Want to built healthier cities? Make room for bird and tree diversity

Want to Build Healthier Cities? Make Room for Bird and Tree Diversity

The State of Mental Health

More than five million Canadians – approximately one in eight of us – are living with a mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder. The prevalence of mental disorders is on the rise, with a third of those with a disorder reporting unmet or partially met needs for mental health-care services. The stresses of city life, where over 70% of Canadians now live, can increase the risk of poor mental health even further.

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The Importance of Nature

When we think about caring for our mental health, we often focus on getting more exercise, getting more sleep, and eating a healthy diet. However, research is increasingly showing that spending time in nature, surrounded by plants and wildlife, can also contribute to preventing and treating mental illness.

Birds and Trees: The Unlikely Heroes of Urban Wellness

Our research has focused on the importance of birds and trees in urban neighbourhoods for promoting mental well-being. We combined over a decade of health and ecological data across 36 Canadian cities and found a positive association between greater bird and tree diversity and self-rated mental health.

Birds: The Unintentional Therapists

Across cultures and societies, people have strong connections with birds. From their bright songs to their remarkable migrations, birds have inspired art, music, and poetry. They are a symbol of beauty, freedom, and resilience. For many urbanites, birds are our daily connection to wildlife and a gateway to nature. In fact, humans and birds are intertwined, and birds provide us with essential services – controlling insects, dispersing seeds, and pollinating our crops.

Trees: The Pillars of Wellness

People have a similar profound connection with trees. The terms "tree of life," "family trees," and "tree-hugger" all demonstrate the central cultural importance of trees in many communities around the world. In cities, trees are a staple of efforts to bring beauty and tranquility. When the Australian city of Melbourne gave urban trees email addresses for people to report problems, residents responded by writing thousands of love letters to their favourite trees.

Birds and Trees: The Promoters of Urban Wellness

Contact with nature and green spaces has a suite of mental health benefits. Natural spaces reduce stress and offer places for recreation and relaxation for urban dwellers. But natural diversity is key. A growing body of research shows that the extent of these benefits may be related to the diversity of different natural features.

The Connection to Mental Health

For example, in the United States, higher bird diversity has been associated with lower hospitalizations for mood and anxiety disorders and longer life expectancy. In a European study, researchers found that bird diversity was as important for life satisfaction as income. People’s connection to a greater diversity of birds and trees could be because we evolved to recognize that the presence of more species indicates a safer environment – one with more things to eat and more shelter. Biodiverse environments are also less work for the brain to interpret, allowing restoration of cognitive resources.

The Research: A Glimpse into the Future of Urban Planning

To explore the relationship between biodiversity and mental health in urban Canada, we brought together unique datasets. First, we collected bird data sourced from community scientists who logged their bird sightings on an app. We then compared this data with tree diversity data from national forest inventories. Finally, we compared both of these datasets to a long-standing health survey that has interviewed approximately 65,000 Canadians each year for over two decades.

The Results: A Healthy Dose of Urban Biodiversity

We found that living in a neighbourhood with higher than average bird diversity increased reporting of good mental health by about seven per cent. Living in a neighbourhood with higher than average tree diversity increased good mental health by about five per cent.

Conclusion

The results of our study, and those of others, show a connection between urban bird and tree diversity, healthy ecosystems, and people’s mental well-being. This underscores the importance of urban biodiversity conservation as part of healthy living promotion. Protecting wild areas in parks, planting pollinator gardens, and reducing pesticide use could all be key strategies to protect urban wildlife and promote people’s well-being. Urban planners should take note.

FAQs

Q: Why is urban biodiversity important?
A: Urban biodiversity is important because it promotes healthy ecosystems and people’s mental well-being.

Q: What is the connection between birds and trees?
A: Birds and trees are interconnected, and both provide essential services to humans, such as controlling insects and pollinating crops.

Q: How can cities promote urban biodiversity?
A: Cities can promote urban biodiversity by protecting wild areas, planting pollinator gardens, and reducing pesticide use.

Q: What are the benefits of urban tree diversity?
A: Urban tree diversity is associated with increased life satisfaction, reduced stress, and better mental health.