and conserving waterbirds in Missouri, including Sora (Porzana carolina), Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola), and Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis), are constrained by the lack of information on migration phenology. Understanding the timing of a species’ migration is as important as knowing the species’ habitat needs and stopover ecology. Awareness regarding the time of year that habitat is needed is vital to inform habitat management, especially in highly ephemeral habitats such as palustrine emergent wetlands. Public wetlands across the central United States, including Missouri, are typically managed as migratory bird stopover habitat, with a focus on waterfowl; other wetland-dependent bird species, including rails, also use these habitats although the timing of their need is less well known.

Objective

To provide scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of forest bathing as a natural therapy for human hypertension.

Methods

Twenty-four elderly patients with essential hypertension were randomly divided into two groups of 12. One group was sent to a broad-leaved evergreen forest to experience a 7-day/7-night trip, and the other was sent to a city area in Hangzhou for control. Blood pressure indicators, cardiovascular disease-related pathological factors including endothelin-1, homocysteine, renin, angiotensinogen, angiotensin II, angiotensin II type 1 receptor, angiotensin II type 2 receptor as well as inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor α were detected. Meanwhile, profile of mood states (POMS) evaluation was used to assess the change of mood state of subjects. In addition, the air quality in the two experimental sites was monitored during the 7-day duration, simultaneously.

Results

The baselines of the indicators of the subjects were not significantly different. Little alteration in the detected indicators in the city group was observed after the experiment. While subjects exposed to the forest environment showed a significant reduction in blood pressure in comparison to that of the city group. The values for the bio-indicators in subjects exposed to the forest environment were also lower than those in the urban control group and the baseline levels of themselves. POMS evaluation showed that the scores in the negative subscales were lowered after exposure to the forest environment. Besides, the air quality in the forest environment was much better than that of the urban area evidenced by the quantitative detection of negative ions and PM10 (particulate matter <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter).

Conclusion

Our results provided direct evidence that forest bathing has therapeutic effects on human hypertension and induces inhibition of the renin–angiotensin system and inflammation, and thus inspiring its preventive efficacy against cardiovascular disorders.

• The baselines of the indicators of the subjects were not significantly different. Little alteration in the detected indicators in the city group was observed after the experiment. While subjects exposed to the forest environment showed a significant reduction in blood pressure in comparison to that of the city group. The values for the bio-indicators in subjects exposed to the forest environment were also lower than those in the urban control group and the baseline levels of themselves. POMS evaluation showed that the scores in the negative subscales were lowered after exposure to the forest environment. Besides, the air quality in the forest environment was much better than that of the urban area evidenced by the quantitative detection of negative ions and PM10 (particulate matter <10um in aerodynamic diameter).
• It has been reported that an elevated level of Hcy, known as hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy), is associated with the increment of vascular thickness, elastin fragmentation, and arterial BP [15,28]. Consistently, a significant association between SBP (systolic BP) and Hcy (p < 0.01) was observed in our study (Table 1). A mild decline in Hcy level was found in the forest group which indicated its beneficial effect on human health.

Forestry Division has begun a state-wide campaign focused on increasing awareness of the benefits that trees and forests provide to Missourians. To be effective, this “Trees Work” campaign’s messages must resonate with a wide variety of groups and population segments, and do so in the brief opportunities. To develop and evaluate such targeted messages, we must understand 1) the current level of awareness of tree and forest benefits, 2) which of benefits are most important to Missourians, and 3) what messages are most likely to motivate people to action and what barriers prevent action toward sustainability of Missouri’s forests. The campaign is planned to last several years, so baseline research provides critical information for development and evaluation.

Three communities, Columbia, Salem, and Webster Groves, were chosen, not as representatives of all Missouri but as places where the campaign was about to be piloted, for a mail survey in 2013. Questions included respondents’ awareness of various environmental campaigns and tree benefits, which campaign linkages were most important, and which messages they found most resonant. MDC mailed out 6,700 surveys and received 2,426 responses, an overall response rate of 36%.

Many people have the intuition that interacting with natural environments benefits their psychological health. This article describes empirical research on the cognitive benefits of interacting with natural environments and several theories that have been proposed to explain these effects.

In addition to 5 staffed Shooting and Outdoor Education Centers, The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) manages 69 areas with unstaffed shooting ranges across Missouri that provide various kinds of shooting opportunities including: archery, rifle, handgun, and shotgun opportunities. But MDC knew virtually nothing about the people who use MDC’s unstaffed ranges, their needs and desires, and their compliance with rules and regulations.