Yale Climate Connections reported

When the National Nature Assessment was shut down, the scientists who worked on it found another way. In this Q&A, one author explains what the research reveals about nature’s powerful, underused role in supporting health.

Most of us sense it without being told why: A walk in the woods or an hour in the park leaves us calmer, clearer, and restored. Increasingly, modern science agrees. A growing body of evidence links time in nature to better physical and mental health – and a major new effort is working to document exactly what that evidence shows.

That effort is called the Nature Record, and its survival is a story in itself. It began as the National Nature Assessment, a federal undertaking modeled on the long-running National Climate Assessment and mandated by a Biden-era executive order. Roughly 180 scientists volunteered to develop about a dozen chapters. The project had reached an early public-comment draft when the Trump administration canceled it. Rather than abandon the work, the authors decided to finish it independently under a new name, with foundation funding and National Academy of Sciences review. The report is now under revision, with the final release slated for December 2026.*

Read more at The government canceled this nature study. Scientists kept going anyway.