Recognizing the healing benefits of time outdoors, the USDA Forest Service and other organizations collaborated to create the UF Health Children's Healing Garden - a space where patients and their families can lift their spirits and connect with nature. The garden is a certified Nature Explore Classroom, part of a national network of outdoor plan and learning spaces.

The Track Trails program, with various trails and adventures in states across the country, now has its first trails in Florida in the city of Gainesville. Self-guided trails have been constructed at three different community parks: Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park, Loblolly Woods Nature Park and Morningside Nature Center, with two additional trails currently in the works.

The Kids in the Woods program in Gainesville, Florida delivers science instruction to middle school students through a series of hands-on activities outdoors on the school campus and in a nearby nature park. This article reports on the results of a 10-question pre-post assessment of students’ knowledge of the scientific process. Participants included 201 6th grade students at a public middle school participating in the Kids in the Woods program. Students improved significantly on four of the ten questions after participation in the program, indicating that students learned important terminology related to the scientific method and how to interpret a graph. The positive results suggest that using the outdoors as a platform for science education can be a valuable tool for improving the learning experience for students.

Hochatown, Oklahoma boasts abundant ecological diversity and has a rich cultural history that includes conflicts over land rights, forced resettlement by Native American tribes, extractive natural resource industries, and more recently luxury cabin development and a burgeoning recreation industry. This story map, titled "Pine Resin in the Blood: A Historical Account of Hochatown Culture and Wildfire Risk,"  is the first in a series that will incorporate information about the current wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire situation of the area, proposed WUI management actions on the Ouachita National Forest, and ultimately findings from several related research projects being conducted by Southern Research Station scientists.

Through a partnership between the Blue Ridge Foundation’s Kids in Parks Program, University of Florida, USDA Forest Service and City of Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, a network of family-friendly outdoor adventure trails that engage children with nature and promote healing and wellness, called Track Trails, has come to Gainesville, FL.

These case studies provide practical examples of how science-based tree credits have been developed and adopted in three different regulatory contexts: Minnesota, Vermont,and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Case studies are adapted from the publication "Urban Forest Systems and Green Stormwater Infrastructure" by the USDA Forest Service.