National Geographic: In Japan, people do something called shinrin yoku, or “forest bathing.” Tell us about Yoshifumi Miyazaki and the health benefits of this practice.

Williams: [Laughs] It’s not exactly a bath. Forest bathing refers to being in an environment where all your senses are engaged. Something researchers in Japan recognized about urban life is that when we are indoors we rely mostly on our eyes and ears, but our other senses are underutilized. They think this is partly related to why outdoor environments make our stress levels go down. We can hear the sound of a creek gurgling, feel the wind blowing on our cheeks or smell the aroma of the woods, especially in Japan where there are lots of wondrous cypress trees.

Our sensory system evolved in the natural world and when we’re in those spaces, our brains become relaxed because these are things that we were designed to look at, hear and to smell. Miyazaki is one of the researchers who are trying to quantify this kind of mystical experience by measuring people’s heart rates, blood pressure, and cortisol levels. They have made some amazing discoveries. For instance, our immune cells, or “natural killer cells,” which fight cancer, increase in forests. As a result, Japan now has 48 therapy trails. The forest service is taking this seriously, as a public health benefit. They’re medicalizing the forest!

So, maybe there’s a balance to be struck. Here’s an idea for surviving winter: After spending the day skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, ice skating – taking advantage of what winter has to offer, bettering my health and wellbeing, and getting my fix of “Vitamin N” as Louv has coined it – I’ll cozy in with my kids and a warm drink, and enjoy a bit of hygge, too.

How will you spend the rest of winter? If you’re in need of some inspiration for your outdoor “medicine,” here’s a list 10 Outdoor Winter Activities – and more ideas here. If you’re interested in in taking a stab at camping, check out the do’s and don’ts of camping for beginners.

To Do This Month:

For Educators:

The Science of Hockey – Why is Ice Slippery?

Need a real-life connection to science in order to spark inspiration and engagement among your students? I know sports, and particularly any sport involving tackling, checking, or high speeds, automatically intrigues my third grader. Check out this info-packed website focused on hockey that also delves into the science of ice, including a description of a “quasi-fluid” layer (sometimes only a molecule thick) that helps the skate blade glide on the ice surface.

Use the site’s info on ice, skating, and the physics of a 100 mile per hour slapshot as a launching point to an in depth exploration of the science and mystery of ice. Here are some lesson plan experiments to try out:

• Kids Discover
• Scholastic
• ScienceNetLinks

And, when you’re done in the lab and ready to head outdoors, here are five ideas for making winter outdoor learning doable – and fun – from Project Learning Tree.

For Families:

Know Your Greens

While the bleak winterscape pales in comparison to the colors other seasons offer up, it’s a perfect time to gain a new appreciation for the trees that do provide a visual break from white and grey. Though the words “conifer” and “evergreen” are often used interchangeably, not all evergreens are conifers, and not all conifers are evergreen.

“Evergreen” is a non-scientific term used to describe plants that maintain their leaves or needles throughout the seasons, whereas “conifers” are cone-bearing trees or shrubs. To simplify the matter, all Wisconsin evergreens are conifers (unlike in tropical forests where many trees are evergreen and even in parts of the Unites States where broadleaf plants like holly, ivy and bay laurel are evergreen).

Coniferous female cones, made from modified scales, are devised to protect developing seeds (and that’s exactly what green or closed cones do). When the seeds are matured and ready to hit the ground, the cone scales open and release them to the wind or to animals. Male cones, incidentally, do exist but are generally small and, after releasing pollen, are shed.

Conifer confusion often also exists with tree and shrub names. Although it seems daunting to learn their Latin names, in the case of conifers, eliminating common names often clears confusion. For example, the Juniper (genus Juniperus) which by the way is indeed a conifer despite its berry-like fruits (those are actually modified, fleshy scales), is also known as the Eastern Red Cedar. Meanwhile, the Northern White Cedar is not only in an entirely different genus (Thuja) it also goes by the common name Arbor Vitae.

In the “not all conifers are evergreen” department, Wisconsin’s example – and one of my personal favorites – is the Tamarack (genus Larix), also known as the Larch. Leopold describes this tree as “smoky gold” because its needles change to a golden hue before dropping to the ground each fall.

Brush up on all of Wisconsin’s winter greenery with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ EEK website or use their tree key to identify what you see on your hike or in your backyard. There’s also an app for that – I use “Key to Woody Plants of Wisconsin Forests” created by the UW-Madison. For more in-depth information, check out the Gymnosperm Database.

Betsy Parker is an environmental educator who supports all children, families, and classrooms getting their recommended daily allowance of #VitaminN.

Funding for Nature Net and the Nature Net News blog is provided by American Girl Fund for Children.