Outdoor Engagement

Time spent outdoors supports and improves mental health at all ages, increasing happiness, reducing stress, decreasing sleep deprivation, and reducing symptoms of ADHD, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. However, Americans spend less than 8% of their time outdoors and women, youth, and lower-income people have the least time outdoors. Climate change is also worsening mental health through extreme heat, economic instability, natural disasters, ecological grief, and climate anxiety. Restoring access to the outdoors can reduce the mental health impacts of climate change, promote hope for the future, and reduce fear and stress about climate change.

States increasingly recognize outdoor policies – outdoor education, recreation, access, and equity – as critically-needed, high impact climate solutions. Highly effective climate solutions rethink and restore human-nature relationships. Accessing the benefits of time outdoors – such as improved health, learning, equity, economic growth, and resilience – improves behavior towards the environment in a feedback loop. More benefits from nature lead to more behaviors that protect nature, and so on. Outdoor policies provide the time in nature required to grasp the urgency of climate change, offer immediate relief for many emerging climate issues, and ground humanity in the knowledge that humanity is inextricable from the environment. This briefing book offers examples of how outdoor policies are being implemented as climate solutions by states across six key areas: 1. Nature-Based Solutions, 2. Outdoor Access and Equity, 3. Green Connections, 4. Outdoor and Climate Education, 5. Outdoor Economies, Workforces, and Industries, and 6. The Future of the Outdoors.

The goal of this toolkit is to provide state legislators, agency staff, and partners with a framework and resources for establishing state-level outdoor opportunity funds and grant programs. It aims to offer ideas for place-based flexibility acknowledging resource differences among states. The toolkit is intended to be used in conjunction with input from grassroots/local organizations and communities. Included in the toolkit is an introduction to outdoor opportunity grant programs, program structure considerations, an overview of existing programs, case studies, and key resources.

Outdoor engagement presents a unique opportunity to serve diverse constituencies because it provides mental and physical health benefits, supports economic development, and connects communities. Time spent outside has been shown to reduce stress, help treat ADHD in children, and ameliorate PTSD symptoms in veterans. However, there is increasing recognition that these benefits aren’t distributed equally, and states are working to ensure nature access is equitable and available for all communities. Outdoor recreation can also provide new economic opportunities for community development and several states have established Offices of Outdoor Recreation to better coordinate these efforts.

There are several state legislative approaches to promote time outdoors, the associated health benefits, and public lands conservation.

Nature-based solutions (NbS), sometimes called engineering with nature, build resilience by learning from and designing with natural landscapes and ecosystems. Nature-based solutions often cost less than traditional infrastructure and offer improved disaster resilience, green jobs, increased property values, economic growth, greenspace equity, and improved public health. Environmentally-committed outdoor policy promotes and builds on nature-based solutions.

Outdoor education policies can promote resilience in children, including increased confidence, attention, and reductions in disruptive behavior. Outdoor education gets children outside, reducing fear and anxiety about environmental issues and increasing their sense of personal responsibility for their future and community.

Across the United States, the connection between nature and human health is becoming clearer. From physical activity to mental well-being, time spent outdoors supports healthier lives at every age. Yet, many communities face significant barriers to regular, safe access to nature – from lack of green space to policy blind spots. Spending time outdoors is a critical health behavior. Access to the outdoors offers countless health benefits across all ages, activities, and regions. Some of these benefits include improved cognitive function, reduced stress and anger, increased physical activity, and better relationship-building in children. However, most Americans currently spend very little time outside, with communities of color and low-income populations far more likely to live in neighborhoods with little to no access to nature. The goal of this briefing book is to provide practical examples and insights that can help integrate nature into public health, education, planning, and environmental policy in a realistic and accessible way. It shares real-world case studies, summarizes relevant research, and outlines policy tools that local and state governments are already using to improve community health through nature. While the examples included range from early childhood to older adults, the throughline is consistent: outdoor access supports health, resilience, and equity. And it can be advanced through practical, bipartisan strategies.