Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at [email protected].
Into the woods
At the end of last year, Rebecca Randall wrote for High Country News about how spending time in the woods can help wildfire survivors recover. Forest therapy, or forest bathing, has been found to decrease stress and anxiety.
“We know there will be seasonal wildfires; they’re just becoming bigger and becoming mega fires,” the author said in an interview with KJZZ, which RTBC Contributing Editor Geetanjali Krishna came across this week. “So there’s also an element of forest therapy being a way to connect with nature as it is and sort of adjust our expectations of what the forest can be for us.”
Geetanjali says:
What a cool idea to help forest fire survivors reconnect once again with the forest! Not many have discussed how hard it must be for survivors to return to their homes near or with forests, when the forest and the trees themselves evoke the trauma they went through. And the gentle guided walks through the forest mitigate the fear and stressful memories, while rekindling the love for nature. I absolutely believe that simply being in a forest, beach, mountain or any wild place is good for both body and soul, so this solution makes sense to me.
Home land
Here at RTBC, we’ve covered community land trusts — nonprofit organizations that acquire land for the good of a community — in Florida, Virginia, Colorado and elsewhere. Now, community land trusts are on the rise in Hawaii, according to an article shared by Vignesh Ramachandran, RTBC’s new audience engagement manager, from the freshly launched Overstory. (And please welcome Vignesh!)
Vignesh says:
Interesting piece about community land trusts in Hawaii that aim to help make local homeownership more accessible in an expensive state, including regions dealing with wildfire aftermath.
What else we’re reading
🦮 The secret to finding one of the most endangered bumblebees in the US? Dogs — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from the Guardian
🌊 In the race to find critical minerals, there’s a ‘gold mine’ literally at our shoreline — shared by Executive Editor Will Doig from Grist
🌵 State funds to protect wildlife corridor between Joshua Tree National Park, military base — shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby from the Desert Sun
In other news…
This week, we’re remembering John Thornton, cofounder of the Texas Tribune and the American Journalism Project. He died in late March at 59. “RTBC might not exist if not for John Thornton, who pioneered nonprofit news in America,” says Executive Editor Will Doig.
Read about Thornton’s legacy in the Columbia Journalism Review.
