Why Our Brains Need Wildlands

Protecting our brains and protecting natural areas are both vitally important for our long-term wellbeing. These two goals are mutually reinforcing, and common-sense policies and actions can benefit individual and collective health. The brain health benefits of nature span across all ages and levels of ability, and policies that designate natural areas, i.e. “Wildlands,” will facilitate these long-term benefits. This presentation will feature local and global implications of the recent regional report titled, “Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future” and will underscore how history, science, and fiscal responsibility can work together to inform public policies that support public health.

About the Presenter: Susan A. Masino, Ph.D. is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Applied Science at Trinity College in Hartford CT. Dr. Masino is on the Open Space Committee in Simsbury, CT, is the Hartford County Coordinator for the Old Growth Forest Network, and was a Charles Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at Harvard University. Her laboratory-based research focuses on mechanisms of brain health and disease and her scholarship outside the lab focuses on forests in New England and the power of wild nature to protect the health of all species.
In 2024, she received provisional certification as a relational forest therapy guide from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy as part of an international cohort of health professionals and in 2025 she and her students received the President’s Award from the Olmsted Network.

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