Rising Falling

In the Berlin Aging Study II, researchers studied 341 people between the ages of sixty-one and eighty-two. They were looking at “indicators of brain structural integrity,” but they also considered how far each participant lived from a wooded area. And they found a “significant positive association between the coverage of forest and amygdala integrity.” Although the study doesn’t prove a causal effect, it powerfully suggests that being in or near a forest is good for brain health. That’s part of why I spend time along a forest trail roughly forty times a year. And my favorite trails, like this one in Oswald West State Park, offer glimpses of the world beyond: a patch of sky, a stretch of sand, and the ocean. (Oswald West State Park)