Outdoor Retailer - December 2020 - 35

Feature .02

Atiya Wells
works with
students in
the field.

Courtesy SHIFT

n her opening remarks to the 2020
SHIFT Summit, Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick
recounted her personal experience
introducing a child to the outdoors for
the first time. As a graduate student at the
University of California, Berkeley, in 2001, she
volunteered her time as a mentor in a local Big
Brothers/Big Sisters program. On a visit to the
Oakland hills, she and a young woman in her
care stopped to take in the view from a high
bluff. " After sitting there for a few minutes,
she said, 'It's so quiet,' " Fitzpatrick recalled. " I
watched her and realized it was the most relaxed I had ever seen her. "
Very early in her medical career, Fitzpatrick
came to realize that exposure to nature has
the power to heal. Time spent in the outdoors
gave her a personal appreciation for the connection between the natural environment and
the physical health of human beings. Now, as a
physician in Washington, D.C., and the founder of a community-based wellness organization called Grapevine Health, she prescribes
regular doses of nature. " Over the years, I've
learned that nature is medicine. It is healing.
And, for me, nature brings clarity, peace of
mind, " she said. " It's a parasympathetic stimulus that counterbalances the physiological impacts of chronic stress. "
To put it plainly, Fitzpatrick aims to encourage others to expose more young people like
her little sister to the outdoors. In her opening keynote address via Zoom to conference
attendees tuning in from their tablets and
desktop computers, she passionately made
the case for getting everyone outside. " There
are thousands of kids like her, craving exposure to what nature has to offer. How can we
offer all children in underserved communities
exposure to nature? " she asked. " How can we
make millions more children aware of its healing qualities? "
In a year defined by a pandemic, many
around the world have turned to the natural
environment for comfort, solace, and healing.
Challenged to address the critical issues of environmental protection, the organizers of the
annual SHIFT conference, based in Jackson
Hole, Wyoming, focused their attention this
year on the concept of nature as medicine.
Added to the devastating effects of
COVID-19 are the profound disparities in access to the outdoors. Particularly among communities of color, limited exposure to nature
closely parallel cultural inequities caused by

" WE MUST SURVEY OUR CITIES AND FIND THE GAPS
IN GREEN SPACE, CREATE ACCESS TO GREEN SPACE
IN PREDOMINANTLY BLACK AND BROWN NEIGHBORHOODS, STAFF THEM WITH BIPOC MEMBERS OF
THE COMMUNITY, AND OFFER CULTURALLY RELEVANT
PROGRAMMING TO INTRODUCE AND DEEPEN
CONNECTIONS TO NATURE. " -ATIYAWELLS, BACKYARD BASECAMP
racial discrimination. Throughout the summer, Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations across the country illustrated the
demand for social justice. As safer-at-home
restrictions and practices of physical distancing meant to curb the spread of the virus have
hindered the mobility of the population as a
whole, people of color and other marginalized
communities are disproportionately deprived
of peaceful, restorative moments outside in
nature. With that in mind, a slate of panelists and presenters were assembled as part of
a large international audience to discuss how
humanity might not only heal itself through
outdoor recreation, but heal the fragile ecosystems and neighborhoods in which we all live.

HELD COMPLETELY ONLINE, THE 2020 SHIFT
Summit aimed to leverage its commitment
to the idea of nature as a prescription for better health. With more than 380 participants
from 23 states and three foreign countries, the

event drew a wide and diverse audience of activists eager to both learn and share the many
ways that even the most urban community can
create a positive relationship with the natural
environment. Moving forward with the notion of " Nature Rx, " which was first suggested
in advance of the 2017 conference by former
National Park Director Jonathan Jarvis, organizers aimed to provide a practical solution to
a very complicated issue.
" It was public lands, public health. We were
looking at the connection between our public
lands and the health of our country, the physical health, " says SHIFT Executive Director
Christian Beckwith. " As a conservation organization, we're trying to make a strong argument over nature itself. And we realized that
by connecting nature to its health benefits, we
had the opportunity to create a nonpartisan
argument that was well supported by economics that we could use to really carry the
flag for nature moving forward. "

December 2020 / OUTDOOR RETAILER 35

https://shiftjh.org/

Outdoor Retailer - December 2020

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