I remember the first time I joined the Evergreen team on a guided forest walk through Pacific Spirit Park. As rain dripped from western red cedars and a barred owl watched silently overhead, our guide asked the fifteen of us—mostly apartment-dwellers from Vancouver’s downtown core—a simple question: “When was the last time you truly felt at peace?”
Nearly everyone described moments in nature—a sunrise at Spanish Banks, a quiet corner in Queen Elizabeth Park, or a weekend hike on the North Shore mountains. The conversation stayed with me long after we emerged from the forest canopy back into the city grid.
For the 73% of Canadians who live in metropolitan areas, finding these moments of nature connection has become increasingly recognized as vital for mental wellbeing. A groundbreaking study published last month in the Canadian Journal of Public Health confirms what many urban dwellers intuitively understand: even brief exposure to natural environments significantly improves mental health outcomes in city residents.
“We found that just 20 to 30 minutes in a natural setting three times weekly was associated with meaningful reductions in stress hormones and self-reported anxiety,” explains Dr. Maryam Farahani, lead researcher from the University of British Columbia’s Urban Health Laboratory. “The benefits were consistent across age groups, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The study followed 1,240 residents across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal for fourteen months, measuring everything from cortisol levels to sleep quality. Participants who incorporated regular nature visits showed a 23% decrease in reported depression symptoms compared to those who remained primarily in built environments.
What makes these findings particularly relevant is their practical application for urban Canadians facing mounting mental health challenges. Since the pandemic, mental health services across provinces have reported unprecedented demand, with wait times for specialized care stretching beyond six months in many regions, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
“We’re increasingly looking at nature connection not as a luxury but as a necessary public health intervention,” says Leanne Wilson, a community mental health nurse who runs a nature therapy program in Toronto’s Regent Park neighborhood. “The beauty is in the accessibility—you don’t need a prescription or private insurance to benefit from time in a city park.”
I recently walked alongside Wilson and eight program participants during their weekly visit to Allan Gardens. The group, mostly newcomers to Canada living in nearby high-rises, spent an hour identifying plants, practicing mindfulness exercises, and simply sitting beneath the century-old trees.
“Before joining this group, I was taking three different medications for anxiety,” shares Mei Lin, a 42-year-old participant who moved from Beijing to Toronto in 2021. “Now I’m down to one, and my doctor says my blood pressure has improved too. I never thought something as simple as touching trees and smelling flowers could make such a difference.”
This perspective reflects a growing body of research suggesting that the mechanisms behind nature’s mental health benefits are both psychological and physiological. When I visited the Hospital for Sick Children’s research facility earlier this spring, Dr. Evan Deluty showed me brain scans revealing reduced activity in areas associated with rumination and anxiety after subjects spent time in natural settings.
“What we’re observing is that urban environments demand what we call ‘directed attention’—a cognitively taxing state where you’re constantly processing stimuli and potential threats,” Deluty explains. “Natural environments allow the brain to engage in ‘soft fascination,’ a more restorative state where attention can wander without consequence.”
This science is beginning to influence urban planning across Canada. In Montreal, the Parcours Gouin project has transformed 15 kilometers of previously inaccessible riverfront into connected green spaces specifically designed to enhance mental wellbeing. Vancouver’s new City Plan includes requirements for all residents to live within a 10-minute walk of significant green space by 2030.
However, access to quality natural spaces remains unevenly distributed. Statistics Canada data shows that neighborhoods with higher percentages of racialized residents and lower income levels have significantly less tree canopy and accessible parkland. In Toronto, for example, high-income neighborhoods enjoy nearly three times the tree coverage of lower-income areas.
“The mental health benefits of nature cannot be separated from issues of environmental justice,” emphasizes Dr. Amina Rodriguez, an environmental sociologist at Ryerson University. “When we talk about nature as medicine, we must ensure this medicine is available to everyone, not just those in privileged neighborhoods.”
Some community organizations aren’t waiting for policy changes. In Edmonton’s Castle Downs neighborhood, the Northside Nature Collective has transformed abandoned lots into pocket parks and community gardens. The initiative, led primarily by immigrant women, has created seventeen new green spaces since 2020.
“We couldn’t wait for the city to bring nature to us,” explains Fatima Hassan, one of the collective’s founders. “Our children needed places to play, and our elders needed places to rest. So we created them ourselves.”
When I visited the collective’s flagship garden on a crisp autumn morning last year, I found Hassan teaching a group of seniors how to harvest the season’s final herbs. Many lived in surrounding apartment buildings without balconies or yards. For them, this small patch of earth represented their primary connection to the natural world.
As urban Canada continues to densify—with an estimated 5 million more people expected to live in our major cities by 2040—these connections will require deliberate protection and expansion. The mental health implications are too significant to ignore.
“I prescribe nature before medication whenever possible now,” Dr. Michael Richardson, a family physician at East Vancouver Community Health Centre, told me during a recent interview. “I’ve seen remarkable improvements in patients who commit to regular time outdoors, particularly those suffering from depression and anxiety.”
His approach reflects a broader shift in Canadian healthcare toward social prescribing, where activities like nature walks are formally recommended alongside—or sometimes instead of—pharmaceutical interventions.
For many urban Canadians, the barrier isn’t understanding nature’s benefits but finding accessible ways to incorporate nature into compressed schedules and concrete surroundings. Apps like NatureRx now help city dwellers locate nearby green spaces and track their time spent in natural settings.
“The research is clear that frequency matters more than duration,” emphasizes Farahani. “Three twenty-minute visits to a nearby park offer more sustained mental health benefits than a single weekend in the wilderness, though both have value.”
As we navigate increasingly complex urban lives, this research offers a remarkably simple path toward improved wellbeing—one available regardless of income or circumstance. The challenge lies not in the prescription but in prioritizing these moments of connection in our busy lives and ensuring every Canadian has a natural space to call their own.
