Relating to Land Through Play

What happens when you slow down your pace as you walk and play in the forest? How does your experience of a forest change when you mindfully engage with the sonic environment? These are some of the questions that will guide our forest therapy and soundwalk in the Green College gardens.  

Forest therapy is an immersive experience in nature that engages all five senses, with studies demonstrating significant health benefits. Our forest therapy and soundwalk will last approximately one hour, and will be followed by a conversation in the Green College Coach House where Dr Tara Tiger Brown will share her research on forest therapy benefits in the urban forests of Metro Vancouver. According to her study, despite similar plant diversity and park features, participants in the quieter forests experience significantly greater mood improvements.

Prompted by participant feedback, Brown started the Silent Trails project and designed trails with low anthropogenic sound levels in two Metro Vancouver Regional Parks. The project challenges the normalization of degraded natural soundscapes and the notion that residents must leave the city to find quiet.

Brown will demonstrate practical protocols for locating trails that offer the greatest potential to experience natural soundscapes in urban parks, contributing to both ecological and human health. After our conversation with Dr Brown, we will introduce the rest of the ‘Seasons of Play’ series that will continue to unfold in the months to come and offer experiential and embodied opportunities for active participation.

Please note: The forest therapy and soundwalk will happen rain or shine, so please wear appropriate clothing. Participants for the walk will meet at 4:00 pm just outside the Coach House, and the conversation begins more formally at 5:00 pm in the Coach House (and via livestream). Participants are welcome to join at either point in the event.

This event is open to the general public and does not require registration (but please note that our seating is limited). It will be followed by a reception in the Piano Lounge, Graham House.

Tara Tiger Brown, founder and research director, Forest Spaces

Tara Tiger Brown holds a PhD in Forestry from the University of British Columbia, where her dissertation research examined forest bathing interventions across four Metro Vancouver urban and peri-urban parks and four seasons. Using a randomized crossover study design, she compared guided and self-guided approaches while investigating the influence of environmental factors and vegetation characteristics on health outcomes. Following the findings of this work, Brown created Silent Trails (silenttrails.ca), a project with Metro Vancouver Regional Parks, developing acoustically protected walking trails. She also developed “Forestʌr,” an augmented reality application offering accessible forest bathing experiences.

Tahia Devisscher, Forest Resources Management

In my research, I focus on how to manage forests and other green spaces in and around cities to support human well-being and build social-ecological resilience to climate change. I am also very interested in developing practical strategies to address the increasing disconnect between people and nature caused by rapid urbanization. The findings coming from my team aim to inform nature-based solutions to climate change and improve nature recovery initiatives that foster clear synergies between climate resilience, biodiversity enhancement, and human health in greener urban and peri-urban landscapes.

Anabel Maler, Music

My scholarship centers deafness, Deaf culture, and sign language in music studies, questioning how and why Deaf knowledge has been historically excluded from music research, and developing new, cross-disciplinary methodologies for analyzing the musical outputs of Deaf culture. By centering marginalized Deaf perspectives, I challenge existing definitions of music, ultimately redefining music as movement. In doing so, I not only diversify our current understanding of music and musical experience, but I bring to light new repertories for analysis and develop new analytical techniques and notation systems for engaging with these repertoires.  

Jac Nobiss, Social Work

My research delves into Indigenous identity regarding intersectional dynamics. Many of these intersections include challenges that affect the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples. Applications of pan-identity often conflate history, experiences, and circumstances that are piecemeal understandings of only one nation but are assumed to be the same for all. My work has focused on bringing cultural stories, teachings, and traditional ways of being and knowing to light and bridging these pieces with contemporary use and understanding of nation-specific identities.

Series image: Germaine Koh, Tools and Twister, part of League Nanaimo, 2025.